Smith Island in the Chesapeake Bay is actually a group of three islands: Ewell, Rhodes Point, and Tylerton. Dwindling enrollment jeopardizes the community's two schools that contain grades one through seven. The school board believes they can give the sixth and seventh graders at Ewell and Tylerton a better education on the mainland. (MLF)

Details the history of Big Laurel, West Virginia from 1918-1941, 1941-1965, and 1965-1983, noting the effects on education of events in all three periods. Describes the opening, closing, consolidation, and reopening of community schools, and the construction, development, philosophy, and curriculum of the new Big Laurel School. (SB)

Rural school district reorganization and school consolidation are put into perspective by reviewing the large population increases that fueled small-school growth in the Great Plains, 1870-1930. Since the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, population losses, improvements in transportation, and arguments advocating economies of scale and increased…