This digest reviews the concepts of "culture" and "multicultural education" and advocates multicultural education for rural schools. Culture applies to any group with coherent norms and traditions that help members engage the world around them. Multicultural education seeks to create an environment in which students can…

Five author contributed chapters explore the social environment of the schools as it relates to mainstreaming handicapped children. M. Reynolds discusses "The Changing Social Environment" in the first chapter. Emphasis is placed on the use of developmental scales in the organization of improved schools. "The Social Integration of Handicapped…

The papers presented in this monograph address a number of concerns in developing a pedagogical approach for gifted and talented children. In the first paper, it is noted that routine intelligence tests cannot be relied upon to identify the gifted, and that a more stringent case study approach should be adopted to take into account the particular…

Paraeducators are school employees whose responsibilities are either instructional in nature or who deliver other services to students. Large numbers of paraeducators have expressed a desire to become professional teachers. Because many paraeducators, perhaps the majority, are from minority groups, they would expand the pool of potential teachers…