Rural schools, especially smaller ones, offer enormous opportunities for teachers to get to know their students and to cultivate their academic talents. However, students with potential in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) face specific obstacles to having their talents fully realized in rural schools. Joni Lakin, Tamra…

State and local education agencies across the country face challenges related to understanding and managing their teaching staff to best help students learn. Statewide longitudinal data systems (SLDSs) offer valuable information about teacher labor markets that can be used to analyze supply and demand, inform budget and staffing decisions, and…

Partnerships between the USDA and rural colleges are one approach that allows individual students and regional economies to fulfill their potential. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has made a decision to be involved with rural community colleges, which has really made a difference on what is happening on campus. Through a dizzying array…

Since 2012, the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation has supported educational enrichment in rural areas by awarding over $3.3 million in grants to six outstanding organizations operating in Iowa, Indiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. In this report, the authors combine the experiences of these organizations with findings from the…

Rural community colleges are employing several fundraising strategies to offset the pain of increasingly anemic budgets in the face of higher student enrollments. Whether it's educating stakeholders about the potential impact of campus improvements or reaching out to donors for financial support, it's critical to tout the economic and educational…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) Obama Releases FY 2011 Budget: Obama's 7.5 Percent Increase for Education Programs Signals Commitment to Reauthorize…

The Boone Hope Foundation has given away over $130,000 in gift cards, rent checks, and eyeglasses--all targeted to help students with emergency needs related to food, clothing, shelter, and healthcare in its rural Iowa community. This is the story of teachers from a typical Midwestern school--relatively small and certainly not affluent--who have…

In many parts of the United States, there is a growing shortage of music teachers to take the place of the retiring teachers. This is most evident in rural areas. If music teachers are not available to fill openings, music positions are sometimes combined, spreading music teachers too thin and requiring them to possess multiple music…

Case studies of Authentic Intellectual Work (AIW) in the Iowa project included four high schools that have been practicing this professional development model for the last five years. The schools, AHST Secondary School, Cedar Falls High School, Spencer High and Middle Schools and Valley High School were visited in April, 2011. The visits included…

Personal account of his first-year experience as superintendent of the South Hamilton School District, a small rural district in Jewell, Iowa. (PKP)

Based on interviews with almost the entire population of shared superintendents in Iowa, this article discusses the pros and cons of shared superintendencies. Problems arose concerning logistics, decreased administrator visibility, loss of personal control, keeping district policies separate, and favoritism charges. Participants experienced high…

This document is a collection of five reports on school restructuring in Iowa from 1989 to 1993. The first report summarizes the restructuring activities in Iowa school districts during 1989, addresses problems that developed during the year, and chronicles future restructuring events. It also gives a historical perspective on school restructuring…

Develops a theoretical framework for analyzing the behavior of Iowa school district managers affected by declining enrollment and estimates the impacts on school costs. Estimates the declining enrollment adjustment period length and evaluates theoretical implications of selected proposals for compensating local school districts faced with…

Examines the integration of technology in Iowa high schools. Highlights include rural versus urban schools; available technology in the classrooms, labs, media centers, and administrative offices; uses of technology; the perceived impact of using technology; administrative support; teacher motivation; and community support. (LRW)

Studies the problem of rural Iowa school personnel classifying students according to a "folk" classification of risk rather than research-derived risk factors. The authors construct a "cognitive map" for these teachers of at-risk students. The implications of the content of this map for meeting the needs of at-risk students are…