Across all 50 states, there are different ways in which states allocate K-12 and special education funding to districts. Education Commission of the States has collected information on states' primary funding models, base per-student funding amounts, student attendance count methods, and funding for special education, English language learners,…

McCreary School, a rural community school with an average enrolment of 150 students from kindergarten to grade 12, provides a learning environment for a population of diverse students in Turtle River School Division, Manitoba. At the same time, the school incurs significant challenges for creating a school and classroom environment that is…

Across all 50 states, there are different ways in which states allocate K-12 and special education funding to districts. Education Commission of the States has collected information on states' primary funding models, base per-student funding amounts, student attendance count methods, and funding for special education, English language learners,…

The experiences of regional and rural teachers supporting students on the autism spectrum in their classrooms often differ from those of their metropolitan counterparts. Interventions designed for metropolitan settings may not work the same way in regional and rural classrooms, and teachers outside major centres may encounter challenges in…

In many school districts, rural life in British Columbia continues to be a geographic and economic fact. Delivering equal school services and ensuring equal educational opportunities to areas with thinly scattered populations continues to be a challenge for the provincial government and school districts. Rural schools offer many positive benefits…

With the demands on schools to prepare its students to be globally competitive in the 21st century, schools are forced to examine new ways to meet those demands. One of the new reform ideas is that of restructuring traditional high schools into small schools within schools. Through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the North Carolina…

This study examines the academic experiences of heritage Spanish-speakers who were placed in a traditional Spanish class for non-Spanish speakers at the secondary level. Each of the participants in the study demonstrated advanced-levels of oral proficiency in Spanish yet each was placed in a beginning-level Spanish class. An ethnographic case…

An economical strategy used to expand the curriculum at the Peterson (Minnesota) secondary school, a small rural facility, is described. The need for an enriched curriculum was identified on the basis of several shortcomings perceived in the existing school program: few electives, student stereotyping and cliques, and inadequate special needs…

Because of fewer human resources, teachers in rural schools have to assume a larger responsibility for their own curriculum development than do teachers in city schools. There is a need for a curriculum specialist to get into a situation quickly, to assess the problem, and to solve the problem quickly in order to move to another problem. In rural…

A survey of representative schools in Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and Illinois showed that most small and rural schools house middle-level students in buildings primarily designed for elementary or high school students. Middle level students often receive an inappropriate educational program that is not taught by teachers trained to understand and…

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…

Although much that is written about rural schools focuses on economic scarcities, pressures on teachers, and limited materials, there are also distinct advantages offered to those attending school in rural areas. Small schools provide all children--including the gifted--with unique opportunities to develop intellectual, social, and creative…

Wyoming's funding programs for public education that relate to the issues of sparsity and the state's attempt to provide equal educational opportunity are reviewed. School district problems that relate to the issue of sparsity are also discussed. School district size in Wyoming ranges from the smallest district, by area, of 186 square miles to the…

Two areas--understanding what rural education is and what its real needs are--are critical in preparing educators, specifically language arts educators, for a rural setting. Although the problems facing these teachers are many, minimal preparation and training at the college level deal with the rural setting. Mainly due to funding, modern…

On-site interviews with administrators and teachers in 35 small, rural secondary schools in Oregon indicated that quality education was being provided to their students, despite the limitations of low budgets and small staff and student bodies. The study found that to provide the curriculum diversity that would meet the special needs of their…