The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. Breaking the inter-generational transmission of poverty requires far-reaching actions in the education sector. Widespread poverty affects both students' performance and their availability to attend…

This book attempts to serve as a compendium and a chronology of secondary education in the United States, taking a broad rather than a narrow approach and touching on a great many topics and issues. Chapters 1 and 2 present a history of secondary schools and a discussion of adolescence. Chapter 3 discusses curriculum in secondary schools,…

This paper urges foundations and state and federal agencies to consider funding rural community colleges, in light of the successful experiences of the Rural Community College Initiative. Much of rural America is in trouble because educational attainment and job opportunities are low; innovation is stifled by poor schools, isolation, and…

Despite the enduring problems of equity and access in the delivery of education in rural Australian schools, vocational education and training (VET) programs appear to have had a significant impact on many such schools and their communities. Vocational educational programs in Australia are based on structured workplace learning. There are three…

This book addresses the role that rural schools can play in promoting community and developing a community-oriented world view. Specifically, this book suggests that rural schools, through concerted pedagogical and curricular attention to the dynamics of their particular place, can rekindle community allegiance and can nurture the fulfillment that…

This position paper from the District TAG [talented and gifed] Advisory Committee addresses many of the educational issues that are of concern to parents of talented and gifted children in Portland, Oregon. The paper is divided into 16 topical areas, including: (1) identification and assessment; (2) gifted student plans; (3) rate and level…

This paper overviews strategies employed by the Appalachian Rural Systemic Initiative (ARSI) to implement systemic reform in math, science, and technology education in rural Appalachia. ARSI is one of four Rural Systemic Initiative projects funded by the National Science Foundation to target regions characterized by low population density and high…

The Child-to-Child (CtC) project involved school-age African children in monitoring younger children's weight and health (since much of the daily infant care in Africa is performed by preadolescents). CtC emphasizes local autonomy and is based on respect for children as morally responsible community members with a basic right to health and…

In early 2000, an assessment of mathematics achievement and related school practices was carried out in 24 clusters of rural high schools and their feeder middle schools in seven states. More than 2,400 eighth-graders and more than 1,900 12th-graders took a mathematics achievement test referenced to the National Assessment of Educational Progress…

Six case studies examine the connections between higher education institutions and schools that have chosen place-based education as a framework for student learning and community growth. Through such partnerships, Lubec (Maine) high school has established a vocational aquaculture program in an effort to revitalize the struggling local fishing…

This collection of papers comprises proceedings from the 5th English in South East Asia Conference, held in December 2000 at Curtin University of Technology in Perth. The 19 papers include the following: (1) "Global English and Local Language Policies" (Robert Phillipson); (2) "Hong Kong Parents' Preference for English-Medium…

Within a 3-year period, a rural Midwestern school district's Hispanic student population increased from 3 to over 180 due to the hiring of migrant workers by a local meat packing plant. A qualitative study using interviews and classroom observations examined the processes through which 23 teachers and 5 administrators in this school district…

There is an immense gap between the success that Maine's elementary school children achieve on national tests and the rate at which they go on to postsecondary education. This gap is not explained by Maine's low per capita income. Maine's homogeneous population created a culture valuing hard work, independence, pragmatism, family, community,…

Through what seems to be a very wise adaptation of methods of support and administration to schools of different kinds and to schools working under varying conditions in different parts of the State, but still preserving a high degree of correlation and unity of purpose, and by a commendable degree of liberality in expenditures for education, the…

The efforts of county, State, and National officials and of States in all parts of the country to provide opportunities of education for children outside the cities and larger towns have stimulated a general interest in the required length of the school term, and the desire for the requirement of a minimum school term sufficient to enable all…