How are They Doing? Examining Student Achievement in Virtual Schooling (Report‪)‬

Cosby and McDermott (1978) indicated that there was a perception that those living in rural areas represented "a small and insignificant segment of the population" of the United States (p. 6). The authors speculated that this was due to the urban dominance in matters of politics and commerce, along with a general shift in the population from rural to urban areas. These observations are still relevant almost thirty years later and are applicable not only to an American context, but in most rural jurisdictions. It is particularly true of the Canadian Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, which is located on the east coast of Canada. The province, which has both an island and mainland portions, has a total area of approximately 252,000 square miles and a population of a little less than 510,000 people. Although about half of the population resides on the Avalon Peninsula or within a 100 mile radius of the provincial capital, St. John's, the remainder of the province is sparsely populated. In fact 192 of the 294 schools in 2004-OS were located in these rural areas (Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, 2005), 85 of which are designated as necessarily existent (i.e., a term used to describe schools that cannot be closed because they are located so far from another school that it makes bussing the students not feasible due to distance (4)). As with rural jurisdictions across North America, many of the schools in Newfoundland and Labrador do not have enough teachers and are unable to provide sufficient variety in the course offerings required by the provincially-mandated curriculum (Barker, 1985; Benson, 1998; Government of New York, 1992), often times due to their inability to attract or retain teachers in highly specialized subject areas (Collins, 1999; Furey & Murphy, 2005; Kannapel & DeYoung, 1999; Storey, 1993). In this environment, rural schools are unable to offer their students the same level of educational opportunity as their larger, urban counterparts. Since the late 1970s, the Government has published reports outlining these problems (e.g., Crocker, 1989; Crocker & Riggs, 1979; House, 1986; Riggs, 1987).