Regional and rural school consolidation: a scoping study of research literature

Purpose School consolidation reforms are underway in regional New South Wales (NSW), Australia. The purpose of this paper is to establish an evidence base of research literature on school consolidation in regional, rural and remote locations. Design/methodology/approach A scoping study of empirical literature on school consolidation, with a particular focus on regional, rural and remote education, since the year 2000 was undertaken. A corpus of 35 papers were identified and subjected to analysis based on: year of publication, country of origin, unit of analysis, data sources, timeframe and theoretical model. Findings There remains a limited evidence base for the success of school consolidation reforms for turning around student outcomes. In addition, a number of social implications are experienced by communities losing their local school. These issues are amplified in regional, rural and remote locations. Practical implications School consolidation reforms are used by governments/systems wanting to reduce costs and address issues of student disengagement and under-achievement. Despite a lengthy history internationally, there is at best mixed evidence regarding these reforms. With a consider disparity gap between urban and regional, rural and remote school outcomes, robust evidence on the success of reforms has major policy implications for government, systems, educators and communities. Originality/value With reforms already underway in NSW (and elsewhere), the need for a rigorous and robust evidence base, such as this scoping study, is timely and significant.

Rural School Consolidation

The consolidation of rural schools in the United States has been a controversial topic for policy-makers, school administrators, and rural communities since the 1800s. At issue in the consolidation movement have been concerns of efficiency, economics, student achievement, school size, and community identity. Throughout the history of schooling in America, school consolidation has been a way to solve rural issues in the eyes of policy makers and many education officials. Today, faced with declining enrollments and financial cutbacks, many rural schools and communities continue to deal with challenges associated with possible school reorganizations and consolidations. This paper, developed by the NREA Consolidation Task Force, provides a review of the literature on rural school consolidation, defines consolidation, addresses current research and issues related to consolidation with respect to school size, economies of scale, and student achievement, and concludes with proposed recommendations for the NREA Executive Board.

The Melodious Sound of the Right-Turning Conch

This chapter moves further upriver to one of the poorest villages in the valley, an important rival community to Kharnak village (the focus of Chapter 3). The chapter begins with an account of the author’s “capture” by the village as a donor supporting the repair of their new primary school’s roof. It then tells the story of the village’s conflictual move from their historical location on a mountain peak down to the valley floor and new highway. The author analyzes interactions around village elders’ petition to the local state, as well as a video they made that touts and contextualizes their new Buddhist temple on the valley floor as the abode of a young and rising, charismatic incarnate lama. In the context of school consolidation and state-led resource extraction in the valley, the author considers the historical narratives in the petition and video to be important parts of villagers’ counter-development efforts as they worked to assert the presence of their community in the face of its administrative erasure.