To determine perceptions of school board members, teachers, and principals in rural schools about the quality of their educational programs, the type of preparation they had received in preservice programs, and the inservice opportunities available to them, responses to questionnaires from 2,028 teachers, 119 principals, and 113 school board members throughout the states of Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Wyoming were analyzed. Background data were broken down according to sex, school placement, linguistic fluency, ethnic origin, and educational attainment. More than 80% of teachers and principals and more than 65% of school board members were satisfied with selected aspects of their school program, 80% of teachers and 75% of principals had no specific preparation for service in a rural setting, and approximately 92% of teachers and 100% of principals had participated in inservice training. Inservice programs designed to upgrade rural school personnel may need to be different from those in the past. Such programs should include expanded off-campus, field-based graduate programs, rural school program models, leadership roles for rural teachers and principals in planning, directing, and presenting inservice workshops, procedures for multiple teaching activities, and increased understanding of rural cultural issues. (MM)