In 1933, West Georgia College began planning for a two-year rural elementary teacher training program. In that same year, the College worked with the superintendent of local schools to establish Maple Street Elementary School as a site for practice teaching, making it the program's first Laboratory School.

In 1936, West Georgia College president Irvine S. Ingram submitted plans for expanding the teacher education program, thus allowing the program to apply for a grant from the Julius Rosenwald Fund which was awarded in 1937. These funds were used to expand the Rural Education Program and add other schools in Carroll County to the list of laboratory schools: Tallapoosa Elementary School (1937), Sand Hill Elementary School (1939).

The collaboration between the Sand Hill community and West Georgia College began with the effort to build a school. Initially, the community was divided over costs and disagreements between local churches. Faculty from West Georgia College led productive discussions which resulted in getting the building accomplished and having it serve as a Laboratory School site. As part of the agreement between the Sand Hill community and West Georgia College, the college maintained the right to choose the teachers that would be hired for the future school.

The work done by West Georgia College and the Sand Hill community was widely seen as very positive. Sand Hill School was celebrated for its teaching methods and was featured in national magazine and newspaper articles, including an 1946 edition of Look magazine in an article titled, “The Hope of American Education."



The program and students at Sand Hill also inspired work on the “Let’s Do it Now” series which is a collection of booklets created to teach children about rural life and problems. Some of the titles include “Let’s Cook Lunch,” “Let’s Raise Pigs,” and “The Doctor is Coming.”

Over the next few years, West Georgia college also added Flat Rocks School, Oak Mountain School, Burwell School (1943), and McGiboney School (1939) to the list of laboratory schools in their program.

The Julius Rosenwald Funds were given for a period of ten years, until 1947. After these funds ran out, the program became the Cooperative Program in Elementary Education which likely gained funding from the Woodruff foundation through Philip Wletner.

In 1950, an article in the magazine The Instructor was written about Effie McGuire, a teacher at Oak Mountain School, and her exceptional work with students and prospective rural elementary school teachers.

In 1957, a small film was created about the work done at Sand Hill School and about the important work done by the West Georgia College faculty and students both within the school and the local community to create trust and build a network of support for Sand Hill school.