Purpose: This study examines the local and institutional factors that shape how educators and educational leaders in western Pennsylvania have understood and responded to rapid growth in opioid misuse and drug overdose within their communities. We examine how educational leaders and educators in two rural school districts in western Pennsylvania…

Recent advances in gas and oil drilling technology have led to dramatic boomtown development in many rural areas that have endured extended periods of economic decline. In Pennsylvania's Marcellus gas fields, the recent development of unconventional shale gas resources has not been without controversy. It has been variously framed as a major…

Innovations associated with gas and oil drilling technology, including new hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling techniques, have recently led to dramatic boomtown development in many rural areas that have endured extended periods of economic decline. The Marcellus Shale play, one of the world's largest gas-bearing shale formations, lies…

Far from being the harmonious and homogenous communities of popular imagination, rural communities often are characterised by stark differences in class-situated values over education philosophy and financing. These differences can produce contentious political environments, vastly complexifying local decision-making, including school district…

Local control of schooling has been considered a defining feature of the American school system; however, in the past several decades of public schooling has also increasingly been subject to the influence of extralocal institutional mandates that encourage curricular and organizational standardization. We conducted a content analysis of 480…