A small rural Missouri school district successfully campaigned for an 81-cent tax increase: 38 cents for a levy to operate schools, and a 43-cent bond issue that would allocate money to build new facilities. Passage of the referendum required at least a year of hard work and planning, positive advertisements, and a lot of community involvement.…

Describes the technology of interactive television and shows how it can be effectively used in small, rural districts to allow students to have access to more instructional programs. It allows students to be taught in a normal manner with teacher/student interaction through the use of television. (MD)

Outlines the school-business partnership developed by Funkstown Elementary School (Hagerstown, Maryland) with Maryland Ribbon Company. Includes a list of points to consider when developing such a relationship. (MD)

Outlines a successful reading program developed in Wakulla County, Florida, schools where the adult illiteracy rate was seriously high. The success of this program emphasizes three points: begin with detailed needs assessment, establish clear program goals, and provide continuous evaluation.(MD)

Small rural schools can use telecommunication and educational networking to gain access to information and extend curriculum. Provides a model plan for developing a technology cooperative. (MD)

Describes a successful instructional television consortium developed by four small Illinois high schools. The system eliminated the need to transport students long distances for a quality education. (MD)

This handbook presents a snapshot view of the use of telecommunications technologies to deliver instruction to distant audiences of K-12 students in the United States. The information is intended specifically for people who work in and with small, rural, or remote schools. Available technologies and programming vary widely in offerings and…

Small school districts have little leeway in predicting school enrollment. The basic tool of cohort survival technique can be augmented with the district census study and strategically located volunteers to monitor move-ins and move-outs within an assigned geographic area of the school district. (MLF)

The Drug Infusion Project is designed to assist rural school districts in their efforts to infuse drug education into their regular curriculum through comprehensive and integrated programming, which includes: (1) developing a statistical base through surveys; (2) training teachers in infusion techniques; (3) broadening the definition of…

Information concerning methods and available materials for conserving energy is needed by small, rural schools to offset continued increasing energy costs and lack of financial support and technical assistance. The first step in developing an energy conservation policy is to obtain school board commitment and to establish an energy saving policy.…

Rural schools bear a responsibility for taking all appropriate measures to protect their youth from the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). A national survey of 400 rural schools, with 100 responding schools, reveals that the HIV education offered in most rural schools does not meet the standards health educators suggest. Recommends a community…

Recruiting and retaining qualified, competent teachers is an ongoing problem for small school administrators. The reasons for high turnover are numerous and complex, e.g., preservice preparation is presently more suitable for large, metropolitan schools than for small, rural schools; career orientations fail to recognize that experience in small…

Many rural school districts struggling with declining elementary school enrollments will soon face the more complex problems of declining high school enrollment. School districts with only one high school do not have the option of consolidation and must find innovative solutions to the problem of maintaining educational quality with dwindling…

Because schools are often the biggest employers in rural areas, it may make sense for rural schools to initiate economic development partnerships with the community, rather than wait for business to take the initiative, as is more commonly the case with urban school-business partnerships. This booklet reports findings of a national research…

This guide aims to facilitate research and policy analysis in rural education by linking substantive issues to the data sources of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The guide may be used in two ways: as a handy tool for scanning NCES data that are presented with immediately applicable issues; and to stimulate, with sample…