The main purpose of this design-based research study is to examine the effects of an inquiry-based learning environment, with the support of videoconferencing, on both rural and urban secondary students' mathematics and science learning. An important aspect of this learning environment is the use of videoconferencing to connect classes with…

Educational achievement in rural America is one of the country's great overlooked challenges. Rural students achieve below the U.S. average on national tests, and high school dropout rates are higher and college attendance lower than they are in cities and suburbs. When the U.S. Department of Education asks low-achieving schools to be turned…

The teaching of mathematics, which arguably is so abstract as to transcend place and community and even culture (according at least to a Platonic view of mathematics), will seem to some observers particularly ill-suited to instruction in place- or community- or culture-based approaches. Nevertheless, current thinking in mathematics education,…

The Rural School and Community Trust has made place central to its educational and community-building work. Because the understanding of a place is fundamental to building sustainable communities, Rural Trust schools and communities are committed to providing their children and young people with opportunities to explore, analyze, and contribute to…

The Annenberg Rural Challenge represents a large national effort to transform rural schools and communities. Among its dominant themes are that students should come to know their local communities well, that communities should see schools and students as critical assets, and that communities and schools need to become more integrated. As part of a…

PACERS Small Schools Cooperative, a 29-school cooperative in rural Alabama, operates an innovative program in which student projects both serve the community and preserve community traditions. Describes how information technology enables the advantages of small schools to flower. Discusses addressing policies and mindsets that hinder development…

In many rural areas, both communities and schools are threatened by decreasing population and changing economic conditions. To boost both the local economy and student achievement, a growing number of rural schools are turning to entrepreneurial education. In school entrepreneurship programs, students create small businesses under the guidance of…

This volume compiles descriptions of the work being done by rural students in 13 schools/sites with grants from the Annenberg Rural Challenge. The work reflects a belief in education that privileges the local nature of learning and connects schools and communities for their mutual benefit. Entries include focused lessons, long-term projects, and…

Written for writing teachers by writing teachers, this book celebrates local knowledge and the engagement of teachers and students with their communities through writing. Ten members of the Nebraska Writing Project invite readers into their rural classrooms and communities to explore the rich writing and active citizenship that emerge when writing…

The Annenberg Rural Challenge locates and funds exemplary rural public school programs to serve as models for rural education reform. The guiding theory of the Rural Challenge is that when rural schools base their teaching on the economy, ecology, history, and culture of their communities while fully engaging the community in the school's work,…

About 79 per cent of the rural schools in the Southern States have only one teacher. It is evident, therefore, that a plan must be worked out which will enable this single teacher to make her school a factor in the development of the life around it. On November 2, 1910, the Peabody Board appropriated $600 to work out such a plan. It was finally…

Examines differences in democratic behavior of children of different gender and ethnicity attending traditional rural primary schools and those attending rural schools with experimental active learning programs. Shows children in active learning programs engage in more democratic behaviors. Relates this to small group activities. Notes this leads…