Despite existing research in popular music education, a gap exists in the literature concerning popular music education for rural East Tennessee high school band programs. The purpose of this qualitative research was to address the history of societal acceptance of popular music styles as well as changes within the field of music education…

Rural Appalachia encompasses a region of the United States represented by unique cultural strengths and systemic challenges. To meet their students' career and college needs, school counselors working in rural Appalachia must understand the cultural nuances of the region. Consensual qualitative research (CQR) methodology revealed five domains and…

The COVID-19 pandemic plunged education communities into an emergency mode of operation and challenged the pedagogic core of education. Schools across America suddenly lost access to everything essential to their daily educational practices, including face-to-face interactions with students. School administrators scrambled to devise remote…

The ways in which high schools allocate their staffing and assign individual roles related to career development are pertinent to students with and without disabilities accessing career preparation that equips them for employment following graduation. Rural school districts can especially benefit from strategic role allocation that addresses gaps…

This technical appendix provides additional information about the sample, data, and estimation strategy used for a series of American Educator Panels (AEP) Data Notes published by the RAND Corporation in 2019. The Data Note series is intended to provide brief but incisive analyses of teacher and school leader survey results that may be of…

The purpose of this study was to compare the differences in rural high school teachers' (n = 256) self-efficacy in student engagement, instructional practices, and classroom management using selected teacher characteristics. Analysis of variance showed significant mean differences between different levels of education in self-efficacy for…

The purpose of this study was to increase the understanding among members of the Southwest Tennessee Rural Education Cooperative (SWTREC), a coalition of superintendents from 12 districts (half of which are rural) surrounding Memphis, about the online and distance-learning courses offered by schools that compose the Cooperative. Data for this…

Many reports on rural education give little attention to digital learning. At most, they tend to note either infrastructure needs or the potential of remote course access, with little focus on instruction, outcomes, or exemplars. This report intends to begin correcting that imbalance by connecting the dots between rural regions, rural education,…

When the author became principal at South Pittsburg High School in the rural southeast corner of Tennessee, he noticed that the school had a serious problem with students arriving late to school in the morning and late to classes during the school day. When this issue was discussed, it was decided that there was a need to initiate a Saturday…

Every step in a student's life is important for future success. Schools are building stronger frameworks of curricula, instruction and assessments to prepare students to move from one learning environment to another with maximum results as they journey toward adulthood. This issue of "High Schools That Work" contains examples of…

This descriptive report is part of a broader project collecting, organizing, and analyzing multiple sources of data from the four-state REL Appalachia region, comprised of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. The purposes of that broader project are: (1) to increase awareness of and understanding about critical education issues in the…

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…

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…

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 report focuses on the noteworthy achievement and the successful practices of 12 rural schools in the southern region that are members of the "High Schools That Work" (HSTW) school improvement network. Although these schools enroll high percentages of minority and/or impoverished students, they have managed to outperform rural…