The proceedings consist of the entire major addresses of Senator Nancy Landon Kassebaum, Steve Miller, and Walter Turner, and abbreviated versions of 29 other papers or presentations. The materials deal with a variety of rural-focused topics: women (Evelyn Hausmann); teacher career ladder plans (Paul Burden); inservice (Robert Norton, Myron…

Attitudes expressed in Iowa's news media recently show a change of attitude from an urban or metropolitan slant to a more pro-rural, pro-agrarian point of view. Iowa's major daily news medium is now saying that the state's character, culture, economy, values, beliefs, and social attitudes are in jeopardy, and Iowans should have the moral and…

Many rural school districts struggling with declining elementary school enrollments will soon face the more complex problems of declining high school enrollment. School districts with only one high school do not have the option of consolidation and must find innovative solutions to the problem of maintaining educational quality with dwindling…

To provide information on characteristics of rural and small schools in Region VII of the U.S. Department of Education, this profile presents selected demographic data on schools in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska. A narrative section discusses the purpose of the report, definitions of rural and nonmetropolitan classifications, percentages of…

During 1976-77, 42% of U.S. schools operated with fewer than 600 pupils and 27% operated with fewer than 300 pupils; Iowa had 181 K-12 public school systems with fewer than 300 pupils in 1977-78. All of Iowa's smaller school systems were located in the more sparsely populated rural areas of the state, had higher than average per pupil assessed…

Recalls highlights on student days in a one-room country school. Describes school maintenance routines, individualized instruction, school programs, and holiday celebrations. Concludes that alumni of one-room schools are proud of their heritage and feel that the education they received reflects the nation's finest values. (JHZ)

This volume contains short papers and commentaries from a conference on rural education in Iowa. Prefatory notes compare the characteristics of Iowa rural students and rural schools to those of the North Central states in general, and discuss two rural education issues repeatedly identified at the conference--equity of educational opportunities…

The 1984 conference proceedings consists of introductory material followed by 12 major addresses in 4 general sessions: "Building Partnerships in Rural Education," Robert M. Worthington; "Greetings from the National Rural Education Association," James D. Jess; "Excellence in Rural Education," Anne Campbell;…

An overview of the status of rural school financing revealed three major reasons why rural schools are facing major problems in financing today: (1) school reforms have generally failed to address the specific needs of rural and small schools; (2) researchers have failed to recognize small school differences in their collection, classification and…

Political organization is an alternative to the so-called inevitability of losing one's rural school or one's small community; People United for Rural Education (P.U.R.E.), organized to promote the survival of rural schools and the concept of rural as a credible way of life, has been an effective political organization. The reversal of urban…

Designed to preserve the rich heritage of the rural school system which passed from the education scene in the 1930's and 1940's, this narrative, part history and part nostalgia, describes the author's own elementary education and the secure community life centered in the one room Spring Valley School in Hamilton County, Iowa, in the early decades…

Scheduled for implementation in 1985, Student Excellence through Educational Development of Staff (SEEDS) is a 3-year cooperative partnership between four rural Southwest Iowa school districts to provide comprehensive, long-term staff development that promises to heighten student achievement through increasing instructional/supervision skills of…

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…