In rural northeastern South Carolina, a resource room teacher from a Hartsville elementary school and a teacher educator from Coker College supported each other during change processes affecting their respective programs. This voluntary 3-year association of a single college faculty member and a single classroom teacher was characterized by a…

The audiographics distance learning system (ADL) was piloted by Far West Laboratory (FWL) in 1987-1989 at four school districts in the Great Basin region of Utah. This project was designed to: (1) further develop ADL planning materials for rural schools; (2) disseminate information about ADL to regional and national audiences; and (3) provide ADL…

This document includes a project description, an evaluator's report, and other information on an itinerant teacher program at Mount Aloysius Junior College (MAJC) in Cresson, Pennsylvania. MAJC, a private institution sponsored by the Religious Sisters of Mercy, enrolls 550 full-time and 450 part-time students. The program, supported by the Fund…

Rural elementary school teachers interested in improving science instruction are frequently hampered by inadequate training in science, lack of information on local natural history resources, and time and curriculum constraints. On the other hand, rural schools are usually located near meadows, forests, or undeveloped land, and rural students…

Capstone for a Competitive Edge Summer Camp--1989 was a pilot program formed with input by business and industry, rural vocational educators, and the rural advisory council in conjunction with the Arizona Department of Education and the Arizona Center for Vocational Education. The program's primary intent was to meet the needs of rural vocational…

This paper describes a collaborative project involving Texas Tech University personnel and four school districts in a school improvement program. The project was built around an agreement between the university personnel and school districts committing them to the program and using the Outcomes Driven Developmental Model as the basis for action.…

The retention rate for rural teachers has historically been low, often with loss of two or more teachers per school year in some areas. Recently, a surplus of teachers has relieved this problem, but a predicted shortage will aggravate the situation. A survey of rural teachers was conducted in 1980 in British Columbia to try to find a reason for…

This paper describes a study that consisted of interviews with 38 elementary school principals in 21 Western and Midwestern states. The sample was made up of 27 men and 11 women with an age range of 35 to 64, all of whom worked in small-town schools. The paper describes the various challenges faced by these principals, including academic deficits,…

These five articles offer ideas on rural education, school consolidation, and community-based educational improvement initiatives. The first article, by Boyd Kidwell, gives a status report of rural schools, which are saddled by declining enrollments, fewer dollars, and demands for higher standards. Examples in Georgia, Texas, and Missouri are used…

A partnership involving eight rural school districts in Indiana developed out of the need for a cooperative services organization to communicate with its school board members. A Joint Services Cooperative Committee composed of one or two school board members from each district visits classes, reviews program policies, and keeps fellow board…

This report summarizes activities of the 5-year Rural Education Project of the Mid-continent Regional Educational Laboratory (McREL) and reviews the current state of rural education. Deteriorating agricultural economy and mandated school reforms were found to have exacerbated rural school problems of maintaining quality programs in situations of…

Political organization is an alternative to the so-called inevitability of losing one's rural school or one's small community; People United for Rural Education (P.U.R.E.), organized to promote the survival of rural schools and the concept of rural as a credible way of life, has been an effective political organization. The reversal of urban…

The directors of 12 teacher centers describe their experiences as field agents, in multifaceted roles such as catalysts, solution-givers, facilitators, resource linkers, coordinators, or trainers. Ways that the teacher centers have offered help to schools and to teachers are outlined. The directors believe that change is made first on an…

This report details the accomplishments and major activities of a 3-year career education project serving more than 186,000 individuals within the Western Wisconsin Vocational, Technical, and Adult Education District. Basic to the project design is the establishment of five career centers which provide a wide variety of career information and…

Describes a project involving four rural school districts that uses interactive cable television to link classrooms and teach advanced high school courses prohibitively expensive for any one system to offer alone. This report briefly describes how the system works and discusses objectives, teacher preparation, funding, and evaluation procedures.…