In late 1980 several regional and national meetings were convened to develop a set of proposed national goals for linking education and economic development in rural America in the 1980s; the 9 commissioned papers in this report provide background information for the overall project and an appendix contains the resulting 10 proposed national goals. The papers include: "Rural America: The Present Realities and Future Prospects" by William P. Kuvlesky and James H. Copp; "Nature, Types and Scale of Rural Development" by Frances Hill; "The Role of Investment Capital in Rural Development" by Lloyd Brace; "Balancing Technological and Human Resources Development: A New Priority for Rural America" by Roger Blobaum; and "Rural Land Use: A Need for New Priorities" by Wendell Fletcher and Charles E. Little. Other papers address: "Linking Education and Local Development: An International Perspective" by Jonathan Sher; "Enhancing Traditional and Innovative Rural Support Services" by Mary A. Agria; "Toward a More Rational Education-Economic Development Connection in Rural America: The Collaborative Model" by Karl A. Gudenberg; and "State-of-the-Art Report: Exemplary Rural Education and Economic Development Initiatives" by Susan J. White. The 15-page appendix presents in turn the 10 priority issues of the conferences, identifies a central problem for each issue, formulates a goal in answer to the problem, synthesizes the discussion, and provides comments. (BRR)