This article is a literature review of the professional competencies and personal qualities commonly associated with successful leadership in rural schools. Multiple definitions of the term rural are provided. A delimitation of this research is that findings reflect literature published from 2005-2015, positioning this document as a current…

The four conceptual/academic themes for the Second Annual University of Kentucky Conference on Appalachia were: School-Community Relationships; Economic Development through Education; Politics of Democratic Empowerment; and Politics of Literacy. Other session topics included: Successful Dropout Programs in Appalachia; Innovative Programs and…

The Village College is a uniquely English institution, yet it may be a viable model for rural education in some parts of the United States as well. If so, four adaptations seem paramount: attitudinal restructuring, institutionalization of adult and community education, a demography capable of supporting the effort, and a new model of educational…

The study examined whether there were differences in the reasons first-year teachers in rural, urban, or suburban schools (1) accepted their present teaching positions and (2) might consider a teaching position in another school district. Subjects were 99 teacher graduates of the Universities of Iowa and Vermont who were teaching in suburban…

This book describes the process and results of a 5 year arts initiative, Artists in Minnesota Schools and Communities (AMSC). Based on the premise that rural communities hold an undervalued wealth of artistic and cultural resources rarely tapped by schools, the project piloted a variety of models for integrating art in the educational experiences…

AEL works with state educational entities to help schools become higher-performing learning communities. AEL's current partnership with Lincoln County (West Virginia) began about 6 months after the state board of education assumed administrative control of the county school system, citing major deficiencies in the system. AEL provided facilitative…

As part of Australia's Education and Local Development project, Tasmanian researchers investigated whether the upgrading of district schools to district high schools had contributed to the social, economic, and cultural development of the local areas. For three selected areas (Glenora, Sheffield, and Ouse), researchers gathered financial and…

A comparison of Middle Tennessee Rural (MTR) schools with the national sample of schools included in Kappa Delta Pi's Good Schools Project (GSP) focused on the areas of curriculum perspectives, goal attainment, classroom practices, interpersonal relations, commitment, discipline and safety, support services and facilities, and decision making. The…

In many states renewed attempts at school reorganization may be the sole policy response to solving the rural school improvement issue. Reorganization should be resisted because benefits of reorganization are mixed, good rural schools have many strengths, and the demise of rural schools will damage the infrastructure of rural America. (JHZ)

The report describes the educational programs that Alaska's 162 small rural high schools offer, identifies educational problems, and examines strategies that districts and schools have devised to strengthen these schools. The schools mostly serve Eskimos and American Indians, have fewer than 100 students, and are located in communities of fewer…

The dynamics of change processes in a rural school jurisdiction over a 5-year period were examined in relation to four specific goals: (1) to document changes since a planning study was done in 1982; (2) to determine if school program changes that had been adopted had reached the classroom according to teacher perceptions; (3) to report how the…