This study examines secondary mathematics and science teacher perceptions of teacher leadership during the first year of a professional development program focused on preparing teacher leaders in rural schools. It also begins to offer details as to what content-focused teacher leadership looks like and how teachers in rural schools enact teacher…

This study was designed to assess high school students' opinions concerning issues relating to homework assignments. A questionnaire about homework was completed by 210 selected high school seniors in 7 rural Tennessee high schools. Findings indicate that 83 percent of respondents were assigned homework on a regular basis, with about two-thirds…

Advising high school publications is a difficult task that makes it necessary to ascertain the needs and perceptions of high school journalism teachers and advisers. In an attempt to identify problems faced by high school journalism advisers in Arkansas and to determine what would prevent these advisers from using just one of the common aids…

The educational reform movement of the past several years has forced all educators to critically examine both their current and perceived roles. The following model addresses the issues of a changing clientele, a changing society, and a changing expectation of the duties of school guidance counselors. The first requirement of a new scheduling…

The specific cognitive and affective learning and study strategies that best distinguished students reporting high and low self-regulated learning efficacy were determined. Participants (N=75) came from 12 rural public high schools. All students were administered the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI) and Bandura's Efficacy for…

A descriptive study gave rural high school teachers an opportunity to voice their opinions on parental involvement. A survey questionnaire using a Likert-scale format was completed by 51 of 85 teachers in a large rural midwestern high school. All respondents were European American, as were virtually all students. Over 70 percent of respondents had…

This study identifies stressful events in the lives of high school students in a rural region of Tennessee. Questionnaires were completed by 240 high school students (144 female and 96 male). The questionnaires included 19 statements to which the participants were to respond concerning their belief about the stressfulness of the situation…

Using identified factors that affect students' musical outcomes, this research study examined how instrumental music students attending "good" rural Appalachian high schools compared to other instrumental students. "Good" refers to those 12 Appalachian rural school districts identified as the best out of 46 rural county school…

A survey of 229 students in grades 10-12 at a rural consolidated high school in Tennessee sought to determine employment patterns among rural students and the impact of that employment on students' academic and personal lives. Findings indicate that employment of rural youth was an accepted part of the teen culture; student employment increased at…

This paper describes the Hawaii Interactive Television System (HITS) program and provides an evaluation of the first year of broadcasts for the advanced placement (AP) calculus course. HITS allows two-way video-audio interaction among origination sites, but the configuration used by the Department of Education for its Teleschool program is the…

To offer insights into scheduling strategies, this paper presents the effects of block scheduling in one rural public secondary school. This case study revolves around three questions: (1) "What prompted the school's move to block scheduling?"; (2) "How was block scheduling implemented?"; and (3) "How has block scheduling affected perceptions of…

This study identified common characteristics in six "good" secondary schools in the rural Appalachian regions of Kentucky and Tennessee. Three schools from each state were selected for study based on nominations by Chief State School Officers and local superintendents and ratings based on statistical information about the schools. Two…

Student responses were elicited in classroom discussions about alcohol use in their own rural community. Teachers and parents responded to questionnaires and interviews concerning various aspects of alcohol consumption as part of the local lifestyle. Students gave reasons for drinking such as ethnic and religious acceptance in the local community,…

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…

The field independent/field dependent tendencies of one-hundred and forty-three (143) Mexican American pupils in two rural, South Texas high schools was assessed. Teachers were given training in the educational implications of cognitive style on the learning process, and training to operate a classroom model designed to accommodate a specific…