Rural school districts in five Arkansas towns set up school-based development corporations (SBDCs) to provide vocational and career training relevant to the needs of rural high school students and the community and to improve the economic and social welfare of the community as a whole. Each SBDC owned and operated businesses using student labor supervised by school faculty, generated income-producing opportunities, coordinated local development efforts, trained young people in marketable skills, promoted development of managerial and entrepreneurial skills, and stimulated needed community social services. The SBDCs described in the study include newspapers, a roller skating rink, a day care center, a temporary employment service, a photo lab, a movie theater, and a public beach. Narrative descriptions of each project relate successes and failures, community and participant attitudes, and results. Evaluation reports contain socioeconomic and educational objectives, outcomes, financial statements, and summary evaluations. A first year evaluation report of SBDC's sponsoring agency--the Arkansas Community Education Development Association--includes goals, objectives/outcomes, a financial statement, and a comments section which notes that each community now has a real "laundry list" of potential activities for Year Two of the project. (LFL)