Examines effects of socioeconomic status, school funding, English proficiency, and Latino population concentration on achievement scores of students in grades 3, 6, and 12 in 66 rural California school districts. Performance on the California Assessment Program was predicted primarily by parental socioeconomic status, and, unexpectedly, improved…

Examines the challenges of providing educational leadership in rapidly changing rural school settings. Describes a leadership development model that stresses learning in action, examines the role and responsibilities of school boards related to educational leadership, and suggests that the Individual Education Plan process can be a model for…

Presents study results of teaching social studies in a rural environment. Addresses size of school, teacher preparation in social studies, teacher orientation toward teaching content, and achievement scores. Concludes that teachers in rural schools have more positive opinions of their students but need additional teaching materials and inservice…

Describes a study that explored the possible relationship between the use of school library materials, participation in paperback books clubs, and the reading achievement of rural sixth graders. Results suggest the importance of the elementary school library media specialist in encouraging reading and assisting with student selection of books.…

Focuses on rural service delivery issues common to special education, school psychology, and mental health and outlines training-related solutions. Cautions against simplistic dichotomy of rural versus urban service delivery and professional isolationism. Recommends five skill categories for rural training: generalist training, personal and…

Critiques views of the one-room country school experience in the Midwest states. Describes advances an alternative interpretation grounded in the social, political, and economic circumstances that impinged on local institutions, arguing that these schools may not have been the "laboratories of democracy" that conventional wisdom calls…

Studies have shown that stand-alone technology courses, such as those taught in most teacher education programs, only develop basic computer literacy skills and do not prepare educators to use instructional technology in the classroom. A 14-item questionnaire assessed instructional technology use for classroom management and instructional…

This study explores the importance of competence in boys' literate lives. Participants were 49 middle and high school boys from very different backgrounds, ethnicities, social classes, and levels of academic achievement. They came from an elite, private all boys' school; a large suburban high school; a large urban school; and a small rural school.…

We examine the science and pedagogy behind a historical approach to the professional development of pre-college science (primarily biology) teachers. Our intention is to reach professional scientists, who, as a group, are uniquely qualified to provide experience and insights essential to this approach. The underlying research for this article has…

This report shows the rural disparities in the baseline data of the Birth and Kindergarten Cohorts of the national Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS). The National Center for Rural Early Childhood Learning Initiatives, known as Rural Early Childhood, commissioned Child Trends to perform the analysis of key indicators of child well-being and…

The article examines, through comparative case study method, how secondary-language-arts preservice student teachers' identities were constructed by spacetime configurations and what those identities meant to the individuals in the study. It reflects on the findings from two of the preservice secondary arts teachers for the study in two…

This report documents a 2-year research and development project aimed at determining the effects of interdisciplinary teamed instruction (ITI) on teaching and learning. The study also sought to validate the effectiveness of a professional development model that would facilitate development, implementation, and evaluation of ITI. Through summer…

This bibliography contains 214 entries related to rural education. The entries were derived from the AGRICOLA database produced by the National Agricultural Library and include journal articles, extension bulletins, books, conference papers, and government reports. Entries cover topics such as agricultural education, adult education, colleges,…

One of the more enigmatic issues of contemporary homelessness is that of schooling. This collection highlights issues related to the provision of an education to homeless children and youths. Background information is offered, with an analysis of educational policy relating to homeless children. Practical strategies and a review of successful…

This study investigated predictors of teacher job satisfaction as these predictors may provide valuable information about teacher satisfaction and expectations. A sample of 2,054 practicing classroom teachers was selected from graduation lists at 10 universities, part of the National Database for Preservice Teacher Education. The respondents were…