This paper uses data from research projects that deliberately set out to tell positive stories about educators who were working with the children and families of migratory agricultural workers in the US. The aim underpinning these projects was to move beyond the deficit discourses and stories of blame that so often circulate, particularly in…

For more than a decade, it has become more of a challenge to both attract and retain quality pre-service teachers to both rural and remote locations within Australia. Many pre-service teachers are reluctant to leave a preferred metropolitan location to undertake a rural or remote professional experience and often have negative views concerning…

The Bureau of Indian Affairs' Chinle Agency is responsible for the education of 3,500 Navajo children; 230 are special education students. A questionnaire revealed that regular teachers felt inadequately prepared to teach the special education student. Project SERT provided 45 hours of graduate level instruction in special education knowledge and…

Argues that the most effective in-service programs for rural schools take place in the classroom with teachers and in-service tutors sharing the teaching, analysis, and evaluation. Describes such a program that helped rural Norfolk and Suffolk (England) elementary teachers gain skill and confidence in teaching science. (JHZ)

The first 27 pages of this report summarize the efforts to develop a favorable climate toward career education in the schools of an eight-county area of Kentucky. The area is beset by occupatioanl, housing, educational, and geographical problems. Orientation meetings were held for superintendents and directors, career education coordinators,…

Evaluation of a 3-year transition education program at the Pingelly School in Western Australia used data from 29 students and staff interviews, direct observation, and document analysis to compare 4 projects established to improve the employability of students (in particular, Aboriginal students and girls who were at highest risk of being early…

An Australian preservice teacher education course used interactive television to present real-life, rural teaching situations as examples of best practice. These were integrated with problem-based learning scenarios focusing on dilemmas faced by practicing teachers in multigraded rural classrooms. Evaluation revealed positive feedback from both…

One of four programs funded nationally to test the notion that increased efficiency in the use of student and teacher time would result in higher student achievement, the Cotopaxi/Westcliffe Project was unique in that the two Colorado districts involved were small, rural, and operated on a four-day school week. The 4-year intervention consisted of…

This paper focuses on the use of Gardner's (1985) Multiple Intelligence Theory (MIT) in the restructuring of the curriculum at elementary schools in Pawlet, Vermont. It discusses the state of education in Vermont, the need to restructure and improve assessment at the Pawlet schools, and the adoption of MIT to further this goal. The bulk of the…

The Louisiana Department of Education provides formalized preschool programs for handicapped children in 65 public schools, with 40 of those programs serving sparsely populated areas. The statewide program was evaluated from January 1985 to June 1986 using a multiple-model research design that included data collection via 39 program visits, 59…

Evaluation of the Mobile Classroom Project, which provided complementary and supplementary educational experiences not available through the Primary Correspondence Schools (PCS) for 58 isolated country children in Central Queensland during 1978 and 1979, used personal observations; comments from parents, home supervisors, and key educators…

This report illustrates how community service learning can be used as a vehicle for achieving the goals of education and youth development and, concurrently, how it is highly consistent with the goals of systemic educational reform, particularly in rural schools and communities. Part 1 covers the definition of service learning as a method of…

A 3-year cooperative program between the College of Saint Rose (Albany, New York) and surrounding rural school districts has two main goals: to help rural Chief School Officers (CSOs) design staff development activities to meet educational needs of mainstreamed handicapped students and to improve the college's preservice teacher education program…

Data for evaluation of the Mobile Remedial Unit, instituted to assist approximately 250 isolated Queensland children with learning difficulties during 1978 and 1979, were obtained by visits to 10 schools; discussions with principals, teachers, administrators, and the 2 mobile remedial teachers; document analysis; and travel with a remedial teacher…

This proceedings includes 62 papers on rural special education. Papers present promising practices for rural special education, current research, program descriptions, discussions of theory, and topics of timely concern. The papers are organized in order of presentation, and are categorized in a topical index under the following subjects:…