This article presents three rural schools with different leadership strategies and educational practices. Pseudonyms are used in place of the schools' real identities for confidentiality. Although rural schools do not seem to value best practice in ways that researchers and policymakers might recognize, neither do they set out to repudiate the…

The American School Counselor Association developed a comprehensive set of school counseling guidelines to enhance the school counselor's role within schools in the United States. This study looks at counselors' and principals' perceptions of the school counselor's role in a Midwestern, regional rural educational environment. Results suggest that…

There are important issues for rural communities in Australia in relation to the provision of education for their young people (HREOC, 2000). This is particularly so in an era when successful completion of education is becoming increasingly vital as the pressures of a globalised economy mean that many rural and farming businesses are struggling to…

For many teachers, an appointment to a rural school is their first experience of living and working in a context where they are highly visible and are likely to be known of and known about by far more people than they know of and know about. Space for "making errors" and recovering from them without impairment to becoming an effective…

The purpose of this study was to describe the transition implementation experienced by rural elementary school district students entering the ninth grade at an independent school district, and to describe the ties to the school that exist among these same ninth grade students. This qualitative research involved interviewing 11 ninth grade…

The reauthorization of the "Elementary and Secondary Education Act" ("ESEA") as amended by the "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001" ("NCLB") relied on two notable policy instruments to improve education: accountability and flexibility. "NCLB" complements accountability with several new flexibility…

This qualitative study provides student perceptions of interactive whiteboard (IWB) use in a secondary biology classroom. The use of the IWB was alternated with the overhead on an ABAB and BABA design in two classrooms. The study was based on semi-structured interviews of thirty-six individuals, representing a sample of rural, high school…

How can a community ensure that its public schools reflect local values and beliefs about education? The complexities involved in the reform of existing public schools, or the creation of a new system of schooling, have caused some researchers to explore new methodological avenues to change (Banathy, 1991; Duffy, Rogerson, & Blick, 2000;…

Conducted in urban and rural schools in two provinces of South Africa, the present study reports biology learners' understanding of concepts about genetics and inheritance. Participants were Grade 11 and 12 learners, aged 15-16 years. The tools included a written questionnaire, interviews, pre- and post-paper and pencil tests and focus group…

Type 2 diabetes mellitus is reaching epidemic proportions among children and adolescents. School health fairs offer an opportunity to identify children with risk factors for the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus. This study identified selected risk factors (i.e., high-risk racial/ethnic group, obesity, elevated blood pressure, elevated…

This descriptive study was aimed at looking into how Primary 5 pupils solve pre-algebra problems concerning patterns and unknown quantities. Specifically, objectives of this study were to describe Primary 5 pupils' solution strategies, modes of representations and justifications in: (a) discovering, describing and using numerical and geometrical…

The research reported in this paper considers the current telecommunications network for the three education systems of state, independent and catholic schools in Western Australia as well as drawing on the personal experiences of teachers in these systems as the government attempts to close the digital divide with its Networking the Nation…

The longitudinal study in this article tested whether advantages in the career development of high school seniors resulted in better transition outcomes for these young adults 3 years after they graduated from high school. Enhanced career development in high school was significantly connected to more successful transitions into the adult roles of…

This paper reports on a pilot study that examined the use of a science and technology curriculum based on robotics to increase the achievement scores of youth ages 9-11 in an after school program. The study examined and compared the pretest and posttest scores of youth in the robotics intervention with youth in a control group. The results…

"Why Rural Matters" is the fourth in a series of biennial reports analyzing the importance of rural education in each of the 50 states and calling attention to the urgency with which policymakers in each state should address rural education issues. The researchers framed this report around five gauges measuring: (1) the importance of…