Five papers are presented on serving rural gifted students, discussing: advanced academic courses offered through telecommunications; an electronic bulletin board and videotape exchange network; staff development and networking through telecommunications; acceleration strategies in elementary schools; and rural and urban gifted high-school…

The Entry Year Assistance Program of Educational Service Unit #11 in Nebraska is a staff development project to train mentor teachers, entry-year teachers, and school administrators in small, rural school districts. Schools that participate in the program select a team consisting of a mentor teacher, an administrator, and an entry-year teacher.…

This manual was developed as part of a project to identify and serve the needs of gifted and talented economically disadvantaged elementary and secondary level populations. Section I presents a leader's manual for a workshop that discusses innovative procedures for identifying bright children in all cultures and populations. The workshop examines…

This training guide provides guidelines and sample strategies for using the 1989 publication, "The Multigrade Resource Handbook," in a variety of professional settings ranging from teacher training programs to school and district inservice. This guide has been developed primarily for preservice teacher educators working with prospective…

A collaboration between general and special education can help rural school districts improve services to severely disabled students. This paper presents a conceptual model for rural school administrators to define current practices in their districts and to develop alternatives for educating students with severe disabilities within a rural…

Community colleges across the United States have initiated programs that are making an impact on the productivity of rural America and its residents. Profiles of 20 community and technical college initiatives in rural economic development are contained in this report intended for use by community and technical college administrators. The programs…

Intended for the staffs of museums, zoos, and other science related centers, this manual is a step by step guide to establishing a rural science outreach and education program. Based on the experiences of the New Mexico Rural Science Education Project (NMRSEP), this manual focuses on rural elementary schools and on earth and life sciences. Much of…

Knowledge-based expert computer systems are addressing issues relevant to all special educators, but are particularly relevant in rural settings where human experts are less available because of distance and cost. An expert system is an application of artificial intelligence (AI) that typically engages the user in a dialogue resembling the…

Three telecourse programs offering high school credit courses via interactive satellite communication are described and evaluated. German by Satellite and Physics by Satellite from Oklahoma State University feature biweekly 40-minute broadcasts with audio interaction via regular telephone lines and microcomputer voice recognition software at…

During the past 14 years, the elementary rural teacher training program at Brigham Young University (BYU), Utah, has successfully provided an 8-week student teaching experience which has assisted more than 250 prospective teachers in comparing their lifestyle and interests with those of rural America. Student participants are required to live with…

This conference focused on the theme of linking programs and resources for rural special education. This conference proceeding contains an overview and conference agenda booklet, abstracts and some full texts of conference presentations, including the following sampling of papers: "A Data Based Model for the Rural Model Aide in Special Education,"…

Federal legislation requires that all handicapped children be afforded an appropriate and individualized physical education program. The state education agency of Montana, however, has not assumed this responsibility, and unqualified special education classroom teachers and regular physical education teachers are reluctantly charged by local…

Rural teachers are confronted with the task of providing appropriate education to exceptional students, as well as addressing the added elements of language and culture issues as these pertain to handicapping conditions. Key points in the identification and instruction of these students are initial referral, early intervention, and appropriate…

This fact sheet provides an overview of rural schools, people, and labor markets to help vocational educators better understand the needs of rural Americans. It is based on "A Portrait of Rural America: Conditions Affecting Vocational Education Policy" (Rosenfeld 1981). Data is presented on population trends, poverty, employment…

Since 1975 the Contoocook Valley District, a small rural cooperative school district in southwestern New Hampshire, has developed a performance-based student competency program which has resulted in a dramatic increase in scores on the Stanford Achievement Test. The district is comprised of 9 towns, covers an area of almost 300 square miles, and…