Information available on rural education remains startlingly inadequate--partly because of the great diversity of rural areas, because agencies responsible for data collection disagree on the definition of small/rural schools, and because large metropolitan schools have received far more than their share of attention, research, and financial support. Not until 1983 did the Department of Education announce a policy that would provide rural education with an equitable share of the Department's resources. In the redesign of the elementary and secondary data program conducted by the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES), the Rural Education Association strongly encourages the inclusion of small/rural schools as a specific category in data collection and reporting and recommends that NCES break down the data based on school districts of fewer than 300, 300-999, 1,000-2,500, and more than 2,500 students. This classification would more accurately reflect rural, suburban, and urban similarities and differences and provide policy analysts, public educators, and others interested in education with valuable information to assess American public education. (JHZ)