Economic, social, and health indicators show that as many as one-quarter of rural children face problems usually attributed only to inner cities. Rural children are poorer than other American children and are less likely to have access to health insurance, health services, child care, government aid, or adequate housing. This book provides…

Research on school effectiveness points to administrative leadership as one of the critical factors in creating effective schools. There is perhaps no educational setting in which this relationship is stronger than the small rural school district. In 1988 a national survey of school administrators conducted by the State University of New York at…

This literature review surveys the varieties and purposes of connections between schools and communities, from home-school relationships to schools as social service centers and communities as school curricula. It explores the benefits of school-community connections to students, communities, and schools. It describes the processes by which…

The relationships of age, gender, size of hometown, parental education, parental occupation, parental income, and marital status to medical school outcomes of preclinical performances, clinical performance, attrition, specialty choice, and practice location are summarized. The full value of using demographic variables derives from data obtained in…

New interest by Australians in the state of rural education requires new understanding of factors affecting rural education and its related issues. Educational programs have not been flexible enough to cope with rural diversity, a key element in the milieu. Standards such as "equality of opportunity" and "uniformity" have been…

A systematic description and evaluation of the socioeconomic conditions of nonmetropolitan United States provides important information for policymakers and researchers in rural education. This book is one of a series aimed at converting the statistics of the 1980 census into an analytical profile of major changes in U.S. life. The volume…

A review of the existing literature on preparation of rural teaching personnel focuses on the problems of education and specifically, special education, in rural areas and reports various solutions to those problems. Characteristics of many rural areas (such as high non-enrollment rates, rising service costs, resistance to outside interference,…

Despite the myth of Asian academic success, there is a distinction between the educational background and academic achievements of immigrant and refugee children from literate, urban, western-influenced backgrounds, and refugee children from pre-literate, rural cultures that are uninfluenced by Western technology and education. This is…

The monograph is an attempt to describe conditions existing today in rural America that can affect the operation and impact of vocational education in rural areas and, thus, should exercise an influence on policy making. It identifies statistical patterns and characteristics common to rural areas, both within regions and those that cut across…

This paper discusses gross economic and demographic trends in rural and urban America during the past 30 years, the kinds of competitive advantages enjoyed by urban and rural regions, and insights offered by the new regional economics concerning exploitation of those advantages. The importance of agriculture has declined in rural areas, while that…

In an effort to help shape a research agenda for rural education, this document reviews the research on rural education and at-risk students to determine the relative influence on student outcomes of poverty and community location. Sections of this review address: methodological considerations (definitions of "rural" and "at-risk," inadequate…

In rural America, Latinos are the fastest growing population, increasing by 30 percent between 1980 and 1990. Rural Latinos are a large and growing share of the labor hired on farms, but earn only 60 cents for each dollar earned by nonfarm hired workers. This trend is largely due to the restructuring of agriculture in general, and the meatpacking…

This chapter reviews the literature on substance abuse and prevention efforts in Native communities. The first section describes demographic characteristics of America's indigenous people, including tribal and government definitions, interaction and validation styles, and rural-urban differences. It concludes by warning that use of broad ethnic…

Draws on evidence concerning rural population, families, schools, churches, and communities to conclude that the conceptualization of rural as "different from urban" has no contemporary empirical support and that differences among rural areas are greater than rural-urban differences. Offers suggestions for refocusing social work practice on the…

This paper identifies differences in educational outcomes for rural students in South Australia compared to their metropolitan peers. This information was compiled by a task force whose aim was to develop an action plan to achieve equality of educational opportunities for rural students. Available information suggests that students in country…