Career ladders have been proposed as one way to address problems rural and small schools have in recruiting academically able and talented teachers, recognizing them once they start teaching, and retaining them in the teaching role. While there are differences in career ladder plans, there are also some common features, e.g., predetermined…

Three small rural school districts in Montana and Wyoming used alternate school day scheduling to make time for staff and curriculum development inservice programs. The schedule of one short and four long days delivered the instructional time of 175 6-hour days each year. Benefits of alternate scheduling included time for regular inservice…

A merit pay plan can be successful if it contains unified and agreed upon objectives, integration and expansion of present key tasks, and endorsement and involvement of the entire educational staff. The responsibility of developing appropriate goals rests with the board of education, while the responsibility of documenting voluntary participation…

Advances in satellite technology hold great promise for offering a broad and varied curriculum in small rural schools. In 1985 and 1986 three vendors in the continental United States pioneered the offering of interactive satellite instruction for high school credit courses. The programs were: (1) German by Satellite offered by the College of Arts…

Rural gifted programs should be developed by the consumers in rural communities and should focus on the needs and strengths of the community. The unique aspects of rural schools should be used to develop defensible community-based programs. General gifted education procedures, such as developing peer groups and psychologically secure environments,…

To guide personnel in establishing appropriate gifted/talented programs in small, rural secondary schools, this bibliography provides annotated citations for 29 journal articles and books published from 1968 to 1986 which examine all aspects of gifted education. Annotations are divided into 4 sections: the current status of gifted education in…

One of a series to aid facilitators who train rural career guidance program staff, this module emphasizes the importance of planning in the development of a comprehensive career guidance program. A conceptual model for a planning and implementation cycle is presented, examined, and applied to the initial steps of program planning. Topics addressed…

This facilitator training guide, part of a series of 18 components, describes the needs assessment process as an essential feature of successful rural career guidance program planning. It is designed to provide participants with the skills necessary to conduct a local needs assessment and to identify student needs for career guidance programming.…

To have an effective career guidance and counseling program, it is necessary to know and use pertinent resources. This module provides facilitator guidelines for training staff in the use of three "Rural America Series" handbooks: (1) "Resource Assessment" which depicts a major step in the planning process, (2) "Career…

This module helps the facilitator in training other educators in the effective use of a wealth of field test data gathered through case studies of all nine sites at which the Rural America Series has been rigorously field tested over a 15-month period. The module is particularly valuable in assisting program planners to anticipate and avoid errors…

This facilitator's module, part of the staff training for the "Rural America Series," presents the means for setting the keystone of successful program development, i.e., the establishment of appropriate, concrete, and measurable objectives. A distinction is made between behavioral (student) objectives and program objectives, and…

A study of Michigan's Copper Country Intermediate School District was undertaken to identify ways nine small secondary schools with declining enrollments could increase educational opportunities for students by cooperative sharing. The 6-month study included analyzing data on each school, identifying factors which might constrain cooperative…

Directed primarily toward small school administrators and school boards, this publication describes a consortium of five rural school districts in central Missouri and how they used a traveling teacher to facilitate incorporation of microcomputer capabilities into the school systems' operation and curriculum. The paper describes the use of the…

General educators' perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs towards gifted learners and education of the gifted at both elementary and secondary levels in small, rural schools were examined. Eighteen teachers from a rural K-12 Kansas district having 518 students completed questionnaires during summer 1985 and during the 1985-86 school year, and the…