The representation of women in educational administration fluctuated throughout history from the 1900's to present day. Presently, women represent over 53% of all elementary school principals in Iowa, but documentation of their specific stories and perspectives is infrequent. I conducted this research with the intent to build upon the qualitative…

Decorah, Iowa (pop. 8,172 in 2000), is, in many ways, a typical small Midwestern community facing many of the same issues as most other areas such as a brain drain and a continuing struggle to find ways to stimulate the local economy. Perhaps the strengths and successes of the approaches used in Decorah can be attributed to its ability to identify…

Americans change residences frequently. Residential mobility can reflect positive changes in a family's circumstances or be a symptom of instability and insecurity. Mobility may also change neighborhoods as a whole. To shed light on these challenges, this report uses a unique survey conducted for the "Making Connections" initiative. The…

Economic shocks are sudden events causing a significant impact on the local economy. Disaster community literature predicts that community outcomes from shocks will depend on the kind of shock. Consensus crisis shocks will be followed by increases in social capital and quality of life. Corrosive community shocks will result in declines in these…

Previous research on educational aspirations has focused almost exclusively on micro-level predictors of educational aspirations. Notably absent from these studies are measures reflecting the neighborhood context in which adolescents live. Drawing on Wilson's theory of neighborhood effects, the present study examines the extent to which…

Perceptions of local social dimensions are hypothesized to be more efficient predictors of community satisfaction than are perceptions of services. To test this, a mail-questionnaire study of residents of small Iowa communities was conducted. Correlation and regression analyses suggested that social dimensions relate to three…

Purpose: To examine substance use differences among African-American adolescents living in rural and more urban areas in Iowa and Georgia and factors thought to be related to those differences. Specifically, negative affect and perceived availability were examined as mediators of the relation between community size and alcohol, tobacco, and drug…

"I am from a very small town in which almost the entire population is made up of White middle class society." This statement is a reoccurring theme of final Multicultural Education (MCE) papers by preservice teachers at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh (UW Oshkosh). Although this sounds like an innocuous statement, over the past 12…

ELEMENTS OF EDUCATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY ARE IDENTIFIED WHICH ARE INFLUENCED BY SIZE OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS. PRODUCTIVITY INCLUDES OUTCOMES SUCH AS ACADEMIC PROGRESS AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOR AND EXCLUDES ECONOMIC OUTCOMES SUCH AS GAINS IN INCOME. RESEARCH IN THIS FIRST PHASE WAS DONE WITH THE HIGH SCHOOLS OF IOWA. DATA STORED WITH THE IOWA EDUCATIONAL…

This document describes how to construct and compare choropleth maps for selected Iowa communities and the construction and use of scatter diagrams as a supplement to map comparisons. These tools can be used to compare social, economic, and political variations between neighborhoods and to determine if associations exist between selected…

In order to assess community information needs and determine how the Burlington Public Library could plan to meet these needs, a community analysis project was undertaken. Specific objectives of the study were to: (1) prepare a descriptive statistical profile of the community; (2) describe the community environment, lifestyle, and information…

Economic trends in the 1960's in the Iowa rural renewal area, Appanoose and Monroe counties, show that the level of economic activity increased in the area but was clearly below the level for the state. Economic trends suggest that to provide economic opportunities in the area, by 1980, comparable to those available on the average to all residents…

Describes a fourth-grade project at Malcom Price Lab School at the University of Northern Iowa in which students write and produce a community brochure about their hometown, Cedar Falls, Iowa. The brochure provides a "kid's eye-view" of Cedar Falls' history, cultural events, and recreational activities and is distributed by local…

Problem: Various demographic and familial risk factors have been linked to runaway behavior. To date, there has not been a systematic investigation of the impact of size of community on runaway behavior. This study will compare runaways from smaller cities and rural areas to their urban counterparts. Methods: A convenience sample of 602…

Reviews two models of community-attachment, linear-development and systematic models, using data on social ties and local sentiments from survey respondents in Iowa communities. Linear-development variables (population size and density) relate weakly to community attachment. Systematic variables (residence length, income, and age) relate more…