The first National Congress on Rural Education, organized and conducted in conjunction with the 84th annual convention of the National Rural Education Association, convened an assembly of 458 advocates of rural education which came together to analyze common problems that tend to disaffect education in rural America and to plan corrective action. This report summarizes the events of the Congress. Following a general assembly, participants separated into 24 forum groups led by trained facilitators and identified disabling and chronic barriers to the improvement of rural education. A general town hall assembly then heard each group's findings and voted to determine the most important obstacles. Three major ones were identified; they concerned: (1) awareness and image; (2) equity and resources; and (3) separatism and provincialism. Participants returned to their groups and discussed solutions and strategies for addressing these three main barriers to improvement. A total of 16 strategies were identified that focused on public relations, lobbying federal and state goverments, policy formation, networking, use of technology, and lifelong learning. An appendix lists Congress leaders, forum facilitators, and members of the 1992 and 1993 executive committees of the National Rural Education Association. (SV)