This chapter discusses an innovative state public policy which has incentivized Iowa's community colleges to become the economic drivers of their region. Created in the 1983 legislation, it continues to this day to affect Iowa's rural communities and their colleges.

Scholarship on service-learning demonstrates a variety of benefits to students, faculty, and the university. One clear benefit beyond these is the ability of service-learning to support and advance a university's civic mission within its community and region. This article offers an account of the use of service-learning in a collaborative project…

The Rural Education Bureau of the New Mexico Public Education Department has established a program to address the special needs of schools and communities in the extensive rural areas of the state. High poverty rates, depopulation and a general lack of viable economic opportunity have marked rural New Mexico for decades. The program underway aims…

Examines the potential role of the rural school within the context of community development. Clarifies the differences between community growth and community development, and between community development and economic development. Rural community development is a process of developing the capacity of rural residents to identify common interests…

A detailed examination of one agriculturally dependent Nebraska county was conducted to determine the changes believed to be underway as a result of the economic hard times associated with the farm crisis of the early 1980s. Fillmore county, with a 1980 population of 5098, was selected as it derived 25% of its total labor, salary, and proprietary…

From its inception, the University of Limerick has cultivated a relationship with the local environment and worked for regional development. Its example shows how a university ethos geared to economic development issues can benefit the region in which it is located. (SK)

Howard High School (South Dakota) is part of the Annenberg Rural Challenge, a privately funded national effort to strengthen rural schools and their communities. Rural Challenge schools create curricula specific to community history and resources, aiming to help students become active knowledgeable citizens. Student projects and the positive and…

In Appalachian Alabama, AlabamaREAL helps individuals, schools, and rural communities grow through hands-on entrepreneurship education. School-based businesses teach students to recognize business opportunities; encourage participatory learning; and meet the needs of small, rural communities. The Appalachian Regional Commission provides schools…

Medical schools have increasingly ignored underserved communities' needs. Descriptions of five demonstration programs show how community-driven approaches to medical education involve academic and rural communities, select students from underserved areas, and train learners in undeserved communities. The approach also supports underserved…

Describes the structure of the Chinese rural school system and its operational ties to the communes, which provide the "productive labor" component of Chinese education, various resources and facilities for schools, and governance of agrotechnical education at the middle and secondary level. (SJL)

Building strong ties between Appalachian schools and communities was the topic of the Appalachian Regional Commission's October 2002 annual conference (Maryville, Tennessee). Main speakers focused on maintaining a long-term perspective on investments in education, creating rural "places of opportunity" that can retain educated people,…

The Rural Community College Initiative (RCCI) is a decade-long commitment by the Ford Foundation to community colleges in distressed rural areas of the United States. Through RCCI, the Foundation channels both funds and technical assistance to targeted community colleges to improve access and foster economic development. The RCCI approach includes…

This report describes principles of community organization that can contribute to sustainable community renewal. Community is composed of social networks which form the community infrastructure. Relationships among people with the same roles are passive; relationships that cross role boundaries are active. Communities that exhibit active…

School at the Center, a U.S. place-based educational initiative, was successfully trialed in North Queensland (Australia). For place-based education to take root in Australia, place-based educational strategies must be taught in preservice teacher education programs. However, to be seriously considered by teacher education programs, place-based…

The Rural Community College Initiative (RCCI) is a national program that supports the efforts of community colleges in distressed rural areas to move their people and communities toward prosperity. RCCI's goals are increasing access to education and developing regional economies. RCCI demonstration sites have produced a wealth of information about…