Examined the development of the Kentucky nongraded primary program at the state level and in six rural elementary schools from 1991 through 1998. Findings show changes teachers made in response to the program mandate and reveal issues that hampered implementation, including entrenched ideas about grade divisions. (SLD)

Haas criticizes Kannapel et al for conducting their "rural" research with school professionals and asks what it would take for rural schools to engage their communities and what, besides geography, makes a school rural. Kannapel et al claim that community concerns are not limited to rural schools and that advocates of systemic reform and…

Describes how local, within-school factors at two rural elementary schools located in different parts of Kentucky influenced efforts to achieve the mandated goals of the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990 (KERA). Discusses the tension created by imposing generic reform measures on very different rural places. An appendix presents KERA goals.…