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This paper examines the degree to which high-school course offerings are unequally distributed across schools, paying attention to relationships between school size and the incidence of new course titles in various curriculum areas. The inquiry is based on the presumption that economies of scale play a role in educational opportunity. The study is based on data from 1,015 New York high schools responding for the "High School and Beyond" surveys. It asks how economies of scale manifest themselves in curricular offerings, differentiating between academic and vocational offerings and among high schools across urban, suburban, and rural settings. The data reveal a strong positive relationship between school size and the available number of unduplicated full-year courses and credit offerings. Among like-sized high schools, those considering themselves "rural" offer fewer unduplicated full-year courses. Rural schools, however, offer a comparable or larger number of part-year courses than their like-sized counterparts. The results suggest that large-school students benefit disproportionally in the foreign language and arts portions of the curriculum. Rural schools offer fewer different courses compared to similarly sized nonrural schools. As school size increases, the number of basic courses grows at a rate slower than the number of both remedial and advanced courses. The findings show that both school size and rurality have consequences for educational opportunity and that these consequences are distributed unequally across areas of the curriculum. The document concludes by raising a wide range of educational-equity and research issues. (TES)

This report provides an overview of a two-year study which analyzed reorganization/consolidation of small rural school districts, studied alternatives of inter-district resource sharing and new instructional technologies, and developed recommendations for changes in state laws/procedures. Researchers studied 11 small rural school districts in New York State, conducted interviews, studied community histories, analyzed statewide data, and reviewed research literature. Four conclusions emerged: (1) substantial problems existing in small rural school districts significantly disadvantage students, yet small districts provide important educational advantages to pupils and communities; (2) New York promotes district reorganization as the preferred solution to small rural school problems; (3) district reorganization has serious deficiencies and the state should not artificially encourage reorganization with financial incentives; and (4) neither resource sharing nor new technologies will solve problems related to school size. The report recommends 3 broad changes in state policy and 12 specific changes in state procedures/laws; the 3 broad changes are: (1) unbiased consideration of reorganization, (2) provision of additional organizational alternatives, and (3) state acceptance of financial responsibility for costs of expanding educational opportunities in small rural schools. Chapters discuss history of schooling in New York State, describe methodologies and towns/schools studied, examine politics/experiences of district reorganization, and explore resource sharing and innnovative technologies. (LFL)

Comparing the responses of 6,849 rural and 13,768 nonrural seniors to the High School and Beyond survey revealed only a small difference in the educational aspirations of rural and nonrural youth, which can be attributed to the lower socioeconomic status of rural families, and rural adolescents' tendency to aspire less often to the highest-level professional jobs. (KS)

Relationships between high school structural characteristics and curricular offerings are examined using data from the High School and Beyond Survey, with an emphasis on school size. Findings are consistent with the hypothesis that effects of size are differentiated within high schools. Implications for equality of education are discussed. (SLD)

Higher-order thinking skills in science and mathematics were compared for high school students in large and small schools, controlling for SES, number of advanced courses offered, and enrollment rate in those courses. School size, number of advanced courses offered, and rurality had no effect on high-order thinking skills. (KS)

The persistent net loss of young people from rural areas has potentially contradictory implications for educational policy. Believing that youth migration to urban areas is inevitable, one school board might feel obligated to prepare students for urban jobs. Another board might view such actions as community suicide and attempt to slow outmigration by orienting curricula to rural living and the local job market. Data from High School and Beyond files indicate that 41 percent of rural high school seniors in the base survey had migrated 6 years later, compared to 32 percent of suburban seniors and 24 percent of urban seniors. Analyses examined the effects on outmigration (overall, college attendance, and military enlistment) of school aggregate socioeconomic status, school aggregate academic ability, rural location, school size, isolated location, and the extent of academic and vocational curricular offerings. School size was the most important predictor of both advanced academic and vocational course offerings. However, neither school size nor curricular offerings had any important impact on youth outmigration. In contrast, relatively immutable structural aspects of schools and communities coupled with individual student characteristics seemed the primary determinants of migration. There seems to be little merit in the notion that rural decision makers can affect youth migration by manipulating school curriculum. (SV)

Considered academic and nonacademic consequences of holding a part-time job while attending school, and the strategies used by students (N=300) to balance these responsibilities. Results indicated that employment has no adverse effect on students' academic performance and both costs and benefits seemed to be job-specific. (LLL)