Rural schools that reorganize themselves as genuine learning communities can develop and maintain a professional development process that benefits staff and students. Key components of a learning community are trust, respect, and collegiality. In schools that have become learning communities, teams of educators work collaboratively in structures…

A long-standing problem for rural school districts is recruiting and retaining quality teachers for their classrooms. The lack of resources, low salary and incentives, and personal and professional isolation are some reasons why fewer good teachers choose to work in rural schools. In order to address the challenges facing rural schools, states and…

This report pays tribute to the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Rural Systemic Initiatives (RSIs), an investment of more than $140 million to improve mathematics and science education in some of rural America's most impoverished communities. The report illustrates the impact of NSF's RSI program on a national scale. Each RSI planned a project…

While research does exist on how teachers feel about multicultural education or bilingual education, very little data exists on how teachers cognitively construct a core concept of these educational approaches--cultural difference. This article describes the investigation of this understanding among 155 teachers in midwestern USA from rural, urban…

This paper discusses an effective model of systematic staff development focusing on prevention and intervention strategies used with at-risk students. The following are key elements: (1) matching of the purposes of training to the goals of the school districts; (2) multiple and integrated activities; (3) participants' thorough orientation to the…

Emphasizing the importance of the role of primary preventive mental health, an inservice program was designed and implemented by the Tri-County Human Services Center in rural, southwest Wisconsin to help school personnel deal with the signs and symptoms of teacher burnout. Acting on the principle that the prevention of disorders, as well as the…

Although all areas of the country share certain educational challenges--such as having quality teachers in every classroom; making every school a peaceable, safe environment in which to learn; and ensuring that every child learns to read well and comprehends science and mathematics at a functionally high level--each region confronts a unique set…

This study examined how teachers in a geographically remote location experienced participation in a collaborative, professional development group project designed to develop student performance assessment tools. Participating teachers completed focus group and individual interviews as well as personal teaching efficacy surveys. All teachers new to…

This report summarizes the 2005-2006 evaluation results of the Michigan Freedom to Learn (FTL) program. The major goal of the FTL program is to improve student learning and achievement in Michigan schools through the integration of 21st Century technology tools with teaching and learning in K-12 classrooms. A key component of FTL was a rigorous…

This paper describes Project ACCESS, in which a state education agency, a university, and a rural school district collaborated to provide support and technical assistance for educators working with autistic students. Teachers attended preservice and inservice programs to receive training in working with autistic students. During the 1989-1990…

The purpose of this action study was to examine teachers' beliefs about the causes of stress and burnout in a rural Arkansas school district in 2004. One hundred thirty teachers of all grade levels of the school district were sampled with a Likert survey of 45 items. Subscales of the survey include stressor associated with administration,…

South Carolina's technical assistance centers focus on improving low student mathematics and science performance. They provide assistance and professional development to teachers in poor, isolated rural schools. Curriculum Leadership Institutes (which renew and enhance teachers' content knowledge and pedagogy) are a primary part of the centers.…

This article describes the first year of a 3-year professional development program designed to train two rural elementary schools to implement a model for preventing reading failure. The model provides a continuum of instruction from the general reading curriculum to intensive reading instruction for students with diverse learning needs.…

Describes how one rural school district provides staff development through an on-line program that is followed up with on-site training. Teachers learn key concepts of learning styles via the on-line program, then receive on-site training followed by 8 hours of field practice. A sidebar examines different learning styles. (SM)

Inservice training and staff development for rural schools are complicated by limited access to advanced training programs, limited financial resources, and a high attrition rate among rural educators. One way in which rural schools and universities can collaboratively work to fill this void is through distance education, which can help rural…