With the enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the United States entered the "age of high-stakes educational accountability". According to the United States Department of Education, NCLB is designed to change the culture of America's schools by closing the achievement gap, offering more flexibility, giving parents more options, and teaching students based on what works. NCLB has the rural, small schools pondering several dilemmas. First, due to the small number of students, the data from the test results do not yield statistically reliable data. Second, small, rural schools have difficulty showing adequate yearly progress (AYP) because there are frequently not enough students to make the AYP calculations statistically reliable. In addition, NCLB requires that all teachers must be highly qualified meaning that they must be fully endorsed in all subject areas that they teach. Often small, rural high schools have difficulty finding teachers qualified to teach in all the areas necessary. In order to meet the NCLB accountability requirements, school systems have had to dramatically increase the number of assessments that are given to all students. The time required to plan, staff, administer, and evaluate the results of those assessments drains valuable instructional time from an already compromised school day. It has also made schools or districts more aware of the need to address the assessment results for all students. As teachers address the data from the assessments schools realize that new strategies need to be developed in order to improve the outcomes for students. This article discusses ways in which administrators in rural schools can gain better student achievement.