To address the need for special education teachers trained in rural and culturally diverse settings, a field-based special education program was implemented in Kayenta Unified School District (KUSD), Arizona, on the Navajo Nation. KUSD provided teacher housing, classroom space, sites for practicum coursework, and some student teaching placements.…

This volume presents second year findings from a 3-year project that collected case study data on 10 promising strategies for educating disadvantaged children. The study occurred at 25 urban or suburban/rural sites. Participating schools had Chapter 1 programs or were eligible for Chapter 1. The sample included students in grades 1, 3, and 9 who…

Changes in the social organization and context of education were studied in a rural Illinois school district experiencing a rapid influx of Hispanic students. The local meatpacking plant closed, then reopened under a new name and began an aggressive campaign to recruit immigrant and migrant workers who would work for lower wages. In the next 3…

This case study examines the history and current circumstances of education in Humphreys County (Mississippi) in the context of its participation in the Delta Rural Systemic Initiative (RSI), which aims to improve science and mathematics achievement through systemic reform. This report describes the county's history, demography, and economic…

This book aims to understand Virginia's rural past through a study of its schools. Rural Virginia schools of the late 19th and early 20th centuries were affected by at least three distinctly southern influences: the legacy of the Civil War and Reconstruction, regional underdevelopment and poverty, and the dilemma of racial coexistence in the…

This monograph features four papers that highlight school-based teacher training programs through Northern Arizona University's (NAU) Center for Excellence in Education (CEE). The first paper, "Reflection, Research, and Practice in a School-based Teacher Education Program (Peggy Ver Velde, Sherry L. Markel, Jeanne Dustman, Barbara Campbell,…

In the 1930s, Mexican rural schools became arenas for cultural politics--the process of articulating and disputing definitions of culture, from national identity to the broader sense of social behavior and meaning. Created in 1921, the Secretaria de Educacion Publica (SEP) set up federal rural schools to nationalize and modernize rural peasants.…

This study evaluated the self-assessment measures in the Learner-Centered Battery (LCB), which was developed from the theory and research base represented in the Learner Centered Psychological Principles (LCP) (American Psychological Association & McRel, 1993). The purposes of this study were: (1) to evaluate the use of the LCB self-assessment…

This report examines the feasibility of a Rural Learning Network (RLN) using technology to connect rural California schools to educational resources at the University of California at Davis (UCD). Teachers from five rural schools agreed to participate in the pilot project for 2 years, during which time they would participate in on-line…

A study to determine the best predictors of teacher technology use in the classroom was conducted for small rural schools in southeastern Idaho. A 40-item survey was completed by 3,500 teachers in 55 school districts. Results indicated that one third to one half of the teachers never actually used technology for any instructional purpose. Over 70…

Teachers' decisions about staying in a position are influenced by three classes of variables: employment, personal, and external. In a North Dakota study of the relationship between these variables and job retention in rural areas, 42 special education teachers and related service personnel who had left their positions in the past year (leavers)…

This collection of essays on rural education in the United States aims to fill a gap in the educational literature by highlighting the available research on rural schools and their contexts. The three sections of the book focus on the historical, social, political, and economic contexts of rural education; topics of practical interest for rural…

California State University, Chico, and 47 rural school districts in northeastern California collaborate on an on-the-job teacher preparation program designed to alleviate the shortage of qualified special education teachers and reduce teacher isolation. The university provides televised or Web-based courses, regional supervision, and separate…

This annotated bibliography was prepared for the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (Australia) to assist in its inquiry into rural and remote education in Australia. It includes highly relevant, more recent, seminal, theoretical, and policy-oriented Australian materials. Only items directly related to rural and remote education have…

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…