This landscape report explores the impact of earning micro-credentials on the social mobility of rural learners. Through four in-depth case studies, we show how earning micro-credentials may lead to credential attainment, workforce entry, promotions, and/or economic improvements (e.g., salary increase, prioritizing learners impacted by poverty),…

In this descriptive and comparative study, we present results highlighting the complexity and scope of the challenges facing rural districts as they navigate the changing demographics of the students and families they serve. Rapid increases in the number and concentration of racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse students in rural areas…

Career Technical Education (CTE) teacher recruitment is a challenge that has dogged state CTE leaders for decades. According to a recent survey of State CTE Directors, 98 percent said that increasing access to industry experts is a high priority in their state. And 20.4 percent of rural districts with CTE teacher vacancies report that CTE…

In every state in the South, the percentage of residents with bachelor's degrees or higher who were born outside the state exceed the percentage born in-state, reflecting their dependence on imported talent over building their own talent-development systems. In Virginia, the Southern state with the highest percentage of residents with a B.A. or…

Reports results of a 1977-78 survey of administrators in 122 Tennessee school districts to determine psychological services available, immediate and future manpower needs, positions available, and appropriate training. Notes that most districts both provided and need more services and that psychological service differed in rural and urban…

The role of schooling in the economic development process has been targeted as essential in both human capital theory and modernization theories. Research into the nature of underdevelopment in Central Appalachia has provided a basis for debate among regional scholars as to its causes and consequences, yet serious discussion of pre-modern…

Perceived educational strengths and weaknesses of Appalachian schools are examined as indicators of school effectiveness in this study, which is based on the formula that the expectations people have of schools minus the perceptions of how those expectations are met equals a dissonance factor. The School Effectiveness Inventory (SEI), which…

This paper presents the findings of a study of the effectiveness of collaboration between the Rural Education Research and Service Consortium at Tennessee Technological University and rural schools in its service area. The study uses the instrumentation and research design of the Good Schools Project (GSP) initiated by Kappa Delta Pi in 1984.…

The rural economy has performed badly during the 1980s. While the recession of the early 1980s was responsible for much of the trouble, the slow rural recovery demonstrates the fundamental hurdles facing the rural economy. Central among these are economic disadvantages, including remote locations isolating rural producers from their markets, low…

In a survey of 100 elementary school teachers in rural Tennessee, teachers felt that reducing distractions, positive reinforcement, and frequent monitoring were the most effective techniques for teaching students with attention deficit disorders (ADD). Teachers suggested that many students with ADD were not being identified and indicated needs for…

Examination of demographic, socioeconomic, and cultural factors in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia, the four states served by the Appalachia Educational Laboratory (AEL), shows low student population density, endemic poverty, low educational attainment, and a population reluctant to seek outside help. This report reviews the…

With the exception of four major metropolitan areas--Chattanooga, Knoxville, Memphis, and Nashville--Tennessee is a predominantly rural state with 56% (or 79) of its 142 school districts classified as rural. A rural school district is defined as one in which 75% or more of the population lives outside Standard Metropolitan Areas or in which…

This report examines comparative data on fiscal need factors critical in equitably financing public education and on factors with varying or unique implications for urban, suburban, and rural school systems in Tennessee. In analyzing the current operating expenditures for 1976-77, expenditures were divided into two components--instructional…

Part of a larger research project involving the study of mathematics achievement of middle and high school students in Tennessee, this report analyzes said achievement in terms of school locale and the percentage of disadvantaged (pdisadv) students enrolled in the school. Schools were designated as Rural, Large Central City, and Other Nonrural.…

Three conference papers on school finance reform in Tennessee are presented in this document, with a focus on the disparities between rural and urban public school funding. The first paper examines the nature and size of contributions of various funding sources to the per-pupil revenue in local school districts, analyzes specific problems of the…