As the deadline set forth by No Child Left Behind approaches, it is clear that the goal of proficiency in English language arts and mathematics for all students by 2014 will not be met. As a result, the U.S. Department of Education has offered states the option of applying for flexibility on parts of the law. This policy brief outlines those…

The realization that many teachers view working with parents as the most challenging aspect of their job led to an ethnographic examination (within the context of an evaluation of the South Dakota Head Start/Public School Transition Demonstration Project) of parents' and teachers' expectations of one another. The demonstration group consisted of…

A survey of middle-level teachers in rural and remote South Dakota schools found that teachers generally supported middle-school concepts but felt professionally isolated and limited by scarce resources. Principals can help by providing inservice education and staff development, alternative scheduling for increased collaboration, and encouragement…

This report presents the South Dakota edition of the National Council on Teacher Quality's 2008 "State Teacher Policy Yearbook." The 2008 "Yearbook" focuses on how state policies impact the retention of effective new teachers. This policy evaluation is broken down into three areas that encompass 15 goals. Broadly, these goals…

Six years after passage of No Child Left Behind and midway to the nation's goal of having students on grade level or better in reading and math by 2014, more data than ever before has been collected about the academic performance of American students and schools. Information in this brochure charts student demographics, achievement-to-date and…

This document lists the rules and regulations governing the certification of teachers and other school personnel in the state of South Dakota. (JD)

As revealed in personal interviews, periodicals, published and unpublished manuscripts, and school records, the teachers were the key factor in bringing education and culture to the frontier that was western South Dakota. Many teachers were girls of 16 or 17, inexperienced, hired from states to the east (Minnesota and Iowa), sight unseen.…

The purposes of this study were to assess the status of recruitment, preparation, certification, and retention practices and procedures concerning day trade teachers, and to assess the effectiveness of these practices as expressed by day trade teachers, local administrators, and state administrators in the states of Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota,…

As late as 1938 there were 200,000 one-room schools scattered throughout the United States. By 1978 there were little more than 1,000 in operation. Primary-source research on rural education has now been conducted by 23 researchers in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming, sponsored by the Mountain…

The role of the rural school in southeastern South Dakota from the early days of the frontier to 1981 is examined in this portion of an eight-state research effort to locate and preserve information related to country schools. Three hundred and eleven country schools in 21 southeastern counties are still standing, have been photographed, and are…