With declining enrollments and budget limitations, it becomes more and more difficult for small rural schools to offer state-approved programs (often based on the "bigger is better" model of education). For many already consolidated districts, further consolidation is not a viable solution to the problem. Cooperative arrangements are…

This handbook reports on the use of consortia-appointed curriculum directors for meeting small, rural school districts' curriculum renewal needs. It is based on interviews with individuals involved with consortia in five Western U.S. case-study sites. Limited resources in rural schools often hinder curriculum-renewal efforts. If several districts…

This manual recommends procedures for developing and operating a rural-based distance learning consortium. Following some brief definitions and an outline of the three basic essentials for success (trust, shared vision, and suitable telecommunication infrastructure), guidelines for developing a distance learning consortium are presented in five…

Directed primarily toward small school administrators and school boards, this publication describes a consortium of five rural school districts in central Missouri and how they used a traveling teacher to facilitate incorporation of microcomputer capabilities into the school systems' operation and curriculum. The paper describes the use of the…

A project was undertaken by a consortium to produce a publication that would provide (1) a mechanism and guidelines for establishing cooperative relationships between secondary and postsecondary schools and business, industry, and labor in the rural community; (2) a large number of examples of cooperative agreements; and (3) appendixes which will…