This article describes a statewide online alternative teacher preparation program in early childhood special education. The history and evolution of the program is explained along with the programmatic changes that resulted from working with noncertified teachers with a wide variety of backgrounds in both rural and urban districts. Challenges and…

The Excellent Educators for All initiative is the most recent federal policy effort to address unequal access to teacher quality in the United States. States were required to submit equity plans to the U.S. Department of Education that detailed how to ensure that poor and minority children do not receive instruction from less qualified teachers.…

The papers presented in this paper accompany a core report about the Appalachian Math Science Partnership (AMSP) entitled "The Appalachian Math Science Partnership: A Multi-State Umbrella Partnership Promoting Local Mathematics and Science Reform Report." Each of them focuses on an especially effective strategy or component of the AMSP…

The Appalachian Math Science Partnership (AMSP) is a project within NSF's (National Science Foundation's) Math Science Partnerships (MSP) initiative. Funded at $23 million over five years, the AMSP involved 51 school districts and nine higher education institutions in Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia. The AMSP faced two significant challenges in…

Today, after nearly 100 years of pressure toward consolidation, communities which have resisted consolidation for the last generation are finally getting some support. Some of this support comes from simple facts and figures. There is strong evidence that centralized schools are expensive, remote from the communities they are supposed to serve,…

After reviewing several of the problems facing educators in our changing society, the author focuses on the specific problem of providing adequate vocational education for rural youth. The ideas of community involvement in vocational education via business and industry advisory councils, plus more money for rural schools, are seen as possible…

Details the planning of an education center intended to introduce community education more effectively to Indian communities by providing them with technical assistance and facilitator-type leadership training in a field-based mode. Notes the goals, proposed functions, and planning timetable of the center, and what makes it unique. (SB)

Since 1975 the Contoocook Valley District, a small rural cooperative school district in southwestern New Hampshire, has developed a performance-based student competency program which has resulted in a dramatic increase in scores on the Stanford Achievement Test. The district is comprised of 9 towns, covers an area of almost 300 square miles, and…

During the past two decades federal, state, and local school leaders have attempted to institute major changes in educational programs and organizational arrangements. Recent assessment studies reveal that the great majority of change efforts did not meet intended objectives. As a result, policy formulators have developed serious reservations…

In 1642, the Massachusetts General Court required parents to attend to the education of their children. Since then, the visions of the early colonists have fallen victim to rapid population expansion and a highly specialized technology, and the close ties between the school and the community have been seriously weakened. Recent reports, however,…

This bibliography contains 214 entries related to rural education. The entries were derived from the AGRICOLA database produced by the National Agricultural Library and include journal articles, extension bulletins, books, conference papers, and government reports. Entries cover topics such as agricultural education, adult education, colleges,…

Seeking an understanding of rural communities in order to gain insights into opportunities for improving rural schools, this 2-year project examined 14 case studies and presented implications for future use. Selected as exemplary of particular strategies and representative of diverse populations of rural America, the case studies were examined…

This 12-chapter book contains contributions from selected authors concentrating on a comprehensive analysis of career education for the black American. The treatise takes career education to task for its "white foundations of educational data." Chapter titles and authors are: Black Agenda for Career Education, by Roosevelt Johnson; Career…

Available in English or Spanish, this resource guide aims to help rural schools and communities learn ways of supporting each other so that both can thrive. Background information and basic tools are provided for starting a joint school-community development effort. Chapters contain: (1) outline of the guide and statement of beliefs about…

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…