Rural schools face the challenges of motivating and retaining students, often in the face of severe resource constraints. This paper synthesizes fifteen years of the author's rural research on secondary students' school-related motivation, distilling it into strategic principles for rural teachers and administrators. Effective motivational…

The purpose of this study was to explore the postsecondary educational and occupational expectations of work-bound rural youth. Three groups of work-bound youth were identified (work-bound, work-bound with future educational plans, and work-bound but unsure/undecided about postsecondary education), and each group was compared to college-bound…

This study examined the perceptions of leaders of grant-supported projects aimed at increasing the college-going rate of high school students in rural Appalachian counties in Mississippi to determine which factors they felt most influenced the college-going rate, parental participation in school activities, and community participation. Analysis of…

The Air Toxics under the Big Sky program developed at the University of Montana is a regional outreach and education initiative that offers a yearlong exploration of air quality and its relation to respiratory health. The program was designed to connect university staff and resources with rural schools enabling students to learn and apply science…

The state of Texas has an "essential knowledge" component in some high school science courses indicating that students be able to describe connections between academic science content and future jobs or training through effective exposure to course content. The participants in this study were from a small rural high school in central Texas. Each…

The increased pressure for gains in academic performance in mathematics and science are not going to dissipate, and rural schools must find a way to meet these challenges. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the Carl D. Perkins Federal Vocational and Technical Education Act legislations have also put pressure on career and technical education…

This paper extracts and elaborates rural secondary teachers' most effective reported motivating strategies. From the data generated by two years of mixed method research in rural secondary schools, these strategies emerged as among the most successful. Selection of best practices was based on a synthesis of what both teachers and students reported…

A decade ago the Advanced Placement (AP) program was introduced into the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Initially, schools embraced this opportunity to provide their students with opportunities that were previously unavailable. However, within a few years the AP program was relegated to urban and large regional high schools. Few…

The purpose of this study was to explore the reasons 162 rural area high school students participate in the dual enrollment program. Dual enrollment programs allow high school students to enroll in college courses for credit prior to high school graduation with local school districts covering the cost of tuition. Participants in this study were…

There can be a natural conflict between home schoolers and the school district's attempt to restrict their freedom. Home schooling is an age-old educational method that was primarily utilized by parents seeking to teach their own children at home in order to restore traditional values and bring what they perceived to be an order to the family.…

This case study was intended to explore the premise that the perceptions of the stakeholders regarding inclusion should enhance the implementation of the process in a K-12 rural setting. Therefore, rural high school students' and rural general education and special education teachers' perceptions of inclusion provided the primary focus of this…

Bullying in rural school settings is clearly a problem and some of our students are suffering as a result. Bullying is defined in this study of 819 rural middle and high school students as when a student is exposed repeatedly to negative actions by one or more other students. Students responded to a questionnaire about how often and where bullying…

This article describes a successful alternative school located in northwest Wyoming. Students who attend this school need an atmosphere that is accepting of their differences and allows them to express themselves without fear of ridicule or punishment. These children are looking for a safe, secure place to complete their education, a place where…

This case study details the events surrounding a gay student's "coming out" in a small, rural high school. Through the eyes and experiences of the student, his teachers, classmates, and community, we hear the story of how the school and community dealt with an issue they had never before actively considered. Through qualitative interviews, the…

A study examined how rural youth perceive leadership and how sense of place affects those perceptions. Interviews and observations of 12 students who participated in a leadership academy in 3 rural Texas high schools indicated that rural adolescents viewed leadership as situational. Teamwork and service were the elements of leadership that…