Principal leadership is crucial to the success of rural schools (Canales et al., 2008; Horst & Martin, 2007; Texas Education Agency [TEA], 2017). Research has shown that principals have a great impact on student learning through multiple pathways (Sebastian & Allensworth, 2012). Principals today must be instructional leaders, share a…

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many school districts have moved from brick-and-mortar instruction to remote instruction with little planning time and limited resources. Rural localities, already facing barriers and hardships, attempted to provide special education and related services in accordance with rapidly changing state and federal…

This qualitative study explored the voices of four small, rural high schools in Texas that had successfully minimized the gap in academic achievement of economically disadvantaged students in the 2006-2007 school year. The purpose of this study was to identify the inherent qualities of each identified school through the voice of the local school…

The Llano Grande Center is a non-profit education and community development organization founded in the mid-1990s by youth and teachers out of a public high school classroom in a rural South Texas (USA) community. The Center was created, in large part, to cultivate youth voices as important elements of curriculum development and teacher training…

A former superintendent of a small school district in rural Texas describes the conditions and needs of the district and reflects on school consolidation and alternative solutions to the district's problems. In 1994, the district enrolled 650 students. Facilities were 30 years old and in constant need of repair, with leaking roofs and unsafe…

A study examined how rural youth perceive leadership and how sense of place affects those perceptions. Interviews and observations of 12 students who participated in a leadership academy in 3 rural Texas high schools indicated that rural adolescents viewed leadership as situational. Teamwork and service were the elements of leadership that…

This is the 2011 Yearbook of the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration (NCPEA). This Yearbook contains five parts. Part I, Invited Chapters, includes: (1) NCPEA President's Message, 2011 (Gary W. Kinsey); (2) Shadows and Images II (Lloyd Duvall); and (3) Micropolitics in the School: Teacher Leaders' Use of Political Skill…

This book explores the country schoolhouses of Texas' rural past. Sources include interviews with dozens of former country schoolteachers and students and first-person narratives collected from written works. Chapters cover the following topics: (1) history of public education and country schools in Texas; (2) distance travelled by teachers and…

This paper describes a collaborative project involving Texas Tech University personnel and four school districts in a school improvement program. The project was built around an agreement between the university personnel and school districts committing them to the program and using the Outcomes Driven Developmental Model as the basis for action.…

Research on social capital and functional communities provides much needed information on the relationship between rural schools and their communities, and its impact on community viability. Schools are critical to the social and economic viability of rural communities; research suggests that social capital in rural areas has decreased…

This paper explores the relationship between community stability and school conflict in a small rural Texas school district. Data included school district records; newspaper archives; and interviews with school district officials, community members, and officials of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). Texas County (a pseudonym)…

This directory describes programs for serving at-risk students in rural small schools in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. Section 1 lists 72 programs by state, including 8 programs that were added to the directory in 1995. Each entry includes target population; a brief description of program features; the school/community…

This book relates the experiences of students and teachers who spent their days in one- and two-room schoolhouses in West Texas during the first half of the 20th century. The book is based on interviews with 77 people and is divided into two sections: student recollections and teachers' memories. Former students reflect on school facilities, the…

This report describes and evaluates the Raven School, a charter school established in 1998 to serve adjudicated youths ages 16 to 18. The school is administered by the Gulf Coast Trades Center, a private nonprofit organization located in the Sam Houston National Forest in rural Texas. In addition to academics and GED preparation, other program…