A review of the limited evidence regarding grade-span configuration effects on academic achievement and other outcomes indicates that achievement in middle grades is higher in schools with an elementary-wide configuration than a middle-grades configuration. Continuity of experience may explain this finding, but more research is needed to…

Twenty interviews with school personnel, parents, business owners, and town officials in a rural western Minnesota town revealed an emerging new "rural literacy." This new way of "reading the world" reflected a belief that neoliberal school policies did not serve all residents well, and that rural values and traditions should not be compromised by…

A study examined seven rural Alaska communities engaged in educational reform. Findings indicate that educators must work with small communities to design reforms around local culture; parents must participate actively in school life and decisions; district leaders must share leadership to increase local ownership of reforms; and education in…

Dewey-inspired educational progressivism in the early 20th century is generally seen as an urban phenomenon. This article traces a tradition of rural progressivism during 1910-50, centered at Teachers College in New York City, and explores the implications of that tradition for educators and rural education reformers today. (Contains 47…

A study comparing rural and suburban school bus rides surveyed 1,194 elementary principals in five states. Rural elementary schools were more likely than suburban schools to have bus rides of 30 minutes of more, attendance areas greater than 10 square miles, rough rides, and older students on the bus with elementary students. (Contains 41…

A study examined the influence of situated knowledge embedded in 17 rural preservice teachers' autobiographies on their perspectives on diversity and future classroom practices. Four themes emerged in interviews: situative cognition in rural contexts; cultural groups being together but existing apart; understanding group similarities and…

Though many maintain that current standards-based school reform is unprecedented, an educational reform effort begun nearly a century ago set standards for improving rural midwestern schools. Begun during the tumultuous Progressive Era, the standard-school initiative emerged from a larger concern for the quality of American rural life. A…

A program in rural Alberta (Canada) used retired teachers to mentor beginning teachers. Surveys and interviews with 24 proteges and 21 mentors indicated that the recruitment of experienced mentors, the provision of money, the establishment of a sense of community, and the provision of time for reflection all contributed to the program's success.…

May Justus taught in rural Appalachian schools in the 1930s, then worked at the Highlander Folk School, which focused on adult education, labor organizing, and the civil rights movement. Her children's books reflected Appalachian values of commitment to family and community. She was a true radical educator, who drew on the region's best values to…

The taskforce charged with developing a national framework for rural education policy in Australia reports that such a policy should allow for local differences and provide flexibility in implementation by states and territories. Essential enablers of quality education in rural locations--personnel, relevant curriculum, information communication…

A 15-year study found that Amish schools have increased, numbering 1,139 in 2000. Where public school funding is on a per-pupil basis, these schools may have a negative effect on rural school district financing. However, an Amish community may increase local farm-related trade and tourism, thereby increasing taxable property and public school…

Using standard data sources, information is presented for each state on the importance of rural education to the state's overall educational performance and the urgency for state policymakers to develop explicit rural education policies. The 8 importance and 11 urgency indicators for each state are presented in table and graph form, and…

Reviews an ethnographic analysis of Teach for America, a 1990 educational reform program that illustrates how underlying assumptions about "marginal" urban and rural students and their "deficient" environments solidify existing power structures, acculturate students to middle-class norms, generate resistance to teachers, and ensure failure to…

Reviews essays by Raymond Williams, which explain how, within the context of a 150-year literary history, rural stereotypes have been constructed and imbedded within a collective consciousness by a form of cultural colonization. Suggests that Williams' insights can help rural education researchers think outside the conventional wisdom that…

Despite the need for more and better research on rural education, recent federal policy trends favoring broadly applicable, "problem-centered" research threaten to abandon responsibility for "targeted" populations to the agendas of private and state-based organizations. Rural research funding is discussed in relation to the regional educational…