The Nebraska educational system is experiencing internal turmoil even though its students are highly ranked nationally on standardized tests and show a higher ratio of graduating high school than those in most other states. This report was commissioned by Nebraska education officials who were concerned that their state was not taking a large…

This collection of 5 major papers and 32 abstracts covers a range of issues surrounding rural education. In the first paper, Glen Shaw, a rural Minnesota schools administrator, contends economic and technological changes have threatened rural jobs and the rural way of life. Anecdotes and statistics are employed to define rural problems and to urge…

The circumstances preceding and following the 1984 merger of two small school districts in North Central New York State contained cooperation, controversy, and disharmony. The school districts had enough similarities--in their rural, agricultural base, in the pride and loyalty with which many residents viewed their schools, in the central role…

The relationship between the costs of schooling and the size of school districts is discussed. The first section of this paper provides a critical survey of what economists have written about economies of scale and questions whether bigger is really cheaper or more efficient, as is generally found in commercial endeavors. The second section…

Materials contained in the 16 volumes that make up the Rural America Series suggest practices through which rural schools can meet local community needs and realize their potential for career program delivery. This handbook, one of five in subset C, describes a variety of school-based activities designed to assist students in accomplishing that…

This report presents attempts to understand more about how six background characteristics (small scale, population sparsity, district isolation within a BOCES (Boards of Cooperative Educational Service), interaction between a change in enrollment and initial scale of the district, rapid changes in full value property wealth over time, and large…

To measure urban-rural differences in types of career counseling received by students and perceptions held by students regarding career planning activities, research was conducted to extend the 1975 study by Noeth, Roth, and Prediger, which used the same career questions and resulting data, but did not include the urban-rural comparison. The…

The 5-year Experimental Schools (ES) project in the South Umpqua, Oregon, school district was observed from a "participant observer" point of view. The South Umpqua district served four rural communities in which residents were adaptable to economic change, accepting of newcomers, and very involved in their communities as decision makers…

A SURVEY OF EDUCATIONAL NEEDS OF POPULATIONS IN THE MOUNTAINS OF EASTERN KENTUCKY WAS CONDUCTED BY BEREA COLLEGE. THE IDENTIFIED EDUCATIONAL INEQUALITIES WERE ATTACKED IN THE RESULTING RURAL SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PROJECT, WHICH INVOLVED OVER 5,000 CHILDREN, 63 TEACHING FELLOWS, AND 38 DIFFERENT SCHOOLS. THE AIMS OF THE PROJECT WERE--(1) TO SELECT…

POPULATION TRENDS, DEFINED AS DISTRIBUTION, COMPOSITION, AND CHANGES IN NUMBERS WERE DETERMINED IN THIS DOCUMENT FOR THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. DATA WERE GATHERED FROM PUBLICATIONS OF THE BUREAU OF THE CENSUS, THE LOUISIANA STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, AND QUESTIONNAIRE RESPONSES OF HIGH SCHOOL JUNIORS AND SENIORS IN SELECTED SAMPLE SCHOOLS. THE…

In order to investigate the relationship between 7 school system characteristics and student achievement test scores in the 45 metropolitan and 82 nonmetropolitan Alabama school systems, 1979 California Achievement Test combined battery scores for 8th and 12th grade students attending each system in the state were analyzed. For both metropolitan…

A project was undertaken by a consortium to produce a publication that would provide (1) a mechanism and guidelines for establishing cooperative relationships between secondary and postsecondary schools and business, industry, and labor in the rural community; (2) a large number of examples of cooperative agreements; and (3) appendixes which will…

In an effort to understand the role of the arts in small Illinois communities, a broad exploratory study was conducted in nine counties to determine what potential arts audiences want, what local arts resources offer, and what arts programming strategies are suggested by the gaps between the two. Organizational representatives and individuals…

THE PHENONMENON OF RURALITY OCCURS ALONG A RURAL-URBAN CONTINUUM, WITH THE DEGREE OF RURALITY DEPENDING UPON ENVIRONMENTAL, OCCUPATIONAL, AND SOCIO-CULTURAL CONSIDERATIONS. A HIGH DEGREE OF RURALITY IS LIKELY TO EXIST IN AREAS WHERE POPULATION CENTERS DO NOT EXCEED 2,500 PERSONS, OCCUPATIONS ARE PRIMARILY BASED ON NATURAL RESOURCE AND/OR LAND…

The study was designed: (1) to investigate civic, recreational, and extra-curricular activities in which teachers in rural schools participated; (2) to find out what percent of rural teachers originally came from rural communities; (3) to discover advantages and disadvantages of teaching in rural schools; (4) to determine areas of preservice…