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…

Resources to support curriculum renewal in small rural schools are severely limited. This handbook reports how five professional teacher networks expand available resources through the collective efforts of network members. The networks are Big Sky Telegraph (Montana), Alaskan Teacher Research Network, Bitterroot Teachers' Network (the Idaho…

The ACRE (Action with Communities in Rural England) Rural Adult Education Project was conceived in the spirit of empowering local people to help themselves. This book, a distillation of the experience of the project, was written with the primary object of being of practical use to those who are already involved, or would like to become involved,…

This book was developed as a comprehensive guide to rural education resources, exemplary programs, and products. The guide is organized according to federal regions (1 through 10) and offers almost 200 citations. The cited agencies and programs, including departments of education, schools, resource centers, and outreach programs, are organized by…

Notes shortages of speech-language pathologists and points out strategies that rural school administrators can use to increase the chances or recruiting and retaining them. Topics include knowledge of the professional requirements and competencies, knowledge of caseload size and selection criteria, availability of clinical fellowship supervisor,…

Building a rural community-school development project where students engage in community-based learning experiences requires changes in the way schools prepare rural youth for the future. This publication examines the kinds of changes a school system must make before planning and implementing community-based learning strategies. Changes in…

Risk communication is a methodology recommended for rural special education professionals who communicate with parents and teachers. Using rural special education examples, the steps of risk-based decision making are described: hazard identification, hazard assessment, risk assessment, risk management, risk analysis, and risk communication.…

As the Internet and the World Wide Web grow, more teachers are authoring school Web pages. Such pages have particular potential for use in rural areas by special educators, but their quality is often poor. All Web pages should be accessible for people with disabilities. Solutions to common accessibility and other problems are described. (Contains…

Provides strategies to facilitate more effective professional/paraprofessional collaboration in special education: clarification of roles and responsibilities, discussion of job expectations, daily scheduling, ongoing communication, and regularly scheduled training. Lists sample role descriptions for professionals and paraprofessionals, discussion…

This book provides information supplemental to the accompanying videotape regarding the implementation and use of two-way, full-motion interactive television. Based on a study conducted by the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, "Local Heroes" describes in detail how citizens have implemented the technology in small rural…

Student behavior problems have been found to be the most significant and frequently addressed concern of rural educators. A model was developed in response to the needs of rural educators in West Virginia for planning, documenting, implementing, and monitoring behavior plans for students with emotional and behavior problems. The first step…

This packet of materials provides information about tours for rural secondary students in Washington, D.C., sponsored jointly by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), state rural electric cooperatives, and statewide associations of rural electric systems. Since 1958 this program has selected high school students to visit…

A rural school administrator functions in many roles including disciplinarian, extracurricular supervisor, community liaison, curriculum leader, interpreter of state department regulations and fiscal director. New technologies in education have given even more roles to the administrator. The need to keep abreast of the plethora of educational…

This document describes approaches in conducting naturalistic studies in two different countries with contrasting educational settings. Naturalistic research methodology is described by one of the writers as "an explicit undertaking to lay aside our ideas and concern ourselves with finding the subjects' perspectives in their non-theoretical…

The design of a needs assessment model to establish the existing status and requirements of general and special education in eight small rural South Dakota districts interested in forming an education cooperative involved: (1) synthesizing major areas of need into workable components; (2) designing a needs assessment instrument based upon these…