This paper aims to understand the barriers that face access to the arts in rural high schools and to offer a selection of potential change ideas to combat these barriers that exist in school settings. The literature review shows that access to the arts in rural communities is a barrier to complete education for school aged children because rural…

Dual enrollment programs have been in existence for decades in public high schools in the United States. While there is literature on the academic impact of these programs with a focus on high school and college outcomes, there is a gap in the literature regarding what is known about students' experiences in dual enrollment programs that allow…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the beliefs K-12 teachers have when working with students with disabilities in a rural Pennsylvania school district. This study aimed to identify if teachers' personal beliefs created biases about their students and school systems; thus, forming barriers and preventing an inclusive education when…

There is limited research on the experiences of first-generation students who have completed their second year and enrolled for a third year in order to continue their studies even though this population of students are the most likely to drop out of college in their second year. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand how current…

Rural school districts, educating just over 25% of all public school students across the country, play an important role in the nation's educational landscape. At the heart of the success of rural school districts are the superintendents who run these rural and often small districts. Superintendents of rural schools throughout the United States,…

Located in southwestern Pennsylvania near the borders of Maryland and West Virginia, the district has 1,483 students, with 21% minority enrollment. The district and its students have experienced many of the problems related to the opioid epidemic, including many students being raised by grandparents due to parental drug use. The district has three…

Strong and stable school leadership is critical for success in schools across the nation. The duties of the principal are many and varied. Principals, for example, can oversee instruction, purchase curricular materials and supplies, and provide professional learning and supports for teachers. Carrying out these duties effectively makes a…

Approximately one quarter of American students attend rural schools; however, the needs of these students are often overlooked in education policy despite well-documented limited financial resources and pervasive poverty. Relatively little is known about the experiences of gifted students in rural areas and even less about the teachers serving…

National surveys regarding blended and online programs continue to document an increased enrollment of K-12 students. However, the overall research base for this age group remains limited. Although some states collect and report data of fully online programs, information regarding blended and online programs in traditional school districts…

This explanatory mixed-method study explored the dropout phenomenon from an ecological perspective identifying the school organizational (academics, activities, structure) and social relationship (teachers, peers) factors that most significantly influence students' decisions to leave school prior to graduation at a rural high school in south…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the barriers and facilitators to career advancement among women administrators occupying top-level positions, those occupying entry-level positions and those in non-administrative positions in both rural and urban public school districts in central Pennsylvania. The need to increase the awareness of the…

The National Research Council's most recent report "Taking Science to School: Learning and Teaching Science in Grades K-8," (2007) has suggested a redefinition of science proficiency. "This framework rests on a view of science as both a body of knowledge and an evidence-based, model building enterprise that continually extends,…

Educational leadership has been the focus of many studies; however, leadership does not occur in a vacuum. Understanding the context in which it occurs will in turn help to explain the phenomenon itself. Rural communities in the United States have many differences when compared to urban and suburban areas. Twenty-eight percent of schools in the…