The roles of technology and education were at the forefront throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. This mixed-methods study examines the role of the three levels of the digital divide (i.e., access, capability, and outcomes) during the COVID-19 pandemic in Kentucky. We create and analyze a new multifaceted measure of district-level digital capacity to…

Across the United States, students attending rural school districts can face different obstacles than their urban counterparts, particularly rural students from households living below the federal poverty level. But how rural districts are defined can vary by federal, state, and local entity and can sometimes not capture the difficulties specific…

This case study of a Ghanaian rural school district uses a community-based participatory action research to engage with municipal officials, a rural community, and its local school participants to codesign culturally sustainable education strategies. The study triangulated community meeting discussion, interviews, field notes and document analysis…

While the teacher shortage is a national crisis, the manifestations of the shortage are felt most acutely at the local district level. The diversity of these micro-contexts often leads to disparities in the ways local school systems are served by large-scale initiatives. District leaders provide an important lens for understanding the localized…

Despite decades of advocacy, most students with developmental disabilities continue to spend the majority of the school day in self-contained special education classrooms. However, there is tremendous variability of educational placement across the United States. Identification of geographic trends that explain this variability could provide…

In the context of China's increasing rural-urban migration, few studies have investigated how parental migration affects children's experience in school. The high cost of schooling, taken together with the institutional barriers in destination cities, have compelled many rural parents in China to migrate without their children, leaving them in the…

When U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan talks about using merit pay to attract the best teachers to the classroom, he probably doesn't have in mind a place like Richmond County, North Carolina. In this rural community where the unemployment rate is nearly 14 percent and there's no movie theater for miles around, school administrators say…

This study examines how locational (region and locale), community-level (school district poverty and adult educational attainment), and school district-level (district size and ratios of students to key school personnel) variables are related to indicators of hostile school climate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth.…

This preliminary survey offers insights into how community-school partnerships are structured and what types of relationships schools and districts have established. Among respondents to this survey, businesses and parent organizations are by far the most frequent K-12 partners. Also, clear differences were found in the responses of suburban,…

Fiscal equity in public education has been a substantive issue with a long history in school finance literature. However, the growing demands of capital outlay financing are given little or no attention in typical equity funding schemes. Currently, school districts throughout the nation are faced with the need to finance the construction,…

This paper examines the degree of superintendent turnover in Nebraska, a state dominated by rural school districts. It also lists the causes of turnover as reported by short-term superintendents. This study finds that turnover is higher in the subject rural districts than the national average. Superintendents report that they leave these rural…

Examines economic, social, and fiscal indicators available from federal data sources that can be used in classification systems for rural school districts. Compares the strengths and weaknesses of the various indicators. Recommends that researchers use multiple indicators or alternative data sources to mitigate potential problems of unintentional…

According to the definition that a rural school district is one in which 75% or more of the population lives outside Standard Metropolitan Areas or in which student density is equal to or less than 10 pupils per square miles, 36 or 65% of West Virginia's 55 counties are classified as rural. State school policies do not specifically recognize the…

Of Virginia's 139 school districts (which are called "divisions"), 75 (or 54%) are 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 student density if less than or equal to 10 pupils per square mile. While there are large…

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…