A questionnaire survey of rural school teachers (225) and principals (40) attempted to identify skills and characteristics which teachers need to be successful in rural schools; interviews of 32 teachers in 13 rural schools and of 27 rural school trustees were also conducted. Recent literature on training of teachers for rural schools was…

This resource book on rural administrative leadership is the result of 1988 interviews with school administrators involved in successful rural educational programs. The material is divided into eight chapters, each self-contained for separate use. Chapter 1, "Getting to Know the Community," addresses qualities of living and working in…

Of 238 small K-12 rural public school districts (enrollments under 900) identified in the Arkansas study, 40 were chosen for use in gathering information to assist educators in understanding and improving education of rural residents. An 80% response rate to the 123-item questionnaire mailed to superintendents provided information on district…

A questionnaire was developed in order to discover the aspects of P.L. 94-142 (the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975) that prove both most and least problematic for rural special education cooperatives. A cooperative was defined as any interdistrict administrative arrangement that provides specific services to member school…

This paper studies the needs and strengths of rural schools with the intent of improving rural science education. It examines the history of rural schools, and posits a rural-to-urban continuum of characteristics, citing studies that indicate rural schools are more effective in some ways than urban schools. The paper looks at needs of rural/small…

Demographic changes between 1970 and 1980 will affect New York rural schools in the 1980's. In the 1970's overall New York state population declined nearly 4% (about 700,000 persons), but rural areas gained about 100,000. Rural New York school districts now serve a population of about 2.5 million, a 5% increase since 1970. During the 1980's,…

The Nebraska educational system is experiencing internal turmoil even though its students are highly ranked nationally on standardized tests and show a higher ratio of graduating high school than those in most other states. This report was commissioned by Nebraska education officials who were concerned that their state was not taking a large…

This collection of 5 major papers and 32 abstracts covers a range of issues surrounding rural education. In the first paper, Glen Shaw, a rural Minnesota schools administrator, contends economic and technological changes have threatened rural jobs and the rural way of life. Anecdotes and statistics are employed to define rural problems and to urge…

The circumstances preceding and following the 1984 merger of two small school districts in North Central New York State contained cooperation, controversy, and disharmony. The school districts had enough similarities--in their rural, agricultural base, in the pride and loyalty with which many residents viewed their schools, in the central role…

The relationship between the costs of schooling and the size of school districts is discussed. The first section of this paper provides a critical survey of what economists have written about economies of scale and questions whether bigger is really cheaper or more efficient, as is generally found in commercial endeavors. The second section…

Materials contained in the 16 volumes that make up the Rural America Series suggest practices through which rural schools can meet local community needs and realize their potential for career program delivery. This handbook, one of five in subset C, describes a variety of school-based activities designed to assist students in accomplishing that…

This report presents attempts to understand more about how six background characteristics (small scale, population sparsity, district isolation within a BOCES (Boards of Cooperative Educational Service), interaction between a change in enrollment and initial scale of the district, rapid changes in full value property wealth over time, and large…

To measure urban-rural differences in types of career counseling received by students and perceptions held by students regarding career planning activities, research was conducted to extend the 1975 study by Noeth, Roth, and Prediger, which used the same career questions and resulting data, but did not include the urban-rural comparison. The…

The 5-year Experimental Schools (ES) project in the South Umpqua, Oregon, school district was observed from a "participant observer" point of view. The South Umpqua district served four rural communities in which residents were adaptable to economic change, accepting of newcomers, and very involved in their communities as decision makers…

A SURVEY OF EDUCATIONAL NEEDS OF POPULATIONS IN THE MOUNTAINS OF EASTERN KENTUCKY WAS CONDUCTED BY BEREA COLLEGE. THE IDENTIFIED EDUCATIONAL INEQUALITIES WERE ATTACKED IN THE RESULTING RURAL SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PROJECT, WHICH INVOLVED OVER 5,000 CHILDREN, 63 TEACHING FELLOWS, AND 38 DIFFERENT SCHOOLS. THE AIMS OF THE PROJECT WERE--(1) TO SELECT…