Small Rural School District Consolidation in Texas: An Analysis of Its Impact on Cost and Student Achievement

Texas Rural vs. Nonrural School District Student Growth Trajectories on a High-Stakes Science Exam: A Multilevel Approach

“…A similar pattern was identified in the four reporting categories, in that rural district students constantly underperformed compared to their counterparts in nonrural districts. These findings are consistent with previous studies showing a persistent science achievement gap among demographic subgroups (Llosa et al 2016), and rural school districts are challenged to improve their students' academic performance (Cooley and Floyd 2013). The results also align with a previous longitudinal analysis of statewide science test scores of fifth-grade students determining that ELs and ED students in Texas consistently underperformed (Texas Education Agency 2011).…”

“…Despite this finding, Texas rural school districts are less competitive for grant funds than their nonrural counterparts (Texas Education Agency 2017). Moreover, due to their isolated locations, rural school districts are plagued by persistent shortages of educational resources (Cooley and Floyd 2013), quality teachers (Hutson et al 2011), and administrative personnel (Canales et al 2008). In small rural school districts, teachers and administrators often fill multiple roles other than managing district finances, instructional support, and human resources (Canales et al 2008).…”

“…In order to meet the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act and to promote students' science achievement, the Texas Science Initiative program was established to provide every science classroom with qualified science teachers who utilize rigorous and effective science teaching (Schroeder et al 2007). However, with a persistent shortage of educational resources, Texas districts struggle to provide quality public education to their steadily growing student population (Cooley and Floyd 2013). There are very limited empirical studies investigating students' science achievement in rural Texas.…”

“…Over 9.1 million students enrolled in rural public schools in fall 2013 (National Center for Education Statistics 2013), yet little attention is given to rural education in either policy or academia (Lavalley 2018). Given rural school districts' small size, limited educational resources and instructional capacity, and high student mobility rates, these districts face challenges serving diverse students, especially English learners (ELs) and economically disadvantaged (ED) students, including improving their academic language proficiency and content knowledge (Cooley and Floyd 2013;Howley et al 2009;Masumoto and Brown-Welty 2009;Paik and Phillips 2002;Showalter et al 2017).…”

The increasingly long road to school in rural China: the impacts of education network consolidation on broadly defined schooling distance in Xinfeng County of rural China

“…Such children have faced difficulties adapting to the new environment resulting in lower standardized test scores (Dong et al 2008;Lu and Du 2010;Cai and Yan 2013). Wan and Bai (2010) also found that larger schools may exhibit more bureaucracy, higher dropout rates and more discipline problems, which is consisted with international research (Patterson 2006;Sharif 2010;Cooley and Floyd Koy 2013). Some empirical studies did not find a negative effect of school merger on student performance for some context, like in Liu et al (2010) and Chen et al (2014).…”