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…

Two statewide Montana projects address educational needs assessed through a biennial Comprehensive System of Personnel Development survey. Although addressing different needs, the projects use similar strategies for effective implementation in a large rural state. Montana Training for Inclusive Education is a program of inservice training,…

This document consists of papers that received recognition in a competition sponsored by the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment and the National Rural Institute on Alcohol and Drug Abuse. The competition sought to focus attention on problems in providing treatment and prevention services for drug and alcohol problems in rural areas. The papers…

This report describes a program developed by West Virginia University to address the increased demand for doctoral level special education personnel in higher education, particularly for colleges and universities in rural areas. Data indicate that the available pool of qualified teacher educators in special education has not been sufficient to…

This paper describes the North Dakota Statewide Mental Retardation/Developmental Disabilities Facility Staff Training Program. For the past 10 years, the training program, in association with Minot State University, has been available to agencies and their employees who provide services to individuals with developmental disabilities in rural…

This final report of a five-year project describes the activities of Parents, Let's Unite for Kids (PLUK), a Montana program designed to provide support, training, and information to parents of infants, toddlers, and children with disabilities. A priority of the project is to serve members of groups that have been traditionally underserved,…

Changes in Australia's rural economy have resulted in reductions in the availability of government services and education and training. One response to these reductions has been the emergence of community-managed multirole facilities that deliver a range of community services, including access to education and training. Although these centers are…

The four Regional Rural Development Centers are linked to the land-grant institutions and engage in activities and projects that seek to improve the social and economic well-being of rural people. This combined report of the four Centers begins with a highlighted project from each Center. The projects are presented in some detail to provide…

The Intermountain Community Learning and Information Services (ICLIS) project was begun in 1985 to provide rural communities in Colorado, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming with greater access to information and educational programming. Computer centers were housed in nine rural public libraries to provide services related to literacy, career guidance,…

This paper describes two pilot programs that are developing networks among rural New Zealand schools to address the educational isolation of students. A program located in the South Island consists of a consortium of six small rural high schools using distance education technology to offer an expanded curriculum to rural students. The goal of the…

This book, consisting of a series of discussion papers and case studies, is a compilation of the papers presented at a region 1 workshop on participatory research in Africa. Included in the volume are the following discussion papers: "The Concept of Development in the Social Sciences," by Kemal Mustafa and Deborah Bryceson; "The…

Lake City Community College in Lake City, Florida, offers an array of services for single parents and displaced homemakers residing in a five-county rural area. The project emphasizes rural upward mobility through a team effort by staff of Florida's departments of continuing education and vocational training. The project staff includes four…

Scheduled for implementation in 1985, Student Excellence through Educational Development of Staff (SEEDS) is a 3-year cooperative partnership between four rural Southwest Iowa school districts to provide comprehensive, long-term staff development that promises to heighten student achievement through increasing instructional/supervision skills of…

This series of newspaper articles evaluates North Carolina's schools and establishes a relationship between the state's rural poverty and low student achievement levels. Test scores in 1988 are consistently low in all but four of the poorest rural counties. Small schools are disappearing from rural areas. Large schools can offer students more…

This report profiles the condition of education in California's rural and small schools, placing public schooling and rurality into their social and economic contexts. The data focus on three issues: (1) the economic and social environments in which schools operate; (2) characteristics of rural schools, students, and teachers; and (3)…