Rural, economically disadvantaged students in Southern Appalachia experienced numerous situations that could negatively affect them socially, emotionally, behaviorally, and academically. Educators who routinely worked with rural, economically disadvantaged students should understand the difficulties these students experienced, as well as employ beneficial instructional strategies aimed at positively impacting their academic success. The purpose of this quantitative non-experimental correlational study was to determine the perceptions of teachers located in the Appalachian region of northeastern Tennessee regarding their preservice teacher preparation programs and their beliefs about how adequately prepared they were to teach ED students in such a way as to positively affect those students' educational outcomes. For this research study, I surveyed educators in a small, rural, economically disadvantaged Southern Appalachian school district to understand their perceptions of their teacher preparation programs and how well prepared the educators felt to teach rural, economically disadvantaged students. Educators that participated were grouped by teacher preparation program degree type (bachelor's, master's, alternative) and years of experience in education (0-10 years, 11-20 years, 21-30 years, 31+ years). From the survey results, it was determined that educators with fewer years of experience in the field of education felt most prepared to teach rural, economically disadvantaged students. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]