This report describes a program designed to enhance social studies skills and knowledge. The target areas for enhancement are geography skills and community understanding. The targeted population is a second grade class in a rural Midwestern setting. The need for strengthening these skills was documented by observation, checklists, surveys, and…

Describes a rural school system's successful efforts to help second- and third-grade students master basic facts in arithmetic by developing and using audiotaped material for addition and subtraction. Explains the development of the three-phase tapes. Notes the improvement of students' attitudes and the disappearance of finger counting. (SB)

Examines differences in democratic behavior of children of different gender and ethnicity attending traditional rural primary schools and those attending rural schools with experimental active learning programs. Shows children in active learning programs engage in more democratic behaviors. Relates this to small group activities. Notes this leads…