A 38-item questionnaire designed to collect data on 5 career anchors (security, technical/functional competence, managerial competence, creativity, and autonomy) and 3 career drives (identity, service, and variety) was administered to 153 rural educators in eastern-central Utah. Using a factor analytic approach to ascertain the internal validity…

Although shortages of certified special education teachers occur in both rural and urban areas, they are more critical in rural districts, where recruitment can be problematic and there are few special educators on staff. In response to chronic shortages in the state, the Utah State Office of Education created a critical personnel shortages…

The Northeastern Utah Telelearning Project was created in 1985 to remedy problems of meeting core curriculum requirements and providing educational equity in rural schools, and to provide cost effective educational delivery systems to school districts. It was determined that a distance educational computer network using audiographic…

Profiles of teachers from 30 rural and 10 urban Utah school districts who left the teaching profession were gathered via school district superintendents who were asked to identify teachers who left the profession during the school year and those who left the profession following the close of school. For those who left during the school year, data…

Discipline concerns have consistently been ranked in the top 10 of the most serious problems facing public schools. Discipline problems were examined in 12 urban and rural middle and junior high schools in Utah. For each discipline referral over a 5-week period, a standardized student referral form was completed that documented action taken by the…

Over the past 20 years, there has been a steady increase in the number of paraprofessional personnel employed in special education, Title 1, and bilingual education programs. Currently, there are approximately 500,000 paraeducators working in the United States. Data indicates that 95 percent of paraeducators are women working for little more than…

The Utah Elementary Integration Dissemination (UEID) Project of the University of Utah disseminates proven instructional planning and delivery practices used in the education of young children with severe disabilities and provides technical support for inclusive programs and pratices for these students. Many rural school districts are forced to…

Many schools of education do not specifically direct attention to programs that encourage, train and prepare teachers for life in rural schools and communities. Also the professors who concentrate most of their time in the city complex have had little exposure to rural needs and experiences. However, with some leadership on the part of rural…

Three rural Utah schools received a grant to improve teachers' skills in adapting core curriculum to the needs of diverse students, provide access to teacher support services, and improve inclusion for students with diverse learning needs. The 2-year grant enabled one person to coordinate staff development and provide comprehensive inclusion…

Utah is experiencing chronic, critical, special-educator shortages in all positions and disability areas, including speech and language pathologists and school psychologists. The Utah Attrition Study found that the most common reason for special education professionals leaving positions was "moving out of state," followed by personal…

High school administrators in sparsely populated rural areas are showing great interest in interactive satellite instruction as a way to resolve teacher shortages and meet rigorous state graduation requirements. Televised classes permitting live teacher/student interaction via satellite communication systems and regular telephone lines provide…