Provides an overview of how one rural state (Vermont) and respective educational partners (local schoolteachers, administrators, school board, and higher education faculty members) reviewed the effective school research, various models for school improvement alternative data collection instruments, and procedures for analyzing student test data.…

This report describes a study which tested the applicability to rural schools of "effective school" research, which focuses on characteristics associated with schools found effective through analysis of standardized student achievement test scores. Strategies for providing input from local personnel included research awareness sessions,…