The long-term effects of crisis and tragedy can be improved significantly by immediate intervention and emergency mental health services. Providing crisis intervention in rural schools poses challenges related to lack of financial resources, community resources, and trained personnel; isolation of rural schools; and long distances between school…

This paper offers suggestions for providing accelerative opportunities for rural gifted students. Guidance is provided on overcoming local barriers and the chronic lack of sufficient resources in rural areas. Strategies incorporating telecommunications, cooperation with other districts and universities, faculty inservices, and community mentoring…

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…

Describes a systematic program conducted at a rural secondary school to teach students with moderate mental retardation ways to resist peer pressure. Peers without disabilities were used to identify common situations of peer pressure and to serve as confederates in setting up situations where students with mental retardation learned to "just say…

The purpose of the Rural Student Vocational Program (RSVP) is to provide rural high school vocational students with work and other experiences related to their career objective. Students from outlying schools travel to Anchorage, Fairbanks, or Juneau (Alaska) to participate in two weeks of work experience with cooperating agencies and businesses.…

Staff development is the small school district's key to survival in the 1980's. Although small rural districts may face problems like isolation and limited resources, they have distinct advantages. Chapter 1 of this guide provides a list of advantages, which include close contact between teachers and administrators, strong ties to the local…

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…

Developed by the Amity (Oregon) School District 4-J (a small, rural farming district consisting of two outlying feeder elementary schools, one elementary school in town, and the high school), the Citizens Advisory Committee Constitution consists of seven sections. Statements by the superintendent and school board chairman regarding the role of the…

This training manual documents planning and procedures employed in the development of a coordinated, comprehensive, year-long inservice library training program designed to stimulate and motivate the habit of library usage by students and teachers in the rural poverty area of Holmes County, Mississippi. Participants in the program included…

Developed to meet the needs of small rural school districts, this guide assists local education agencies in undertaking an institutional self-evaluation of their compliance with Title IX regulations. It also attempts to help them modify policies and practices where necessary. The materials have been developed to allow for modification to unique…

Outlines the experiences of one small district in introducing microcomputers. Lessons learned concern a computer checkout procedure and teacher inservice training. (JM)

Develops a proposed model for the establishment of rural teacher centers which calls for and defines teacher educator involvement, establishes interdependence between rural school districts, and depends on local teachers for direction. (Author)

Evaluations of rural and small schools done by stakeholders provide a broader base of involvement than those done internally by persons with a vested interest or potential conflict of interest. Presents tasks for initiating a stakeholders' evaluation, groups considered to be stakeholders, evaluation standards, and elements to include in a school…

After the Montana Board of Public Education enacted new accreditation standards in 1989, the original Montana rural school curriculum guide no longer reflected state standards. A new rural curriculum guide was developed by drawing on pertinent sections of the Montana School Accreditation Standards and Procedures Manual, and by including model…

A multi-stage process was used to develop a model of parent involvement that could be effectively implemented in rural schools. The stages were: (1) an extensive review of the literature on existing models of parent involvement; (2) identification of a "typical" rural Montana school district--Conrad; (3) training Conrad teachers and parents in one…