The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association's (SHEEO) "Communities of Practice" project builds upon SHEEO's ongoing efforts to measure the capacity and effective use of state postsecondary data systems and provides states with opportunities to develop solutions to common issues with those systems. The sixth Community of…

Public education funding relies on revenues from a variety of sources, from local taxpayers to federal programs targeting students with specific needs. The vast sum of funding collected--in excess of $600 billion annually--often masks which entities fund the education of our nation's youth. Questions of funding adequacy and equity across school…

Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) provide the basis for meeting the challenges and expectations in today's educational environment. Effective PLCs provide the framework for school improvement and ultimately impact student academic success. School leadership is fundamental in this process (Bennis, 2009; Buffum, Mattos, & Weber, 2009;…

Vallivue School District, located about 20 minutes from Boise, Idaho, can trace its origins to 13 rural schools scattered throughout Canyon County. The schools served students from kindergarten through eighth grade, and each building was independently administered by local school boards. Those boards were consolidated into a single district in…

What happens when teams from 57 cities building afterschool systems gather to discuss two key system responsibilities--improving afterschool programs and using data for informed decision-making? Lots of rich discussion. This report covers a national afterschool conference held in February 2013. It details what mayors, program providers, system…

An Idaho community worked together to build a performing arts building on school property. Students from the school, which had been using the Foxfire approach for several years, selected the site, did the surveying, and helped with the timber frame construction. The project fostered a renewed sense of community for a town suffering from declining…

Lewis-Clark State College, a small college in Lewiston, Idaho, establishes close cooperation with rural schools through specialized teacher preparation, community outreach, and willingness to bring educational ideas and expertise to rural areas. The teacher preparation program stresses development of professional versatility through composite…

This survey examined the attitudes of people in four states where tax or spending limitations appeared on the ballot in November 1978. It found that people had positive attitudes toward schools in their communities, believed schools are doing an above-average job, and viewed schools as a public service that should not be reduced. Results suggest…

Award-winning teachers from rural Oregon, Alaska, and Idaho discuss their innovative programs and the advantages of small-town life and small schools. Teachers, students, and community members know each other and participate in school activities, teachers have more flexibility and control over what they teach, bureaucracy is minimized, and…

This book explores race relations between Mexican Americans and Anglo Americans in "Middlewest," a fictitious name for an actual rural Idaho community with the highest proportion of Mexican Americans in the state. Many Mexican Americans in this predominantly agricultural area are current or former migrant workers. The first chapter…

A small Idaho school district gained public support for a school levy by producing and distributing a videotape of school activities and district needs. The videotape provided a clear, concise presentation of information while avoiding confrontations that often occur with other methods of communication. (Author/SV)

This report describes League of Women Voters citizen education campaigns concerning the financing of public schools. Launched in South Carolina, New Jersey, Idaho, Vermont, Missouri, California, and Maine, the campaigns were aimed at raising public awareness and interest in the issues and problems involved in funding public schools, thereby…

A pilot system of individualized and rurally compatible community-based alternatives to residential and institutional treatment settings for seriously emotionally disturbed children was evaluated. The results indicate that this intensive, community-based, service-delivery system appears to improve children's behavioral and emotional functioning,…

In order to assess the effectiveness of the Career Education Incentive Act (CEIA) of 1977, data were collected from a review of eight states' fiscal 1980 and 1981 annual reports as well as from a study conducted by the American Institutes for Research. According to these data, CEIA monies have indeed been allotted and matched as prescribed by the…

This report examines the results and conclusions of recent research on small and rural schools, and attempts to frame current debates over educational adequacy and financial equity in Idaho's rural school districts. Section I reports findings of recent research on school size and emphasizes the benefits of (typically rural) small schools. Most…