Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Let's Not Do Anything Drastic: Processes Of Reproducing Rural Marginalization In Education Policy Decision-Making, Julia M. Miller

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

At a school board meeting in micropolitan Athens County, parents of children attending the district’s smallest elementary school, Chauncey Elementary, packed in to defend the school against consolidation. They made calls for a levy to cover the impending budget shortfall and offered to reduce their classrooms by half if other schools would also bear some of the costs. They spent their holiday season defending their school, a source of vibrancy in the small town, from being closed. In the meeting, someone advocating for alternatives to closure suggested cutting administrator positions. The board response, according to one parent-leader? “Let’s not do …

Richwood, West Virginia After The 2016 Flood: Place, Devastation, And Hope In An Appalachian Community, Christine Elizabeth Witt

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

How does a community cope with a crisis that threatens its identity or even its existence? This is the question facing the town of Richwood, West Virginia, after a devastating flood that impacted much of the town in 2016. Some of the consequences of the 2016 flood were the loss of the high school building, followed by difficulties receiving the FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) money to rebuild the school, and a loss of additional FEMA money for other critical issues due to alleged corruption. How do community residents cope emotionally with devastation? How do they understand the causes of …

Consolidation And Elimination Of North Dakota School Districts: A Research Note, Nicholas Bauroth

Online Journal of Rural Research & Policy

In 1940, there were 2,272 school districts across North Dakota; by 1960, there were ‘only’ 1,351. This study examines the consolidation and elimination of school districts across North Dakota from 1950 to 1966. It finds that the decline in school district numbers was largely driven by the end of one-room schoolhouses as a means of providing public education, though school district taxes and county population density played a significant role as well.

Brooks, Heather-Kristen (Fa 374), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 374. Student oral history project titled “The Effects of Logan County School Consolidations on the Students of Lewisburg and the Community” in which Heather-Kristen Brooks conducts research on the centralization of five county schools in 1983. Brooks’ two informants touch on issues of race, extracurricular activities, athletics, and behavioral norms. Collection contains one paper, two indexes and transcripts, and two cassette tapes.

Principal Experiences In A School Consolidation, Claudius Bassey Effiom

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Educational leaders must operate in a complex political world that places a premium on skills and strategies involving consensus building, negotiations, and reciprocity. This dissertation is about the leadership struggles and tensions inherent in a school consolidation process. The principals highlighted in this study represent the leader of a metropolitan school which is closed and consolidated with another school in the same school district. The school district employs a defined and planned process to address many issues inherent in a school consolidation like guaranteed placement of displaced teachers in schools of their choice.

I examined the experiences of three …

Segregation, Inequality, Demographic Change, And School Consolidation, William England, Edmund T. Hamann

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

We describe a rural/micropolitan example of the intertwining of school consolidation and demographic change with exacerbated segregation and inequality. To do this we consider Dawson County, Nebraska, which hosts the state's most Latino/a school district (Lexington) and which saw its number of schools decline from 37 to 19 during this century's first decade, and the number of local school districts lessened from 18 to 5. In particular, we call attention to the irony that consolidation was pursued with an explicit call for more equality in schooling in Dawson County (Swidler 2013) and yet population concentrations and variation in expenditures seemed …

Considering Native American Students In Rural School Consolidation, Andrea Miller

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

When discussing school consolidation it is important to consider the educational effects on Native American students. Many Native American students live in homes of poverty, deal with difficult home lives, and struggle academically. While there are many areas of concern in discussing consolidation, loss of a low student-teacher ratio, loss of connection with the school community, and loss of autonomy or control of schools are of particular importance. Consolidation efforts may bring some positive education opportunity for Native students which may include offering a diversified and expanded curriculum, specialization for staffing, and specialized resources for students. Discussing the potential effects …

The Importance Of Being Emily Lessons From Legislative Battles Over Forced School Consolidation, Marty Strange

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Pressure to force or induce the consolidation of rural schools through legislation is common across the United States. Whereas consolidation was once chiefly about school improvement, today it is more likely to be about fiscal savings. Legislative battles have produced many lessons for rural school advocates which are discussed here. Consolidation is also on the agenda of many of the school reform movements at work in the United States, many of which see rural schools as too numerous, too attached to the communities they serve, and too democratically managed to reform from without. As reformers grapple with the resistance to …

School Consolidation And Community Development, Gary Paul Green

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

The linkages between schools and community are seldom discussed in the research on school consolidation. Most of the focus of this body of literature is on the effects of school consolidation on efficiency and equity. In this essay I discuss the importance of school-community relationships and the critical role schools can play in community development. School consolidation can have several negative impacts on the local economy, social capital, and community identity. Assessments of the benefits and costs of consolidation need to consider more carefully the impacts on communities and the potential of building a stronger relationship between schools and communities.

Are Big Schools Bad Schools?: Measuring The Effects Of The Number And Size Of Schools On District Costs And Student Achievement, Jamie Steiner

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

As state governments shrink their budgets, more school districts are debating consolidation. In considering school consolidation, governments must evaluate costs per pupil and student achievement. Factors associated with costs per pupil include schools per district, district enrollment, income per individual, percent of pupils eligible for free lunch, pupil-teacher ratio, and average teacher salary. Factors associated with achievement include school enrollment, percent of pupils eligible for free lunch, suspension/expulsion rates, pupil-teacher ratio, and average teacher salary. This paper presents a regression model that analyzes the effects of school enrollment and schools per district on costs per pupil and standardized test passing …

Interview With Irene Taylor Regarding Her Life (Fa 154), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Oral Histories

Transcription of an interview with Irene Taylor conducted by Christopher Carey for an oral history project titled "A Generation Remembers, 1900-1949." In this brief interview Taylor discusses a general store in Hancock County, Kentucky called the Duncan store as well as one-room schools and the consolidation of schools. She also mentions the Chestnut Grove school in Hancock County.