Science in rural and remote schools has received unenviable press around the world. The political and administrative spotlight has fallen on the inadequate physical resources available to rural schools (Hawkes, Halverson and Brockmueller, 2002), inadequate professional development (Howley, Chadwick and Howley, 2002), and the problems…

Describes early schooling of Sam Houston. Brief description of structure and curriculum of one room school in Maryville, Tennessee, where Houston taught in 1812. Notes Houston's later reflections on his teaching experience. (CS)

Enrollment in Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) schools is declining as is the number of schools and teachers. While there could be many reasons for this, one perception of SDA schools, held by parents, teachers, pastors, and school board members, is that students enrolled in schools with one, two, or three teachers do not achieve at the same rate as…

A significant factor for many people deciding where to live is the quality of the local school district, with superior schools creating a price premium for housing. The result is a "race to the top," as all school districts attempt to improve their performance in order to attract homebuyers. Given the importance of school districts to the daily…

This paper reports the findings of a qualitative case study of the benefits for teachers undertaking the role of mentor/supervisor in pre-service teacher education programmes. The research has a particular focus on school-based teacher educators working in rural and/or isolated communities and uncovers the role of reflection associated with…

Seen in its strictest sense, mastery learning is a recent phenomenon. Viewed in terms of its constituent elements, however, it has roots deep in the Western tradition of education. Elements of mastery learning theory can be found in the work of the Sophists; early Jesuit educators; John Amos Comenius, a Moravian pastor; John Locke; Johann Heinrich…

Harney School in western North Dakota had just one student left during its final year. Harney School is one of the rural schools across the Great Plains that have withered away over the decades as entire communities have faltered. In the 1920s, more than 4,700 one-room schoolhouses dotted North Dakota's countryside, often no more than a few miles…

The purpose of this study was to document the effectiveness of a small pilot program designed to address the academic, psychosocial, and adaptive needs of juvenile offenders with substance abuse diagnoses. This research measured functionally defined outcomes and examined disparities between students who achieved success and those who did not.…

A portrait of a one-room schoolhouse in rural Iowa in 1895. (MM)

A unique program in California involved the community and senior citizens in reconstructing the early history of the school district and setting up a permanent historic exhibit. (MD)

An Old Order Mennonite one-room school in Pennsylvania was selected for this case study, which describes the building, curriculum, methods of instruction in reading, students and teacher. The study conducted interviews of school and community members together with modification of Flander's (1974) interaction analysis to collect quantitative verbal…

After surveying selected characteristics of the 840 one-teacher schools in the United States, the author found an average enrollment of 11 students. Teachers in these schools devoted more than 90 percent of their time to providing individualized instruction. (MT)

In 1937, four young women, three of whom were teachers in one-room schools in rural Maine, set off on an eight-week cross-country trip to California. They decided to take the trip so they could teach from first-hand experience. Together they saved $1,200 and then visited 30 states, Washington, D.C., and 2 Canadian provinces. (LP)

Four hundred and two teachers of one-teacher schools responded to a questionnaire. Findings regarding teacher/student ratio, student enrollment, teacher background and education, reasons for teaching, and teacher housing and responsibilities are summarized. (MT)

Describes the author's experiences as a student in a one-room school accommodating grades one through eight. The lone teacher employed a style that maintained excellent discipline, fostered self-confidence in the students, drew significant lessons from everyday experience, and developed the whole person. (PGD)