The Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) has been studying the four-day school week since 2015. Since then, the phenomenon of the four-day school week has spread into non-rural areas and interest appears to be growing. Given these apparent changes, the author wanted to know more about recent trends in the initiative. As districts continue…

The departure of an effective school leader can influence staff turnover and student achievement for several years. With school systems facing an unprecedented public health crisis due to COVID-19, principal retention is a key area of concern for many local and state education agencies. The Regional Educational Laboratory West undertook this study…

This Study Snapshot highlights key findings from a study of principal retention rates to help leaders in Arizona, Nevada, and Utah better understand principal retention patterns in their state, so that their new statewide leadership support initiatives could identify areas where support could be most effective. With school systems facing an…

The "Principal Retention Patterns in Arizona, Nevada, and Utah" study examined principal retention rates in Arizona, Nevada, and Utah. The study sought to understand principal retention patterns in these states, so that their new statewide leadership support initiatives could identify areas where support could be most effective.…

In this descriptive and comparative study, we present results highlighting the complexity and scope of the challenges facing rural districts as they navigate the changing demographics of the students and families they serve. Rapid increases in the number and concentration of racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse students in rural areas…

To help inform education stakeholders in Utah, this study examined the differences in characteristics between rural and non-rural districts in the state from fiscal year 2012 through fiscal year 2017 using administrative data from the Utah State Board of Education and the Utah Education Association. All the findings are descriptive and do not…

As key members of the school environment, it is important for school employees to be vaccinated. Employees are in direct contact with children in close quarters for long periods of time and such an environment can easily serve as an outbreak center for vaccine-preventable communicable diseases such as measles. Despite the fact that most school…

Many reports on rural education give little attention to digital learning. At most, they tend to note either infrastructure needs or the potential of remote course access, with little focus on instruction, outcomes, or exemplars. This report intends to begin correcting that imbalance by connecting the dots between rural regions, rural education,…

This report presents the first detailed comparison of resource allocation between rural and nonrural districts in the West Region. Three regional characteristics often associated with rural districts were chosen for the analysis: district enrollment, student population density within a district (students per square mile), and drive time from the…

This report presents the first detailed comparison of resource allocation between rural and nonrural districts in the West Region. Three regional characteristics often associated with rural districts were chosen for the analysis: district enrollment, student population density within a district (students per square mile), and drive time from the…

Analysis of minutes of board of education meetings in all 31 rural Utah school districts found that rural boards tended to micromanage their districts, generally ignoring the larger leadership function of building consensus and fostering a sense of community. Discussions of educational reform movements and unstructured discussion with patrons…

The Northeastern Utah Telelearning Project was created in 1985 to remedy problems of meeting core curriculum requirements and providing educational equity in rural schools, and to provide cost effective educational delivery systems to school districts. It was determined that a distance educational computer network using audiographic…

The Utah Elementary Integration Dissemination (UEID) Project of the University of Utah disseminates proven instructional planning and delivery practices used in the education of young children with severe disabilities and provides technical support for inclusive programs and pratices for these students. Many rural school districts are forced to…

Many schools of education do not specifically direct attention to programs that encourage, train and prepare teachers for life in rural schools and communities. Also the professors who concentrate most of their time in the city complex have had little exposure to rural needs and experiences. However, with some leadership on the part of rural…

This state profile addresses the condition of education in Utah's rural and small schools, placing public schooling and rurality into their social and economic contexts. The "working definition" of "rural" is emphasized, that is, if people served by a school district perceive themselves as rural residents, then the school…