Small School Districts
School & District Management
Rural 69传媒 Are Fighting for Their Existence. What the Future Could Look Like
Rural schools have long been contending with enrollment declines that are still relatively new to districts in more populated areas.
School & District Management
Video
How This Superintendent Overhauled Literacy Instruction
This Kentucky superintendent made overhauling literacy instruction a top priority. Two years later, he鈥檚 already seeing results.
English Learners
Project
The Language of Equity
An Alabama district has overhauled how it supports English learners鈥攎aking great strides in early grades that it may not be able to sustain.
Education Funding
In Their Own Words
This Superintendent's Tiny, Rural District Got No COVID Aid. Here's Why That Hurts
The aid formula left Long Lake, N.Y., out of the mix. The superintendent worries that could happen for other kinds of aid in the future.
School & District Management
Leader To Learn From
Health Care Was Hard to Come By. So This Superintendent Stepped Up
Ben Thigpen, the superintendent in rural Jones County, N.C., launched a telehealth program to improve medical care for students and staff.
College & Workforce Readiness
Video
Resilience, Faith, and Support: How Twin Brothers Forged Diverging Paths to College
Twin brothers from rural Arkansas reflect on their path to college in the midst of the pandemic.
Education Funding
Medicaid Treats Small Districts and Rural 69传媒 Unfairly, Report Says
Medicaid spending is the third-largest source of federal funds for K-12, but a national group representing superintendents says the program can do better.
School Climate & Safety
News in Brief
Small Arkansas School District Installs Safe Rooms in All Classrooms
A school district in a small Arkansas city has installed steel safe rooms in every classroom.
Classroom Technology
News in Brief
Public School District Enrolls 69传媒 From Private School for Online Classes
A small and shrinking school district near Los Angeles has come up with a novel way to stem its enrollment loss: Set up a virtual school and enroll students from faraway Roman Catholic schools.
Student Achievement
Virtual Summer School an Option for 69传媒 in Small Illinois District
In this district about 11 miles outside of Chicago, students can choose among four different summer learning opportunities, including a virtual summer school program.
Law & Courts
News in Brief
Court Dismisses Funding Suit Filed by Small N.Y. Districts
A judge has thrown out a lawsuit against New York that claimed the state was shortchanging students in eight small-city districts and denying their constitutional right to a "sound basic education."
Families & the Community
Vt. Residents Vote Against Consolidating School Districts (Video)
In a small region of Vermont, a fierce debate raged over consolidating five tiny school districts into one.
School & District Management
Video
Merging Small School Districts: Showdown in Vermont
With a plummeting student enrollment and skyrocketing education costs, Vermont lawmakers decided last year to begin an ambitious and controversial experiment to consolidate its vast system of public schools. The law, Act 46, intends to dramatically reduce the number of districts in the mostly rural state-there are currently 280 of them-by 2020 using a series of tax incentives.
Supporters argue that by sharing resources more efficiently, the state will save millions of dollars and give students access to academically rigorous programs and more electives like the arts.
But opponents say the initiative stabs at the very heart of Vermont, with its hundreds of tiny school houses and, more importantly, Vermonters' deeply-felt sense of local control.
In this report, John Tulenko of Education Week profiles a northern region of Vermont where residents are sharply divided on whether to combine its five school districts.
Read more about this issue on edweek.org. This video aired on PBS NewsHour on May 31, 2016.
Equity & Diversity
News in Brief
Court Orders Miss. District to Desegregate 69传媒
Despite the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision striking down racially segregated public schools, one small Mississippi district had resisted鈥攗ntil now.