Geography Commons^™

School Consolidation And Community Development, Gary Paul Green

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

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.

Atmosphere For Learning Undistracted Rural Schools Of Nebraska, Charles W. Guildner

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

In the spring of2002, while traveling in Nebraska making images for my "Lives of Tradition" photography project, I saw a small rural school. It occurred to me that there could be no more traditional lives than those of people attending a small rural school. This one, Round Hill School, is located about 15 miles south of Broken Bow, Nebraska.

I stopped to ask if! might visit and photograph. Mary Jane Graham, the teacher, welcomed me in to meet the students, learn about their school, and make photographs.

During the four years that followed, after researching the locations of other still …

Rural Communities And School Consolidation--Introduction To Special Issue, Richard Edwards, Peter Longo

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

This special issue of Great Plains Research focuses on rural communities and school consolidation. It publishes some of the contributions, both essays and research articles, first presented at the Center for Great Plains Studies' 39th Annual Symposium at the University of Nebraska at Kearney on April 5-6, 2013. It also includes some images from a special Chuck Guildner photographic exhibition staged at the Museum of Nebraska Art. The symposium broadly addressed the connection between rural schools and rural communities, including a particular focus on the gains and losses from school consolidation. Good schools are essential to the good life. Americans …

Demographic Foundation Of Rural Education In The Great Plains The Impact Of Urbanization, Robert Blair, Jerome Deichert, David Drozd

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Demographic factors have been transforming the Great Plains for decades. Although the region increased in population from 1950 to 2007, closer analysis reveals that much of that growth took place in the Core Based Statistical Areas. These population trends reflect the broader impact of urbanization. This article provides a contextual perspective of critical demographic factors influencing the structure of educational systems in rural communities in the Great Plains region, helping administrators and decision makers understand the impact of demographic forces on the delivery of rural education.

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 (through 2013)

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 …

Tiebout In The Country The Inevitable Politics Of Rural School Consolidation, Steven L. Willborn

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

This essay explains why school consolidation issues are especially difficult in rural America. Consolidation is most appropriate when adjacent districts have similar preferences for taxation and spending on schools. In that case, economies of scale can be reaped without interfering much with resident preferences on taxes and school quality. In urban areas residents signal these preferences by moving into (or out of) school districts that match their preferences, a process known as Tiebout sorting. As a result, school consolidation decisions can be based on good information about resident preferences. The basic claim of this essay is that Tiebout sorting works …

Place-Based Civic Education And The Rural Leadership Crisis In Nebraska, Christie L. Maloyed, J. Kelton Williams

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

The Great Plains is facing a pending leadership crisis as rural depopulation decreases the number of residents who are available to serve in civic and government positions. This problem is compounded by the loss of youth populations in rural areas. In this essay, we offer a cross-disciplinary analysis of avenues for addressing the rural leadership crisis. We bring together work from rural demography, education policy, and civic studies to argue that civic education in rural areas needs to be reformed specifically to train and retain rural youth for leadership positions. We use Nebraska as a case study as it has …

Considering Native American Students In Rural School Consolidation, Andrea Miller

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

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 …

Economic Issues In School District Consolidation In Nebraska, Bree L. Dority, Eric C. Thompson

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

This research article examines how per-pupil spending on public primary and secondary education in Nebraska varies by school district size, and whether expenditures are expected to rise or fall after districts consolidate. We find a U-shaped relationship between per-pupil spending and the number of students per school district in Nebraska. We also find a similar relationship between property tax base and the number of students per school district. However, our analysis of perpupil spending before and after consolidation fails to find consistent evidence that consolidation lowered per-pupil spending, in either rural or non-rural districts. The gains from consolidation become even …

Great Plains Research, Volume 23, Number 2, Fall 2013 (Complete Issue)

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

CONTENTS

Introduction — Richard Edwards and Peter Longo

School Consolidation and Community Development — Gary Paul Green

The Importance of Being Emily: Lessons from Legislative Battles over

Forced School Consolidation — Marty Strange

Tiebout in the Country: The Inevitable Politics of Rural School Consolidation — Steven L. Willborn

Place-Based Civic Education and the Rural Leadership Crisis in Nebraska — Christie L. Maloyed and J. Kelton Williams

Considering Native American Students in Rural School Consolidation — Andrea Miller

Photo Essay: Atmosphere for Learning Undistracted: Rural Schools of Nebraska — Charles W. Guildner

Economic Issues in School District Consolidation in Nebraska — …

Plant Community Composition And Structure Monitoring In Scotts Bluff National Monument, 2013 Annual Report, Isabel Ashton, Michael Prowatzke

United States National Park Service: Publications

Introduction

During the last century, much of the prairie within the Northern Great Plains has been plowed for cropland, planted with non-natives to maximize livestock production, or otherwise developed, making it one of the most threatened ecosystems in the United States. Within Nebraska, greater than 77% of the area of native mixed grass prairie has been lost since European settlement (Samson and Knopf 1994). The National Park Service (NPS) plays an important role in preserving and restoring some of the last pieces of intact prairies within its boundaries. The stewardship goal of the NPS is to “preserve ecological integrity and …

Book Review: The Revenge Of Geography, Robert Weaver

Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Fluid Borders, Concrete Locations: Epicenters Of Cross-Cultural Interaction In The Eighteenth Century Borderland Of The Great Lakes, John W. Nelson

Student Publications

In a recent article on the advent of borderlands history as a prominent field of historical scholarship, Pekka Hämäläinen and Samuel Truett described borderlands as “realms where boundaries are also crossroads, peripheries are also central places, homelands are also passing-through places, and the end points of empire are also forks in the road.” One such region that certainly fits this definition of a borderland and unquestionably hosts such specific crossroads and cultural junctions is the maritime region of the Great Lakes of North America. [excerpt]

Manifold Learning Based Spectral Unmixing Of Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Data, Jun-Hwa Chi

Open Access Dissertations

Nonlinear mixing effects inherent in hyperspectral data are not properly represented in linear spectral unmixing models. Although direct nonlinear unmixing models provide capability to capture nonlinear phenomena, they are difficult to formulate and the results are not always generalizable. Manifold learning based spectral unmixing accommodates nonlinearity in the data in the feature extraction stage followed by linear mixing, thereby incorporating some characteristics of nonlinearity while retaining advantages of linear unmixing approaches. Since endmember selection is critical to successful spectral unmixing, it is important to select proper endmembers from the manifold space. However, excessive computational burden hinders development of manifolds for …

Balancing Spirituality And Secularism, Globalism And Nationalism: The Geographies Of Identity, Integration And Citizenship In Schools, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Geographies of education have drawn more research attention in the last decade. The varied motivations for geographical attention to education have led to divergent approaches. First, a macro, political economy or "outward looking" approach has examined educational provision and what it tells us about wider social, economic and political processes. Second, a micro, social-cultural or "inward looking" approach has emphasised social difference within school spaces, and the links between home and educational spaces. This latter approach has also acknowledged the importance of the voices of children and young people in understanding educational experiences. In this paper, l take stock of …

Le Nature Degli American Studies, Cindi Katz

Publications and Research

Al “Futures of American Studies Institute” di Dartmouth del 2003 lanciai una provocazione sulle “geografie immaginate” dell’americanistica. Volevo mettere in discussione sia le celebrazioni romantiche del “luogo” in quanto elemento in qualche modo autentico e particolare, minacciato da un mondo sempre più globalizzato e controllato dalle multinazionali, sia l’esaltazione della “delocalizzazione” nelle società in rete, negli “spazi di flusso”, nella mobilità senza attrito. Suggerivo che queste, come altre geografie poco studiate, si sposano troppo facilmente con molte correnti dell’eccezionalismo americano.

Ua3/9/2 2010-2022 Master Plan, Wku Planning, Design & Construction

WKU Administration Documents

WKU master plan map showing buildings needing renovation, proposed buildings, affiliated buildings and WKU property in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Riga: A Rich Internet Geospatial Analytics Application For Area-Based Data, Tin Seong Kam

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this information age, more and more public statistical data such as population census, household living, local economy and business establishment are distributed over the internet within the framework of spatial data infrastructure. By and large, these data are organized geographically such as region, province as well as district. Usually, they are published in the form of digital maps over the internet as simple points, lines and polygons markers limited or no analytical function available to transform these data into useful information. To meet the analytical needs of casual public data users, we contribute RIGA, a rich internet geospatial analytics …

The Myths Of G-Tech For Business Decision Making, Tin Seong Kam

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

More than 80% of organisation data are location related - the locations where transactions are done, where retailers are found, and of customers who buy their products. Since the early 2005, there has been an increasing interest among the business community to use geospatial technology to enhance decision making process at both strategic and operational levels. Millions of dollars and man-hours have been invested into driving their geo-technology development and implementation. The use of geospatial technology in business, however, tends to confine to simple mapping. Many of these failures are the victims of misperception. Some of the perpetrators are practitioners. …

Minority Group Awareness In Tamil Nadu, India, Matt Shurtleff, Dr. Chad Emmett

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Most political situations have an interesting background. They are the stuff that spy movies are made of. The involvement of India in the Sri Lankan civil war is no exception.