The signing of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002 has created "potholes" for elementary school administrators as they seek to make Adequate Yearly Progress on the Pennsylvania School System Assessment (PSSA). This study includes three rural Pennsylvania elementary school administrators implementing the mandates of the No Child Left…

This report provides the first detailed picture of the features of the rural school bus ride. Data were provided by principals in 696 rural elementary schools in Arkansas, Georgia, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Washington--states chosen to represent diversity in region, locale, and ethnic composition. The literature commonly cites 30 minutes as…

This paper reports a study of curriculum and teaching methods in 10 Old Order Mennonite one-room schools in Pennsylvania. It provides a review of the historical background and cultural characteristics of the Old Order Mennonites. The one-room schools examined in the study are similar in structure and instruction to U.S. public one-room schools of…

A study examined rural school administrators' perceptions of their jobs and how academic achievement and school climate were affected at rural schools that shared principals, compared to rural schools that had their own principal. Sixteen rural school administrators from across the nation were interviewed about their perceptions of their jobs, and…

Case study of a poor, rural Pennsylvania school district's experience with the Reading First initiative illustrates how the No Child Left Behind Act confines districts to a few federally prescribed, "scientifically proven" curricula that ignore local conditions. Sanctioned schools are negatively labeled but receive inadequate funding,…