Reviews of research on rural education suggest that identifying ways to help rural schools improve teachers' pedagogical skills should be a high priority. This article addresses this issue by examining changes in reading skills through the primary grades of students in three rural, Midwestern districts that occurred after the implementation of a…

Families in rural communities are often poorly connected to schools due to challenges associated with geographic isolation, poverty, inexperienced staff, inadequate resources, scheduling challenges, and low parental education. This creates problems with the access, availability, and acceptability of services. Teachers in rural schools often have…

An exploratory analysis of the meanings families attach to schooling, this article is based upon interviews conducted with three white, middle-class families--one from rural West Virginia, another from a small West Virginia city, and a third from rural Pennsylvania. I hoped that this preliminary effort would help me think about how families view…