Since half of Finland is sparsely populated, the Finland National Board of Education has initiated a preschool project for sparsely populated areas. Project goals are defined as the acquisition through research, experiment, and planning of information relative to sparsely populated areas and special problems of distance, small population base,…

The 5-year Experimental Schools (ES) project in the South Umpqua, Oregon, school district was observed from a "participant observer" point of view. The South Umpqua district served four rural communities in which residents were adaptable to economic change, accepting of newcomers, and very involved in their communities as decision makers…