This How-To Guide is designed for school staff who want to implement a personalized messaging intervention to improve student attendance. During the 2022-23 and 2023-24 academic years, the National Center for Rural Education Research Networks (NCRERN) partnered with 47 rural districts in 16 states across the United States to pilot and test…

"Place: it's where we're from; it's where we're going. . . . It asks for our attention and care. If we pay attention, place has much to teach us." With this belief as a foundation, "The Power of Place" offers a comprehensive and compelling case for making communities the locus of learning for students of all ages and…

The world needs great individual educational changemakers capable of identifying problems and creating bold, scalable solutions. But the world also needs Dream Teams--groups of talented administrators, teachers, staff, students, and community members who are passionate about making things better for kids, believe that school-based change is the…

A New York State rural school district converted a school bus into a self-contained Publishing Activities Center (PAC) that helps develop students' reading and writing skills. (MD)

This pamphlet provides information for teachers contemplating employment in Yukon Territory, Canada. A preface briefly describes the political history and government of the Yukon, and emphasizes the frontier nature of the region. In both English and French, the paper discusses the curriculum, school terms and vacations, the Yukon Teachers'…

The purpose of this booklet is to give beginning or first-year teachers in rural Alaskan one- or two-teacher schools some practical, effective, and useful suggestions and guidance in their teaching and living situations. Those individuals who are currently training and studying to be teachers in rural Alaska might also benefit from the…

In nongraded, multi-age classrooms, children have the opportunity to learn a great deal from their more proficient classmates. Children in multi-age, nongraded programs often learn that children differ, and they learn to assist each other in productive ways. The organizational scheme has the potential to remove much of the competition of…

The curricular and extracurricular responsibilities of teaching in a small school district require uniquely prepared teachers. Rural teachers often need additional background in instructional methods for teaching reading, content areas other than their specialty, discipline techniques, use of community resources, and individualized diagnosis and…

In multigrade instruction, children of at least a 2-year grade span and diverse ability levels are grouped in a single classroom and share experiences involving intellectual, academic, and social skills. "The Multigrade Classroom" is a seven-book series that provides an overview of current research on multigrade instruction, identifies…

This training guide provides guidelines and sample strategies for using the 1989 publication, "The Multigrade Resource Handbook," in a variety of professional settings ranging from teacher training programs to school and district inservice. This guide has been developed primarily for preservice teacher educators working with prospective…

Prepared for rural school teachers and administrators, the guide asserts that problems associated with smallness (costs, range and quality of existing programs, and special services to special populations) can be overcome by utilizing various electronic technologies in rural schools. Following an introductory section, Section 2 discusses the…

Beginning in middle school, there is an increasing gap between school and the home. In linguistically and ethnically diverse communities, there is often an even greater separation between children's school lives and the home. This toolkit provides teachers, particularly new teachers and those in high-poverty urban and rural communities, with…

In Australia, many teachers begin their careers in rural schools, a posting for which they are often ill-prepared. This book addresses the concerns of beginning teachers or other teachers about to take up rural appointments. The first chapter examines the context of rural schools, differentiates between "rural education" (education…

This series of four essays is designed to share practical, workable strategies for quality rural education. The first essay, Ernest Lohman's "It's About Time...," gives an overview of the effective schooling concept and then looks specifically at ways a classrooom teacher can apply that concept. The essay includes a bibliography. The…

Designed to accompany a 28-minute videotape about the impact of the Iowa agricultural crisis on the school setting, this publication offers suggestions for classroom activities and ways teachers can become effective in reducing student stress. Teachers are encouraged to deal with students with problems by showing sensitivity and warmth,…