Recent media reporting and research suggest that regional comprehensive universities (RCUs) and other postsecondary institutions may play an integral role in the welfare of rural regions, yet empirical research on the regional service of rural postsecondary institutions is limited. The purpose of this study was to examine how a single RCU serves…

Corbin High School is located in a small, rural community of approximately 8,000 residents in southeastern Kentucky, midway between Lexington and Knoxville, Tennessee. The mission of Corbin High School is to provide opportunities that will help each student prepare for a successful transition to college, the workplace and life. This report…

Time and modern education caught up with the nine pupils of Daniel's Creek Elementary School, one of the last remaining one-room schoolhouses in Kentucky. The school was closed at the end of the 1986-87 school year by the county school board, after much opposition from a citizen's group. (JMM)

At Owsley County Elementary School (Booneville, Kentucky), the number of parent and community volunteers has doubled over the past 5 years. The school employs a full-time coordinator of parent involvement, has a parent center, and reaches out to the wider community with a monthly newsletter delivered to every county household. Benefits of parent…

This paper traces the history of two mission projects and associated schools in rural Kentucky and examines how the missionaries' social constructions of reality with regard to Appalachia determined their actions. The two mission projects studied were Red Bird Missionary Conference of the United Methodist Church and Hazel Green Academy of the…

The school/community improvement process adapted by the Rural, Small Schools Program at the Appalachia Educational Laboratory (AEL) serves to revitalize and improve rural schools, incorporating commitment of both school and community leaders to rural school improvement. This paper describes implementation of the process in four school districts,…

School councils, a school-based decision making (SBDM) form of governance, are mandated for Kentucky public schools by the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA). Commonly composed of the principal, three teachers, and two parents, the school council is designed to be a form of democratic or shared school governance. The missions of school councils…

The systemic reform exemplified by the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990 (KERA) requires the coupling of top-down state mandates with bottom-up advocacy and leadership. This research on an Eastern Kentucky school district details the dynamics at the district's main high school, as people struggle to build both a community of learners within…

To generate information that would help rural schools take advantage of the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration (CSRD) program, 47 principals of rural schools in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia were interviewed via telephone. The schools fell into two categories: schools that applied but were not funded through the CSRD…

This dissertation examines how stakeholders in an Appalachian Kentucky high school addressed educational problems that they targeted for reform. Set against the backdrop of the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA), this ethnographic study describes the challenges of effectively coupling top-down state mandates with bottom-up advocacy and…

This dissertation, which won the Dissertation of the Year Award, examines how stakeholders in an Appalachian Kentucky high school addressed educational problems that they had targeted for reform. Set against the backdrop of the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA), this ethnographic study describes the challenges of effectively coupling top-down…

A year-long ethnographic investigation examined how stakeholders in an Appalachian Kentucky high school addressed educational problems that they had targeted for reform while resisting state priorities and policies mandated in the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA). Contrasts KERA objectives with cultural themes prominent in this poor…

Faced with mandated reforms of the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990, a mountain community grappled with the challenges of coupling top-down state mandates with bottom-up advocacy and engagement. A year of participant observation revealed six interrelated and paradoxical themes that emerged as these Appalachians created local ownership of…

This paper describes the context of education at two Appalachian middle schools and examines family, community, and school factors related to the academic success of economically disadvantaged and middle-class students. The 429 students at two rural middle schools in Appalachian Kentucky and Tennessee were assigned to low socioeconomic status…

This paper summarizes arguments surrounding the closing of Hisel School in Jackson County, Kentucky, in an effort to analyze the debate on rural education in Appalachia and how it relates to school-community relationships. Events surrounding closure of the school are summarized, including a two-year period in which a school community volunteer…