University training programs and public school systems must address the development of beginning teacher assistance programs which include the use of mentors. This paper describes Project RAISE (Rural America Institute for Special Educators), a masters level program that trains preservice and practicing special education teachers. This project…

This case study evaluates the case of a 20-year-old young Australian adult born with agenesis of the corpus callosum, the area of the brain uniting the hemispheres. Deficits commonly associated with agenesis of the corpus callosum are mental retardation, motor involvement, seizure activity, and lateral transfer difficulties. The report: (1)…

Since 1983, the North Dakota Statewide Mentally Retarded/Developmentally Disabled Faculty Staff Training Program has used a career ladder approach to provide training to over 10,000 staff, primarily in scattered rural developmental-disability facilities. Cooperative relationships among the Department of Human Services, Minot State University, and…

Howe-To Industries is an intergenerational entrepreneurship project at the John de la Howe School, a state-supported institution for at-risk youth in rural McCormick County, South Carolina. Expansion of this type of program into public schools could engage the community and school system in a mutually beneficial relationship. John de la Howe…

This paper discusses the integration of positivist single-subject design with interpretive, or naturalist, qualitative methods in the development of effective interventions for rural special education students. The resulting research/intervention design includes: (1) extending the normal baseline period from 3 to 10 days thus allowing the…

This paper describes ethnosociology and provides an application of this interpretive research model in dealing with problems in rural special education. The expansion of rural special education knowledge should begin with discovering and elaborating on special education knowledge at the local theory level. Such inquiry would be based on the…

Most students enter their first formal science courses with intelligently conceived and sophisticated concepts of science. Some of these may be compatible with the principles of modern science, but others may be incorrect, inadequate, outdated, or otherwise unacceptable. Conceptual frameworks based on intuitive misperceptions, naive inferences,…

This paper describes the current British education system as background to a discussion of implementation of the 1981 Education Act in Powys County, Wales. Special education within this system has traditionally occurred off-site of mainstream campuses. Generally, the Act defines special education, imposes on Local Education Authorities (LEAs) the…

A geographically-based, random sample of 62 children, balanced for child gender, and their mothers who met selection criteria were observed and interviewed to determine the correlates of rural children's mental development. It was hypothesized that rural children's intellectual development would be positively correlated with a number of ecological…

Support for public education wavers in a number of states due to a lack of evidence indicating that increased funding is associated with increases in output. Maintaining and increasing this support, however, is critical for rural communities as they seek to strengthen their human capital base as a strategy for economic growth and development. The…

The extension role of Tuskegee Institute and the 16 black land grant colleges established by the Morrill Act of 1890 has been to diffuse among the non-university citizens of America useful and practical information on agriculture, home economics, and related areas. Tuskegee's extension efforts began in 1880 and flourished under the leadership of…

The paper describes the Rural Special Education Preservice Project which is intended to increase the number of appropriately certified teachers in rural districts and special education cooperatives in Kansas. Problems in the state include a shortage of special education teachers, increased numbers of students qualifying for special education, high…

This paper presents the findings of a study of the effectiveness of collaboration between the Rural Education Research and Service Consortium at Tennessee Technological University and rural schools in its service area. The study uses the instrumentation and research design of the Good Schools Project (GSP) initiated by Kappa Delta Pi in 1984.…

Responses of 127 agricultural specialists concerning their information seeking and interactive contacts within the Missouri Extension Service revealed an interpersonal communicative network among subject matter specialists with a potential for performing the integration (putting together) function on behalf of farmers. This occurred in an…

Until recently other countries (Australia, Great Britain, the Scandinavian countries) have been well ahead of the United States in development of rural education policy, In 1969 and again in 1977 the U.S. Office of Education (USOE) produced task force reports with recommendations for rural education. The 1969 recommendations were very specific and…