The math achievement of third and fourth grade special education students has been identified as an area of concern within a public school located in a small rural town located on the east coast. The purpose of this action research study was to investigate whether or not the Touch Math strategy increased the math ability of third and fourth grade…

Across the country, states are pushing to close their small rural schools with the mistaken hope of saving money, in spite of overwhelming evidence that smaller schools are beneficial for students, and that they frequently function as the glue that binds together small communities, serving as their economic and social hub. The battle is even more…

Background: People transitioning from male to female (MTF) gender seek speech-language pathology services when they feel their voice is betraying their genuine self or perhaps is the last obstacle to representing their authentic gender. Speaking fundamental frequency (pitch) and resonance are most often targets in treatment because the combination…

This paper presents research findings and the testimony of educators, students, and researchers demonstrating that small schools meet the essential conditions for providing high-quality education to all students. These essential conditions are: (1) students are known well by their teachers; (2) students are actively engaged in learning and in…

Background: The increase of low-income, low-skilled youth in the labour market, particularly in developing countries, is a major concern internationally. In some regions of the world, young people are nearly three times as likely as adults to be unemployed. They are also more likely to work in the informal labour market than adults, in low quality…

Throughout the world, people have to deal with the issues of global warming and other more direct consequences of environmental change. This paper considers how a local newspaper has an educative function in a small community in advising people of specific issues and learning how to deal with changing resources. Across the period of several months…

A number of forces have increased the momentum for school districts to develop district-wide reform strategies as a means of initiating and sustaining school improvement. First, districts have sometimes found it easier to manage and support a single districtwide initiative rather than many different school reform models. Second, they have come to…

Discusses contextual factors (geography, community idiosyncrasies, personal relationships, formal resource scarcity, community resource accessibility, external force influence, visibility, "Jack-of-All-Trades") affecting practices of rural child welfare workers. Points out similarities/differences in child welfare work in urban and rural…

The rural areas in the world are experiencing an identity crisis: for example, in France some areas are losing population, while those that are growing find that the population is changing from agricultural workers to retired persons and blue-collar and white-collar employees. This report, which summarizes discussion at a recent Organisation for…

This is the fourth in a series of studies whose purpose has been to develop a theoretical model of selected extramusical variables' ability to explain solo and small-ensemble festival ratings. Authors of the second and third of these (Bergee & McWhirter, 2005; Bergee & Westfall, 2005) used logistic regression as the basis for their…

The development of speech communication curricula in two diverse small colleges--one state supported and the other a private liberal arts school--is traced in this paper. Following a description of each college, the paper discusses the problems each faced in developing its speech communication curriculum, including opposition from members of other…

A complex and multi-faceted problem faces those seeking to provide special education to the thousands of handicapped children residing in the nation's rural areas. The major challenge facing rural administrators is how to deliver special education effectively to small numbers of handicapped children who are probably scattered geographically. A…

The combination of difficult economic times and increased accountability has led policymakers to call for evidence that students taught by National Board of Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS)-certified teachers make greater achievement gains than those taught by non-NBPTS-certified teachers. Overall, studies show mixed results regarding the…

Examines the special characteristics of small rural schools and stresses the importance of programs preparing teachers to teach in rural areas. Describes a program at Bishop University that provides preservice and inservice education for rural educators in Quebec. Includes additional suggestions for meeting the professional development needs of…

New data show small local firms create less than a third of new jobs in rural areas and are unreliable employment sources because many fail within their first 5 years of business. Local planners should consider mix of corporate affiliates offering potential of many jobs and small independent firms. (NEC)