This book provides information and guidance to rural community members for improving their schools through community involvement. It encourages new ways of thinking about the purposes of education, the roles of schools, and methods of teaching and learning. After establishing the purpose and need for community involvement in rural small schools, the book proposes a new focus for rural schools for the 21st century, emphasizing collaboration and the process approach to learning. It addresses the advantages and disadvantages of small schools. Six chapters give examples of how schools and communities have gone about solving their problems and achieving their goals. The last three chapters are devoted to putting goals into action. The chapter titles are: (1) Your School, Your Community, and You; (2) The New Basics; (3) Small By Choice: Wrestling with Consolidation; (4) Your Community as a Focus of Study; (5) Foxfire; (6) Schools, Business, and Development; (7) The Four-Day School Week; (8) The Multi-Grade Classroom; (9) Education and Technology; (10) Getting Organized and Gathering Information; (11) Making Decisions; and (12) Raising Funds. References and resources are listed after each chapter. The appendices provide additional information about the organization of the school system, organizations and journals that can be used as resources, the Woodlands Mountain Institute which authored the book, and guidelines to decide on what level to work. The handbook contains numerous planning and decisionmaking worksheets. (KS)