• The Challenges and Best Practices of Small, Rural Schools in Montana in Implementing The No Child Left Behind Act, A Research Study conducted at the request of Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory.
• Four Technology Studies on Technology use and Connectivity of small schools in Montana
• The Montana Rural Schools Salary and Benefits Survey - Four separate studies over 14 years
• The Social Security Study requested by the Montana Association of County Superintendents of Schools to determine how many and which schools do not provide Social Security Benefits to their employees.

List of MSSA Research

Equity in Montana's Public Schools: What We Know, What We Need to Do. Utilizing a variety of Montana data, it is clear that our efforts need to be directed to improving learning for boys and American Indians. A paper commissioned by the Montana Association of University Women and funded by a grant from the Women's Foundation of Montana, May 2004.

The Understanding of Local Context in Teacher Education, The Rural Educator, the official journal of the National Rural Education Association. Vol. 19, Number 1, fall 1997, 1-6.

No Child Left Behind

Montana Response to No Child Left Behind Policy Inventory, the State Action for Education Leadership Project and the Wallace Foundation, March 2001.

The Challenges and Best Practices of Small, Rural Schools in Montana in Implementing the No Child Left Behind Act, A Research Study Conducted by the Montana Small Schools Alliance for the Northwest Regional Education Laboratory, Portland, OR, 2003  

Rural Teacher Salary and Benefits Surveys

The Vanishing Breed?  The 2006-2007 Montana Rural Teacher Salary and Benefit Survey.

The Montana Small Schools Alliance, 2007. A Research Study funded by the Oro Y Plata Foundation, 2006.

Paradise or the Pits? The 2002-2003 Montana Rural Teacher Salary and Benefits Survey, the Montana Small Schools Alliance, 2003.

The Last Best Place? The 1998-99 Montana Rural Teacher Salary and Benefits Survey. Montana Small Schools Alliance, 1999.

The Rural Teacher, Alive and Well? The 1992-93 Montana Rural Teacher Salary and Benefits Survey, The Montana Rural Education Center, Western Montana College of The University of Montana, Dillon, MT, 1993.

Technology Issues in Montana Rural Schools
An Update on Moving All Montana's Children Across the Digital Divide, A Research Study, July 2007.
Moving All Montana's Children Across the Digital Divide, A Research Study funded by the Oro Y Plata Foundation, 2006.

Montana Small Schools Technology Survey, 2002-2003.

Montana Small Schools Technology Connectivity Survey, 2003.

Technology Planning for Montana's Schools, 1998, in cooperation with the MT Office of Public Instruction and a grant from ARCO.

Frontier Schools (Research in Progress) 

            In 2008 the Montana Small Schools Alliance began a major research project.  Working in collaboration with Dr. Hobart Harmon and Boyd Dressler the work began with defining the term Frontier Schools.  An operational definition was created for the project using the National Center for Frontier Communities’ work as a beginning. A Montana frontier school is defined as a school district with 200 or fewer students and its attendant community located in a county with five or fewer people per square mile.  The 200 students maximum defined a much smaller school district than the federal definition for rural of 600. The determination of remoteness embraced a county with five or fewer persons per square mile. Because the school age population in Montana is approximately one-fifth or 20 percent of the general population (CEIS-Montana, July 2008), a county with five people per square mile would have one student per square mile.

In Montana 42 of the 56 counties have fewer than five people per square mile (CEIS-Montana, July 2008). This became the defined geographic area for the MSSA frontier schools project. A review of 2008 student enrollment data from the Montana Office of Public Instruction revealed 209 districts enrolled 200 or fewer students (McCulloch, 2008).

A survey was developed to collect Phase 1 data and information from personnel in the school districts, including school board presidents. Numerous questions on the survey were based on a study of K-12 unit schools in the United States by Howley and Harmon (2000).  The 20-item survey asked participants to provide demographic information, current school district challenges, and practices that may have contributed to the sustainability of the school.

The research questions to be answered are:

1. What are the major challenges (most pressing issues) in Montana frontier school districts?

2. What practices have contributed to the sustainability of a Montana frontier school that meets the needs of students and the community or rural area it serves?

While surveys have been collected from about one-third of the frontier schools in Montana, the hope is to survey the rest of
 these small schools in 2009-2010 and to begin researching the community components.  As more phases of this research are complete, links will be added to this website.

See the PowerPoint of our Frontier School presentation at the National Rural Education Association Research Forum by downloading it here.