Office of Planning and Service Coordination
Challenges and Opportunities of NCLB for Small, Rural, and Isolated Schools
Sometimes, opportunity comes cloaked in disguise. That could very well be the case for small, rural, and isolated schools that are grappling with the provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001. Despite calls for waivers and real concerns about the costs and logistics of the law, school administrators and teachers are attempting to rise to the challenge.
The Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL) set out to highlight some of the creative solutions around the region to fulfilling NCLB requirements, and to document some of the impediments.
Surveys and interviews were conducted by investigators from the Montana Small Schools Alliance; Washington Rural Education Center; Intermountain Center for Education Effectiveness at Idaho State University; Oregon Small Schools Association; and Alaska Staff Development Network.
What emerges from their research is a picture of small and rural schools struggling with a lack of resources but determined to muster the frontier spirit and pioneering ways so characteristic of their unique communities.
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