A 1982-83 study conducted at Brigham Young University compared K-12 rural schools with fewer than 300 students to those with enrollments of 301-900, using information from districts in 45 states. Of the 15,601 American K-12/1-12 public school systems, 1,414 (9.1%) were identified as enrolling 300 students or fewer, and 2,711 (17.4%) enrolled…

Descriptive correlational research employing a mailed questionnaire was used to study perceptions of agricultural education professionals regarding Swaziland's preservice teacher education program in agriculture. Areas examined were student selection, student teaching, inservice education, teacher educators, coordination and linkage with other…

To meet the need for improved science instruction in rural schools, a project to identify, honor, and provide training for outstanding rural science teachers in grades 6-9 was designed cooperatively by the National Science Foundation, Kansas State University, Kansas Cosmosphere and Discovery Center, and rural school districts. In order to create a…

From 1910 to 1935 a campaign was waged in the southern United States to eradicate adult illiteracy. This program was primarily based on volunteers, and it revolved around night, summer, or cotton mill schools that were often termed Opportunity Schools. Many parallels can be drawn to current efforts to address the problem of functional illiteracy…

To determine perceptions of school board members, teachers, and principals in rural schools about the quality of their educational programs, the type of preparation they had received in preservice programs, and the inservice opportunities available to them, responses to questionnaires from 2,028 teachers, 119 principals, and 113 school board…

Lewis-Clark State College, a small college in Lewiston, Idaho, establishes close cooperation with rural schools through specialized teacher preparation, community outreach, and willingness to bring educational ideas and expertise to rural areas. The teacher preparation program stresses development of professional versatility through composite…

Perceived negative aspects of teaching in rural areas, including personal and professional isolation, multiple subject preparation, etc., provide barriers to effective recruitment and retention of quality teachers. The predicted shortage of teachers will likely have a significant impact on an already competitive market for high quality, rural…

As part of a panel on rural education, Dr. Edgar M. Easley spoke on the topic "Urban-Rural Education - Relieving the Tension". Based on findings from literature of adult migration to urban areas, Dr. Easley stated the following implications for adult education teachers and administrators: (1) that the tension found in rural migrants related to…

Five types of counties (College-Professional, Urban, Recreational-Retirement, Extractive, and Most Rural) were identified among 83 counties in the Ozark-Ouchita Uplands in order to determine educational and health impacts resulting from the "population turnaround" of the late 1960's and early 1970's. Variables were computed from…

A two-day exchange between staff of the University of Northern Iowa at Cedar Falls and the Burt Community School proved successful for all participants. The university team (professors, graduate students, and senior students who had completed student teaching) became responsible for the education of the Burt students while the Burt teachers and…

Administrators, counselors, university faculty, and dropouts met initially to discuss the dropout problem and to design a questionnaire which was administered to 270 dropouts from secondary schools in 5 Missouri Ozark school districts and was designed primarily to determine the perceived need or desire for additional vocational or academic…

Twenty papers presented at the Oregon state conference on "Inservice Physical Education and Public Law 94-142" are included in the volume. The first section focuses on the inservice challenge and includes papers on subjects such as the accountability of inservice training for implementation of Public Law 94-142, the practical…

A complex and multi-faceted problem faces those seeking to provide special education to the thousands of handicapped children residing in the nation's rural areas. The major challenge facing rural administrators is how to deliver special education effectively to small numbers of handicapped children who are probably scattered geographically. A…

Recommendations which emerged from the Second and Third National Conferences on Rural America are presented in this revised platform of principles and policy recommendations for rural America. Major goal of the document is to find practical solutions to problems facing rural people so that strategies of rural revitalization and action can be…

This paper overviews strategies employed by the Appalachian Rural Systemic Initiative (ARSI) to implement systemic reform in math, science, and technology education in rural Appalachia. ARSI is one of four Rural Systemic Initiative projects funded by the National Science Foundation to target regions characterized by low population density and high…