Taking a sociocultural approach, the goal of this qualitative study was to examine the "process" of implementing a science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) initiative. The study examined how the construct of STEM was individually appropriated and collectively constructed within a rural school district during its launch year.…

Purpose: Existing research on loosely coupled educational systems has largely ignored the social and affective dimensions of such systems. Drawing on literature from organizational behavior, this study examines how "human" factors, including role identity dynamics, power dynamics, and stereotyping, shape the implementation of state-led…

The ways in which high schools allocate their staffing and assign individual roles related to career development are pertinent to students with and without disabilities accessing career preparation that equips them for employment following graduation. Rural school districts can especially benefit from strategic role allocation that addresses gaps…

Historically, debates about educational choice have wrestled with big, unresolved tensions that lie at the heart of American life, having to do with individual rights, community obligations, public and private interests, religious freedoms, and more. But in recent years, school reformers have tended to talk about choice as though it referred only…

We surveyed principals and assistant principals in 12 suburban and rural school districts in Kentucky in order to identify the underlying dimensions of the Preferred Teacher Applicant Characteristics Survey and to examine the relationships between school characteristics, administrator characteristics, and their preferences for teacher applicant…

In the past decade learning outcomes in public basic schools in Ghana have fallen far below the targets of the Ministry of Education as less than a third of primary school children reach proficiency in English or in Mathematics. In the wake of this low performance, there has been a call for the professionalization and strengthening of…

While school closures resulting from the pandemic in spring 2020 created challenges for every school district, districts serving predominantly rural communities faced even greater obstacles. Lack of access to broadband internet connectivity in rural and remote areas complicated many students' efforts to participate in remote learning. In addition,…

The rapid growth in the number of English learners (ELs) in urban and rural school classrooms and the continual homogenization of a White, female, teaching force in the United States create cultural and linguistic disconnections in the classroom. As research suggests, although classroom diversity and ELs' academic needs could be addressed by…

This study aimed to explore the top-down or compact accountability relationship for curriculum implementation in rural public primary schools in the East Wollega zone administration, Ethiopia. An exploratory case study type and a multiple case study research design were employed. A purposeful sampling technique was used. The data were collected…

The problem that was addressed in this study was a rural school district in southeastern Georgia was identified by the Georgia Department of Education as overidentifying African American students as having an intellectual disability (ID). The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of special education eligibility team members…

USD 240 Twin Valley School District, consisting of Bennington Grade School and Bennington Junior High/High School in Bennington and Tescott Grade School and Tescott Junior High/High School, was one of seven districts initially selected in August 2017 as part of the first cohort of Kansas State Department of Education's Kansas Can School Redesign…

This study reports on findings from a convergent parallel mixed methods analysis examining the perspectives of college students concerning their teaching considerations at a rural district with severe teacher-staffing problems. Based on a framework of multiple attribute utility theory, a utility analysis was used to compare the relative importance…

The Roaring Fork School District stretches along a river of the same name in the Rocky Mountains. Its 13 schools are nestled in valleys about an hour's drive from two of Colorado's high-end resort towns--Aspen and Vail--where many parents work seasonal jobs. The COVID-19 pandemic forced officials to shut down ski slopes and empty hotels and…

The purpose of this study was to investigate elementary teachers' experiences of physical education professional development in depopulated rural school districts in Japan to provide future directions to offer effective support for teachers in unique teaching contexts. The study was situated in the framework of andragogy theory. Participants were…

The purpose of this inquiry was to conduct a formative evaluation of a rural Pennsylvania school district's dispositional hiring practices. The review of literature includes disposition evaluation methods and summarizes the controversial nature of evaluating dispositions. Interviews of administrators who ask dispositional questions, and newly…