Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL) has identified a research agenda that connects the challenges that rural schools face in implementing No Child Left Behind (NCLB) provisions. The rural education research agenda crafted by McREL includes nine priority topics: (1) Opportunity to learn; (2) School size and student achievement; (3) Teacher quality; (4) Administrator quality; (5) School and district capacity; (6) School finance; (7) Local control and alternative organizational structure; (8) School choice; and (9) Community and parent aspirations and expectations. These priority topics were developed with the help of McREL?s Rural Advisory Committee (RAC). As a first step, the practitioner and policymaker members of the RAC were asked to evaluate the practical utility of 113 research questions that were developed based on McREL?s review of rural education research. This document examines each topic and includes potential research questions.