Tag: rural schools

Latino Students in Public Schools: A Closer Look (2006)

In May 2001 the State Demographic Center issued a widely disseminated report that clearly documented a virtual doubling between 1990 and 2000 of the number of Minnesotans who identified themselves as either nonwhite or Hispanic (McMurry, 2001). Further, the report went on to document that the number of Minnesotans who identified themselves as Hispanic increased ...

Examining Efficiency in our Public Schools (2003)

On most measures of success such as graduation rates, parental involvement and achievement test scores, small rural schools consistently confirm their value. However, others argue that due to their small enrollments, many rural school districts simply cannot achieve the necessary critical mass and subsequent economies of scale to reach fiscal efficiency; that the most rational ...

Small Schools Under Siege: Evidence of Resource Inequality in Minnesota Public Schools (2002)

The State of Minnesota funds its public schools primarily through a funding formula that provides school districts the same amount of revenue per pupil regardless of the size of their enrollment. In an earlier paper (Thorson and Edmondson 2000), we demonstrated that, similar to other areas of the economy, larger school districts incur less cost ...

The Need is Now: Dealing with Minnesota’s Teacher Shortage (2000)

Hundreds of Minnesota urban, suburban and rural principals had major problems when they tried to hire strong teachers for the current school year. Their experiences and their suggestions about what should be done to attract and retain strong teachers open this report. We offer the views of 710 Minnesota public school principals, representing schools serving ...