The pandemic has heightened awareness of the gaps in education quality between the nation's most vulnerable students and most well-off students. And the reopening decisions school districts made in the 2020-21 school year may have both short- and long-term impacts on the academic achievement of the most vulnerable students. In addition to racial…

The Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) has been studying the four-day school week since 2015. Since then, the phenomenon of the four-day school week has spread into non-rural areas and interest appears to be growing. Given these apparent changes, the author wanted to know more about recent trends in the initiative. As districts continue…

This report provides descriptive information about the location and native language use of schools in the REL Central Region with high enrollment of American Indian students, whether Bureau of Indian Education schools or non-Bureau of Indian Education high-density American Indian schools (schools with 25 percent or more American Indian student…

"Math Expressions" is a curriculum for students in prekindergarten through sixth grade that aims to build students' conceptual understanding of mathematics and to develop fluency in mathematical problem solving and computation. The curriculum encourages student learning of mathematics through real-world situations, visual supports such…

This institutional autoethnography (IAE) explores the political and pedagogical dynamics of WPA and WAC/WID work within an exceedingly small, resolutely single-sex, and assuredly rural liberal arts campus ecology. Working within a theoretical framework informed by WAC/WID's historical commitment to increasing literacy in students from diverse…

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate use of a study abroad opportunity to support a service-learning experience. The study abroad component was a semester-long, multiple-country program in Central America and the service-learning project was an afterschool program for rural elementary and middle school students. Combining the two resulted in…

This monograph offers an in-depth look at the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Rural Systemic Initiative (RSI) efforts, an investment of more than $140 million to reform mathematics and science programs in rural K-12 public education and tribal education. The authors seek to promote a foundation of contextual understanding for improving public…

This article analyzes teacher induction policy and practice in 12 districts in the urban Midwest. Attention is paid to induction policy as well as the enactment of induction in urban, suburban, and rural school districts. Findings suggest marked differences between district programs and little difference between states despite different policy…

State equalization programs for school funding have been structured around variously weighted combinations of district wealth, tax effort and student need. For rural and small school districts, these programs have not always provided adequate financing. Nine rural school finance alternatives are suggested. (MH)

Report of a study of the leadership competencies of rural principals in Missouri who were prepared through the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium Standards. Findings indicate that a standards-based program and collaboration between the training institution and public schools results in well-prepared leaders. (Contains 1 table and 17…

This study examined differences in nine factors between a group of the highest-performing needs high schools (HPHN) and a group of the lowest performing high-needs (LPHN) high schools using teacher responses from a national dataset. The factors are: (1) shared mission and goals; (2) professional development; (3) collaboration among teachers (4)…