This qualitative study compares the instructional leadership practices of rural and non-rural principals, seeking to understand contextually based differences in how principals create a focus on teaching and learning. Principals across settings report similarities in instructional leadership tasks; however, they reported significant contextual…

Traditional grading and reporting practices have been part of the educational system in the United States for centuries. Those grading practices are ingrained in schools across the country and have not changed much, if at all, over time. Traditional grading practices have a plethora of downfalls, but we continue to use them because they are what…

Information on 44 small/rural K-12 Nebraska school districts (900 students or fewer) is compared to data from 642 similar districts nationwide, using material gathered during 1982-83. Of the nation's 15,601 public school districts, 4,125 (26.4%) were identified as qualifying for the survey; 76.4% (249 districts, enrolling 76,516 students) of…

Any conclusions that community education concepts are "alive and well" were not supported in a study of the impact of state education policies on rural school districts with total enrollments of 350 students or less in the Great Plains Region (Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota). Survey…