Fe y Alegría (Faith and Joy) refers to the network of schools for the poor run by the Jesuits in Latin America and the Caribbean. Founded originally in 1955 in Venezuela by Father José María Vélaz, by 2010 Fe y Alegría had spread to 17 countries in Latin America and now operates one in Chad. The Fe y Alegría schools are essentially convenant…

Economic restructuring, low wages, unemployment, outmigration, and high poverty rates affect rural and small-town schools, which enroll nearly 40 percent of the school-age population. Increasing proportions of rural school enrollments are children at risk and in need of special programs. (SK)

Recent national reports reinforce the growing perception that small schools are good schools. This may seem a revolution or the latest fad in schooling; however, issues of size cannot be captured in universal guidelines. This digest discusses the history of school size dilemmas to demonstrate why this is so. The earliest research literature on…

Previous research in California, Alaska, and West Virginia has suggested that school or school district size may influence student achievement indirectly by mediating the effects of socioeconomic status (SES) on achievement. The Matthew Project is replicating the key analyses of the West Virginia study in four strategically chosen states: Georgia,…

Project Aspire was created to identify poor rural students with academic potential and to provide them with academic and counseling support in advanced placement courses and prerequisites. This article describes Project Aspire and its foundations; the relevant lessons learned from the literature on poverty, small schools, rural schools, and gifted…

This digest reviews research on the status of rural student achievement and schooling conditions and describes variations across the nation and the states. Between 1992 and 1996, rural students began to outperform nonrural students on the 8th-grade mathematics assessment of the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Despite this aggregate…

As many as 40 percent of America's school-aged children are at-risk of failure within the current educational system. Many factors outside of school, such as poverty and debilitating parent and family influences, contribute to student failure. Within the school, the most effective factor of intervention for at-risk students is the individual…

Research reports from multiple studies in dozens of states have shown there are advantages to learning in small schools. To take advantage of the assets of rural schools and small-town survival, new state policy directions will be necessary in finance, facilities, teacher pay, preparation, and professional and curriculum development. (Contains 10…

Twenty percent of the children enrolled in rural and small-town schools are non-Caucasian, children of color. As in nonrural schools, rural schools have yet to close the achievement gap across various racial and economic subgroups of this diverse population. Overall, rural students perform as well as or better than their nonrural peers on…

Proposed welfare reform could be detrimental to the education and employment opportunities of poor rural women and children. Describes the educational experiences of women who have attended the Low Country Human Development Center (LCHDC) (South Carolina). For the past 20 years, the LCHDC has provided pregnant teenagers with a high school…

A meeting of education finance scholars discussed finance issues relevant to rural schools and communities. This paper summarizes major themes that emerged during the meeting. Notions of efficiency and economies of scale have contributed to widespread consolidation of rural schools and school districts. The value of community is not easily…

This document contains the 12 issues of the newsletter "Rural Policy Matters" published in 2000. Issues examine recent educational research on small and rural schools; report on state standards and court litigation related to rural schools, the efforts of communities to save their local schools, and the condition of rural facilities;…

Rural America and its schools (which encompass nearly two-thirds of the 15,600 school districts in the United States) face an incredible array of challenges. Changes in demographic, economic, and social conditions are creating a new rural America which is beset by many problems. Rural poverty does not appear to be diminishing and researchers…