The Annenberg Rural Challenge is a national effort to revitalize rural communities and schools and their long-standing values of community, democracy, and care for the natural environment. This collection of five essays presents a number of themes that are central to the Rural Challenge's philosophy. "Bringing It All Back Home: Reclaiming the…

Discusses nine major characteristics of rural schools which affected their willingness to accept change, as revealed in a study of the five-year Rural Experimental Schools Program. Available from: Rural Sociological Society, 325 Morgan Hall, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37916. (NEC)

School at the Center, a U.S. place-based educational initiative, was successfully trialed in North Queensland (Australia). For place-based education to take root in Australia, place-based educational strategies must be taught in preservice teacher education programs. However, to be seriously considered by teacher education programs, place-based…

Describes decentralization and privatization policies in El Salvador's education reform plan and assesses their potential success and limitations. The EDUCO program, in which nonprofit parents' associations in poor rural communities administer community schools, has expanded rural access to education. However, EDUCO also has potential to…

Comments on Foxfire rural education program, focusing on John Puckett's "Foxfire Reconsidered." Examines Eliot Wigginton's brand of educational reform, its ideological evolution, difficulties, detractors, and surrounding issues. Differentiates Wigginton's educational reform from both radical politics-oriented ideology (such as Herbert…

Outlines the 14 points of Deming's business philosophy of Total Quality Management in terms of rural education, including adoption of a common mission, movement from mass inspection (standardized testing) to individualized assessment, constant system improvement, training for those involved in the process, improved communication, employee rewards…

This paper describes the distinct strengths and weaknesses of special education in rural schools and discusses issues regarding rural education reform recommendations, such as inadequate resources, parental involvement, and use of rigidly interpreted performance standards. Preventive service delivery systems are recommended, and several policy…

Explores the manner in which ideology and hidden assumptions, educational policy perspectives, and reform proposals are interrelated in current education reform discussions in Papua New Guinea. Discusses reforms aimed at improving access and retention in primary schools and at restructuring secondary education, and contradictory principles related…

The factory model of organization that resulted from the ascension of industry and economic expansion between 1897 and 1921 was applied to education as well as business. National recommendations aimed to standardize rural education, but local application of these unilateral templates reflected local rural cultures. Examples discussed are…

As the first year of the Sixteenth National People's Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), as well as the first year for the new government, the year 2003 witnessed new events and new expectations in Chinese society. The universalization of compulsory education and the elimination of adult illiteracy made new advancements. Secondary…

This newsletter provides examples from four small, rural school districts of how innovative superintendents plan and provide resources and provide staff development, which are two of the six ways that school administrators effect change. The superintendents are located in a small poor district in the Arkansas Mississippi Delta region, a primarily…

This proceedings contains abstracts of 21 presentations. Titles and presenters are: "Teaching and Learning in Multiage Classrooms" (Laura Blevins and others); "Leadership, School Reform and the Rural School Superintendent" (Mike Boone); "Teaching English as a Second Language from Theory to Practice" (Mingsheng Dai); "A Guide for Central Office…

This case study examines the interaction between basic education (primary education, adult literacy, and nonformal adult education) and economic development needs in rural Zhuji County, Zhejiang Province, located in southeast China. In Zhuji, parents traditionally have endured hardships to send their children to school and otherwise encouraged…

This paper examines the knowledge and acceptance level of special and general education teachers and administrators regarding inclusive education within the rural and diverse state of New Mexico. While inclusive education of disabled students has gained widespread support, little attention has been paid to program implementation within a rural and…

This paper presents a case study of a rural community exhibiting a dramatic turnaround in community support for a new school bond issue. Demographic change was partly responsible for the change in community attitudes, with two waves of immigration altering the long-term conservative orientation of this community. After a series of failed…