I examined the relationship between career readiness and academic success among a sample of approximately 500 11th grade students from selected rural school districts in South Carolina. There is limited research regarding the relationship between career readiness and academic success. I used R2W assessments to measure career readiness and the…

Rural Mississippi schools often face challenges in providing equitable access to Advanced Placement (AP) courses, particularly in STEM fields. This lack of access limits opportunities for high-achieving students to pursue rigorous STEM coursework and related careers. The AP STEM program aims to improve access to AP STEM courses for high-achieving…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among collective efficacy factors, as measured by the Illinois 5Essentials Survey, and college readiness scores, as reported by American College Testing (ACT), for high schools in the state of Illinois. The 5Essentials have been considered crucial to school success and therefore used to…

The extensive body of research into the relationship between online dual credit coursework and the academic success in subsequent coursework for South Dakota students is not well known. South Dakota students are flocking toward the online dual credit option for a number of reasons--reduction in tuition, expedient degree attainment, and to…

This project took place at four Montana middle and high schools in three rural settings located across the state. Study participants included students and teachers located in four middle and high schools. Each of the schools had large percentages of struggling readers, American Indian students, English learners, and low-income students. Comparison…

"ACCESS", A Culture Creating Effective Systems for Success, was a three-year Investing in Innovation (i3) development grant funded by the Office of Innovation and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education. The "ACCESS" grant led the way for a district-wide redesign of educational practices based on the novel approach of…

This study compared the employment, extracurricular participation, and family structure status of students from low socioeconomic families that achieved state-approved benchmarks on ACT reading and mathematics tests to those that did not achieve the benchmarks. Free and reduced lunch eligibility was used to determine SES. Participants included 211…

This article reports the findings of the 2011 results of 'very rural' Kentucky high schools on the Teaching, Empowering, Leading and Learning (TELL) Survey to determine whether differences existed between high and low performing rural schools across specific survey items. Schools with ACT scores one standard deviation (or more) above their…

This article describes the use of standards to guide the reform of a struggling high school in Grant Michigan. The author describes the challenges and obstacles that the school was facing, and admits that school reform was difficult. Turnaround seemed impossible, but it held the promise of something larger than life: successful students who become…

This study explored the impact of the English Advanced Placement (AP) program on college success among rural Appalachian students attending four private colleges in central and eastern Kentucky: Alice Lloyd College, Georgetown College, Lindsey Wilson College, and University of the Cumberlands. A Pearson Product-Moment Correlation r and an…

This study examines Kentucky high school students' participation and pass rates in college preparatory transition courses, voluntary remedial courses in math and reading offered to grade 12 students. These courses are targeted to students scoring just below the state's college readiness benchmarks on the ACT in grade 11. The study found that:…

The lack of clear and manageable implementation models for individualized instruction continued to exist in high schools. Formal individualized teaching (FIT), a differentiated instructional model, was studied to determine its impact on student learning. The FIT model included analyzing student data using a Pareto analysis to identify individual…

Accelerated programs, also referred to as dual enrollment and concurrent enrollment, provide an opportunity for high school students to earn both high school and college credit by enrolling in specified college courses. These programs provide high school students with the opportunity to experience the college atmosphere, get an early start on…

Corbin High School is located in a small, rural community of approximately 8,000 residents in southeastern Kentucky, midway between Lexington and Knoxville, Tennessee. The mission of Corbin High School is to provide opportunities that will help each student prepare for a successful transition to college, the workplace and life. This report…

Recognizing the challenges rural districts face in providing broad curricular offerings and supplemental educational services to students, in 2007, the 80th Texas Legislature authorized the creation of a pilot program designed to provide technology-based supplemental educational services to rural school districts that show an overall academic need…