This digest briefly describes key components for building a local school-to-work (STW) partnership and discusses the rural context for implementing such an initiative. The School-To-Work Opportunities Act of 1994 established a national framework for each state to create STW systems that are part of comprehensive education reform, are integrated with systems developed under Goals 2000, and offer opportunities for all students to earn portable credentials in a performance-based education and training program. States applying for federal incentive implementation grants must include plans to serve rural communities and to allocate subgrants to local STW partnerships. Local partnerships consisting of employers; educators; students; and representatives of local education agencies, postsecondary institutions, and labor organizations must implement programs that provide work-based learning, school-based career learning, and connecting activities. The context of rural STW programs may include persistent poverty, informal arrangements between employer and employees, remote location, or dependency on a single industry. Some parents and community leaders fear that STW programs will actually undermine local economic development by training students to leave their communities. However, the ultimate success of STW partnerships may be in giving rural students a better understanding of the rural place in which they live, and may someday work. (Contains 14 references.) (SV)