In this article, we demonstrate that arts integration holds unique promise and benefits for helping rural teachers to provide more equitable arts opportunities for their students. These benefits include: professional network development in the service of both curricular development for arts integration and connecting teachers who often work in…

Community college sports teams don't play in nationally televised bowl games or championship tournaments that inspire betting pools in offices across America, but athletic teams at community colleges, especially those in rural areas, play a vital role in attracting a cohort of students who are culturally diverse. This article discusses the…

In Indiana and Minnesota, career and technical education programs are intended to provide pathways to both postsecondary education and careers after high school. Each state's education agency, higher education agency, and workforce agency collaborated to develop career and technical education courses. These agencies partnered with the Regional…

For decades, people questioned the sense of having two school districts, each with its own superintendent, central office and high school, operating in the same small town of The Dalles on the banks of the Columbia River in north-central Oregon. But election campaigns to consolidate repeatedly failed because each community had strong emotional…

Jodi Fletcher is a teacher on special assignment in curriculum instruction and assessment for Falcon School District 49 in Colorado. Serving about 12,500 students across 16 schools, the district encompasses the northeastern portion of Colorado Springs and the rural area of Falcon. About 30 percent of students in the district are from military…

The 2007 Legislature enacted the Achieve Scholarship program, which provides a $1,200 scholarship to high school graduates who took rigorous courses in high school and met certain income and other eligibility criteria. In deliberations about this new program, concerns were expressed that certain rigorous courses like Advanced Placement,…

As Internet technology encroached on the public school classroom about a decade ago, Kim Ross, superintendent of the Houston School District in Houston, Minnesota, saw an opportunity. At first, he and his administrative team simply wanted to offer students in the district of 1,300 access to more classes via the web than what a district that size…

The principals of 11 small elementary schools in Renville County, Minnesota, pooled their resources to offer a popular series of Saturday activities for student enrichment, including spelling and mathematics competitions, a Science/Agriculture Exploration Day, and an Arts Exploration Day. (PGD)

In rural America, community members are working together to reform education, revitalize communities, and improve the quality of life. This article describes long-term efforts, such as Alabama's PACERS program, Georgia's REAL Enterprises project, and Minnesota's Center for School Change. Smaller-scale efforts in Nebraska, Mississippi, and South…

Assisted by a sophisticated telecommunications system, 90 small, rural Minnesota schools collaborated to influence state legislation regarding funding equity and other issues. Small-school strategies for building political activism include seizing available opportunities, developing leadership capacity, involving political constituents,…

Outlines four components of the use of high technology that have put Minnesota public schools at the forefront of educational technology. These include: computerized classrooms, microwave classes, cable television classes, and a technology busmobile. (MD)

Minnesota has enacted legislation and implemented cooperative services to meet student needs. Legislation allows two or more districts to cooperate on programs and services while maintaining local boards and independent school district status. Communicasting, combining elements of communication and broadcasting, enables school districts to share…

A few years ago the public schools made no provision for the education of the blind, crippled, or mentally deficient, but now in New York City alone there are more than 100 classes for mentally peculiar children, while arrangements are rapidly making for the care of crippled and other classes of physically handicapped children. It was only as…

This report pays tribute to the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Rural Systemic Initiatives (RSIs), an investment of more than $140 million to improve mathematics and science education in some of rural America's most impoverished communities. The report illustrates the impact of NSF's RSI program on a national scale. Each RSI planned a project…

In rural Minnesota many school districts are limited in their efforts to restructure by low enrollment, rural geographic location, meager tax base, narrow staff experience, extensive job responsibilities for staff, restricted staff development opportunities, and lack of direction in curriculum coordination. Because of actual or perceived…