Place-based mathematics education (PBME) has the potential to engage students with the mathematics inherent in the local land, culture, and community. However, research has identified daunting barriers to this pedagogy, especially in abstract mathematics courses such as algebra and beyond. In this study, 15 graduates of a doctoral program in rural…

Drawing on data from a program serving displaced workers and adult students, this article explores how students at a small rural-serving community college in North Carolina believe rurality influences their retention. We review the research and descriptive literature on rural community college challenges, advantages, and approaches to supporting…

Two middle schools in rural east Texas implemented an optional, single-sex program. Although previous studies have documented the effects of single-sex instruction, and recent educational innovations have focused on its benefits, little research has investigated its effects in rural contexts. This study found that for rural populations, patterns…

Interview, document, and observational data were used to examine grade K-2 teachers' and literacy coaches' perceptions of the benefits and challenges of collaborative action research as a professional development initiative in rural schools. Eleven teachers and five literacy coaches in five northern Ontario school districts participated in…

This article addresses the changes in the spatial distribution of elementary schools in Czechia in the second half of the 20th century and the consequences of these changes on the functioning of rural communities. The spatial distribution of elementary schools, the shape of their catchment areas, and the regional and local communities connected…

This study estimates the high school dropout rate in rural and urban areas, the determinants of dropping out, and whether the differences in graduation rates have changed over time. We use geocoded data from two nationally representative panel household surveys (NLSY 97 and NLSY 79) and a novel methodology that corrects for biases in graduation…

Expanding accountability systems that impose policies across all schools have amplified assertions that rural teacher labor markets differ from non-rural labor markets in meaningful ways that complicate rural schools' efforts to comply with the policy directives. The analysis presented here examines this claim by exploring teacher labor market…

Using data gathered from students attending Southeast Community and Technical College in Harlan County, Kentucky, this article discusses how a commitment to place informs and shapes rural students' decisions around post-secondary education, career, and residence. Though some students connected advanced education with rural outmigration, other…

This study examined the leadership practices of seven rural superintendents, selected via a sampling strategy which identified disadvantaged rural districts that had experienced marked increased in test scores during the superintendent's tenure. Researchers examined how the practices of these superintendents were linked to Waters and Marzano's…

The current research examines how social goals and perceptions of what is needed for social status at school relate to school misbehavior and substance use among rural adolescents (N = 683). Results indicate that social goals and perceptions of social status have differential links to problem behaviors depending upon adolescents' achievement.…

Why read? We take a turn in the conversation initiated by Jean Stockard's article, "Increasing Reading Skills in Rural Areas: An Analysis of Three School Districts" (2011a), with a dialog in which we engage the epistemological positions at play within this debate. We understand the different positions as representations of each author's ideas…

This case study focuses on a four-district collaborative that shared services for more than 15 years in an effort to retain rural schools and thereby to preserve community identity. With population losses in the four districts and suburbanization in the largest, the collaborative made extensive use of distance education in addition to itinerant…

In this paper, we describe a 30-month qualitative exploration of diverse teachers' identities in a high-poverty, bilingual, K-8 public charter school in rural eastern Oregon. First, we use the perspectives of saberes docentes and a situated view of teacher development to document the life histories of monolingual and bilingual teachers at Vista…

Through ethnographic research using grounded theory we examined social, cultural and locational factors which result in low post-compulsory retention rates of remote island students. The research, conducted by an island "insider," followed a cohort of Australian students from Year 10 in a small island school off the coast of Tasmania to Year 11 in…

Principals of schools serving Native American students have a unique role as technology leaders. They must be cognizant of technological demands, government mandates, as well as unique societal and cultural needs. In this study, the researchers conducted interviews with nine principals in federally-funded, Bureau of Indian Education schools that…