We explain in this article the need for board training in rural America irrespective of industry or government sector. We discuss how an assessment of training needs has led to the launch of a new project called the National Board Basics Curriculum (NBBC) project. In this project, we have identified four key core competencies that every board…

"Why Rural Matters 2011-12" is the sixth in a series of biennial reports analyzing the contexts and conditions of rural education in each of the 50 states and calling attention to the need for policymakers to address rural education issues in their respective states. While it is the sixth in a series, this report is not simply an…

The role of functional literacy, linked to employment, leads to a narrow view of rural learners' need both economically and socially. The drive for individuals to take responsibility for their own learning and development is, indeed, a good thing. However, the burden of guilt felt by those who are unable, or unwilling, to achieve the standards set…

Regional adult education and training providers have been required in recent decades to adapt to funding structures rather than engage with their local communities. This has meant providing education programs that are funded based on national or State and Territory based policy frameworks, often linked to human capital development. Adult education…

Migrant English as a Second Language (ESL) has been an important form of rural adult education in the United States for decades. This chapter provides a national and historical overview of rural and migrant ESL. The educational needs of the growing population of seasonal, migrant agricultural workers are discussed and situated in relation to the…

This article reports a study of parents' management of the education of primary school-aged children in their care in remote and rural locations of Western Australia. It presents a theory of the ways in which these parents, in the role of home tutors, "manage" the schooling of their children in a distance education regime in isolated…

The World Declaration on Education for All in 1990 and the World Education Forum in Dakar in 2000 reaffirmed the right to learn and a commitment to meet the basic learning needs of all people by expanding learning opportunities and working for a fully literate society. In the Indian context, especially in rural India, it is still a cherished…

Purpose: This paper draws on research which began in 2006 with students in a graduate course on rural education. Its purpose was to find out what graduate students saw as current issues of rural education, how that compared to the literature, and what they thought supporting agencies such as government and universities needed to be doing to…

In many rural areas, community colleges are the institutions primarily responsible for providing postsecondary educational opportunities. As a result, they are tasked with the challenging responsibility of expanding those opportunities, training a rural workforce, and building a healthy and inclusive community. Like their urban and suburban…

Rural society is suffering acutely from the shock of social change. Rural community colleges, therefore, must interweave life and learning. Four crucial needs of rural students are detailed; all revolve around the need for coping skills developed through dialogue and exposure to new ideas through exploration and/or confrontation. (DC)

Discusses the strengths and weaknesses of rural education and calls for the establishment of a rural education network that would disseminate information about exemplary programs dealing with problems unique to rural schools. (FL)