Across the nation, teacher shortages are receiving broad attention. Teacher turnover can lead to negative outcomes for students through the replacement of effective teachers by inexperienced or unqualified teachers, increases in class sizes, or reductions in course offerings. For educators, frequent turnover upsets collaboration, stability,…

The expansion of early childhood education (ECE) and increased spending have benefited children and supported families. However, these investments have not addressed inequities within the ECE workforce. ECE providers face economic insecurity, earning an average of $14 per hour, which is below a living wage. In rural communities, this median wage…

Education in the 21st century increasingly relies on strong, reliable access to the internet at school and at home. However, millions of students throughout the United States are unable to connect to the internet outside of school to complete coursework and actively participate in a modern education. This issue exists throughout educational…

This study compared service use for families of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who live in rural vs. non-rural areas. Participants were 415 caregivers of children with ASD, of whom 101 (23.7%) lived in rural areas of a southeastern state. Participants completed an online survey regarding access and quality of different services. For…

This report presents data on the educational attainment of Tennessee residents by county, postsecondary degree level, age group, and ethnicity. The report is made available through interactive maps which allow the user to view county-level educational attainment data for different populations. Data for this analysis were drawn from the U.S. Census…

In 2009, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was signed into law. This legislation provided for monetary rewards for those acute-care hospitals that meet "meaningful use" computerization and reporting criteria. The study used a descriptive, nonexperimental design to answer three research questions (1) What is the level of…

Research has shown that boys display higher levels of childhood conduct problems than girls, and Black children display higher levels than White children, but few studies have tested for scalar equivalence of conduct problems across gender and race. The authors conducted a 2-parameter item response theory (IRT) model to examine item…

The supplemental educational services program is a core provision of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001. The program offers free tutoring in reading/language arts and math from state-approved providers outside of regular school hours. This report explores differences across states and school urban and rural locales in providing…

This study examines the first four years of Tennessee's Voluntary Prekindergarten program, directed to four-year-olds eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. It reviews participation levels and trends for the program as a whole, for collaborative partner classrooms, and for student and district subgroups and discusses the geographic distribution…

Comparing a small, rural school with sometimes less than 100 students to a massive inner-city school with greater than 2,500 students is crude and untenable. There are simply too many variables. Nonetheless, the No Child Left Behind Act treats these two very different schools the same. When urban and rural schools cannot meet AYP or highly…

The study reported in this article investigated the differential effects of teachers on female, minority, and low-socioeconomic-status (SES) students' achievement. I used data from a 4-year, large-scale, randomized experiment (Project STAR) that was conducted between 1985 and 1989 in Tennessee, in which students and teachers were randomly assigned…

Reports results of a 1977-78 survey of administrators in 122 Tennessee school districts to determine psychological services available, immediate and future manpower needs, positions available, and appropriate training. Notes that most districts both provided and need more services and that psychological service differed in rural and urban…

Compared homelessness among persons in a metropolitan setting based on whether or not the person had migrated from a rural area. Found that those from rural areas had a lower level of educational achievement, experienced a higher degree of isolation from families, and frequently had come to the urban area seeking jobs. (KS)

A five-year follow-up survey was conducted with both rural and urban Tennessee school administrators to ascertain current school psychology human resource characteristics and needs and to determine how these parameters have changed over that period of time. There are implications for overall human resource concerns and Master Teacher-Better…

Examination of demographic, socioeconomic, and cultural factors in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia, the four states served by the Appalachia Educational Laboratory (AEL), shows low student population density, endemic poverty, low educational attainment, and a population reluctant to seek outside help. This report reviews the…