This paper reviews 11 studies dealing with collaborative organizational arrangements and investigates 26 projects involving such arrangements. The 11 studies identified as relevant to the work of conceptualizing a regional grants program include patterns of information useful for planning in the areas of organizational communication, definition of…

The Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) of the U.S. Department of Education supports educators and policymakers in their efforts to solve pressing education problems through a network of 10 regional educational laboratories. These regional educational laboratories try out new approaches to teaching and learning; provide training…

Federal programs in operation in Kentucky's Appalachian counties are briefly discussed. A computer-assisted instruction program (Title III/ESEA) serves as a supplement to regular instruction in 20 counties. Several Title I and Title III classroom reading and library programs provide instructional and supplementary activity, and teacher aide and…

The purpose of this paper is to examine cooperative and regional educational service agencies from the viewpoint of the consumer, explaining what users of cooperative and regional services may be seeking now and in the future. Since sufficient school finances will continue to be a problem, educational managers will look to cooperatives for greater…

Through their visits and conversations with students, teachers, and administrators involved in the Appalachian Rural Systemic Initiative (ARSI) over the past decade, the people at Inverness Research Associates came to believe that ARSI served as an important leadership capacity-building effort for improving mathematics and science education in…

The mission of the Appalachian Rural Systemic Initiative (ARSI) was to build a long-term capacity that would improve the educational structures of the rural communities it served. The major strategy ARSI used to create improvement communities across Appalachia was to identify, embrace and educate individual teachers, who became ARSI Teacher…

In Kentucky, one of the six participating Appalachian Rural Systemic Initiative (ARSI) states, the Teacher Partner concept soon gave rise to the Regional Teacher Partners (RTPs). This complementary project, known as the "Master Teacher Project," was designed after the Teacher Partner model but with one key difference. This paper…

This is the story of Barbara Shoemaker and her work as an Appalachian Rural Systemic Initiative (ARSI) Teacher Partner in Oneida, Tennessee. It is the story of what she values and the experiences that shaped her approach to education. In particular it is about what she learned from her experience with the Appalachian Rural Systemic Initiative, and…

Many of the people who live in Knott County today are direct descendants of the early settlers of the region. Today the people of Knott County share an identity that is grounded in the place they and their ancestors called home. Perhaps the public endeavor in which the influence of place is most evident is education. In Knott County education has…