This article presents case studies of two rural districts--both confronting economic and demographic challenges--that were making significant strides toward closing achievement gaps between students with and without disabilities. The districts accomplished this work by using six practices, common to both but implemented differently in each: (a)…

The school district is the fundamental administrative unit of schooling in the United States and the superintendent the lead official. The nature and the challenges of this position, however, vary across the landscape. Because most superintendents lead rural districts, the challenges facing those districts are the ones that typically bedevil the…

A survey completed by 161 Ohio school board presidents examined superintendent selection practices and how they related to district size and rurality-urbanicity. Overall, board presidents preferred recommended practices (such as use of professional consultants and uniform selection criteria) over traditional ones. However, board presidents from…

This digest summarizes information suggesting that long bus rides are part of the hidden costs of school and district consolidation. Rural school districts spend more than twice per pupil what urban districts spend on transportation. A review of studies shows that rural school children were more likely than suburban school children to have bus…

A survey of 604 principals of suburban and rural schools in Ohio and West Virginia found that suburban Ohio principals showed less interest in traditional-consensual approaches to planning, whereas rural Ohio principals showed less interest in the new technicist approaches. Suburban West Virginia principals favored the new technicist approach,…

This study examined the mathematics experiences of talented children in an impoverished rural school district located in a coal-mining area of Appalachia. Using interview methods, the researchers explored the children's ideas about the nature of mathematics, their perceptions of the mathematics instruction they received at school, and their…

This case study describes a rural school district's problems with its program for academically gifted and talented students and illustrates the process and outcome of a program evaluation. The program came into being in a hasty and expedient manner that satisfied the superintendent's desire for the notoriety accompanying school improvement while…