The Life and Death of a Rural American High School - Farewell Little Kanawha (Hardcover)

Most scholarship on American education involves metropolitan schools. The comparatively rare rural school research describes 19th- and early 20th-century rural school dynamics. But there remain thousands of rural American schools, ever pressured to consolidate because of declining economies and school resources, and lack of concern for the importance of small communities in national school reform policies. This qualitative study is organized around the socioeconomic history of a county with parallel chapters on the history of that locale's education, and on a particular school. Oral histories, interviews, county histories, newspaper accounts, and personal testimonies forcefully articulate the factors involved in the emergence, decline, and demise of a rural West Virginia high school between 1920 and 1990. In light of current school closings and funding wars across the nation, this study is particularly timely and informative. An index is provided.