Purpose: A chasm exists between the expanding mental health needs of school-aged youth and the school resources available to address them. Education agencies must efficiently allocate their limited resources by adopting innovative public health models. The need for these effective approaches is acute in rural regions, where resources tend to be…

Rural school leaders encounter an array of complex issues that require legal counsel. Student discipline, contract disputes, employee conduct, special education, and a host of other topics require school boards and superintendents to utilize school attorneys. This descriptive phenomenological study explored the daily experiences of ten school…

School districts across the country are experiencing a mass exodus of teachers and administrators while those who stay struggle to maintain the level of productivity needed to lead our schools and ensure a high-quality education for our nation's students (DeMatthews et. al., 2021; Peters-Hawkins et.al., 2018; Superville, 2020). Black women, in…

Texas House Bill 3 established a college, career, and military readiness (CCMR) outcomes bonus, which provides extra funding to districts for each annual graduate demonstrating CCMR under the state accountability system. Some small district and rural district leaders expressed concern about the ability of their graduates to meet the career…

How are California districts handling deepening teacher shortages 18 months into the COVID-19 pandemic? Following up on a March 2021 study, "California Teachers and COVID-19: How the Pandemic Is Impacting the Teacher Workforce" (ED614374), this report describes the severe shortages many districts are experiencing and the strategies some…

The pandemic has heightened awareness of the gaps in education quality between the nation's most vulnerable students and most well-off students. And the reopening decisions school districts made in the 2020-21 school year may have both short- and long-term impacts on the academic achievement of the most vulnerable students. In addition to racial…

This study examined the perceptions of practitioner teacher and mentor teachers about the development of instructional self-reflection and self-regulation skills through the first round of a state-mandated mentoring for practitioner teachers during the 2020-2021 school year. The referenced Louisiana mandate requires mentoring for certain…

Evidence today shows that there is a skills gap among employable young adults. This study was based on a Career and Technical Education (CTE) program evaluation that was conducted in a rural school district in northwest North Carolina. The study examined the perceptions of the program by CTE high school teachers, CTE community college instructors,…

Although school-based youth homicides and student fear of attack or harm at school have slowly decreased over the past two decades (Musu-Gillette et al., 2018), students are not free from worry; violence is still present in schools. School violence refers to acts of physical force, harm, or power that occur on school grounds or at school events…

Students enrolled in public education schools in the State of Texas are required to participate in and secure passage of a norm-referenced state assessment in different grade levels and subject areas. The State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) is the norm-referenced assessment used for students in grades third through eighth, and…

As an introduction to this special issue of "The Rural Educator" on the topic of collaboration, I provide examples of how collaboration offers promise as a partnership solution to current and future education challenges of rural schools and their communities. Highlights of two literature reviews establish a historical context for…

The purpose of this study was to examine the variables that contributes to high teacher turnover rate in one Southeastern rural school district. The study used the Gap Analysis for Problem-solving, Planning, and School Improvement (GAPPSI) method approach to improve the current state of the problem by determining if there were common variables…

This case study focuses on the role of school psychologists during the transition to and implementation of multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) in a small, rural school district. It provides guidance to other school psychologists in similar rural districts on how to support a system-level change from the individual building level to the entire…

Schoolwide positive behavior interventions and supports (SWPBIS) is a three-tiered framework for preventing and addressing challenging behavior and improving school climate. SWPBIS requires ongoing coaching and consultation to ensure implementation fidelity and improve the efficiency and efficacy of data-based decision making and problem-solving…

Special education professionals serve as facilitators of Individualized Education Program (IEP) team meetings. This study explores how facilitators see their IEP meeting roles and probes further into how IEP facilitators envision an ideal IEP meeting in school districts with rural schools. Findings indicate that facilitators see their roles in…