Educational achievement in rural America is one of the country's great overlooked challenges. Rural students achieve below the U.S. average on national tests, and high school dropout rates are higher and college attendance lower than they are in cities and suburbs. When the U.S. Department of Education asks low-achieving schools to be turned…

In 1975, an experimental school program was introduced into three Indian villages, in order to make school schedules, curriculum, and teaching more relevant to village life; to select local residents as teachers; and to involve parents in planning. This article describes this program's implementation and notes its subsequent extension. (Author/SJL)

Suggests a curriculum for rural and small-town schools that combines bilingual education in local languages (indigenous, heritage, or immigrant languages) with global, multicultural education. Discusses benefits to students and community, and ways that the model overcomes typical rural constraints of inflexible school organization; administrative…

Describes the process and implementation of the Adopt-a-School program designed to get the business community involved in Memphis (TN) public schools. Defines considerations for selecting adoptors and resource materials and activities for adoptors and adoptees. Explains program monitoring and implementation in rural and urban areas. (SB)

Change in rural schools is difficult to achieve because the diversity of these schools does not allow for one set implementation program. Small rural schools are an integral part of the rural community, and as such are as different as the part of the country where they are located. Change in rural areas is unsuccessful due to: the amount of…

Directed to college of education faculty members, this paper provides practical advice for developing model education projects by means of interagency cooperation. The first section describes the numerous Macomb Projects that have received state and federal funding including Handicapped Children's Early Education Program funding. Projects focus on…

Jilin is a rural province in northeastern China, known for its forests and forest products such as ginseng. In the past, Jilin's schools focused on preparing students for higher education and offered little of relevance to most rural students. In addition, the schools were understaffed and were managed by a remote, centralized bureaucracy. In…

Partnerships between higher education and public schools in rural areas can lead to improved education in both sectors. When launching a partnership, all concerned must convince a wide sector of the community that such programs are cost effective and will lead to more successful educational programming. By providing such a rationale early, the…

Abt Associates' concluding report on its research of the federally funded Experimental Schools (ES) program identifies educational needs in rural schools, introduces the substance of the ES program, and presents the major findings of the research in terms of the dynamics of rural school districts and the design and implementation of federal…

The Rural Education Program (REP) is funded to develop a strategy--the Rural Futures Development (RFD) Strategy--that encourages local initiative and participation in educational change. The strategy was installed in the San Juan School District in southeastern Utah (Site "A") from August 1974 to June 1976 and represented the first…

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…

This report illustrates how community service learning can be used as a vehicle for achieving the goals of education and youth development and, concurrently, how it is highly consistent with the goals of systemic educational reform, particularly in rural schools and communities. Part 1 covers the definition of service learning as a method of…

This report examines the use of community-based support to facilitate curriculum renewal efforts in small rural school districts. Interviews with educators from five school districts in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington describe three approaches to curriculum renewal: community-initiated approaches, state-directed reform efforts, and…

Addressing the concerns and resources of small, rural school districts, this book sets out a rationale and model plan for school-community relations. After introductory material and a review of what's been done, the first major section lists and describes 10 criteria shown by research to be most important for a small school district community…

The first annual report and evaluation of Education North (a project designed to encourage parents, community members, and teachers in small, isolated, primarily Native and Metis communities in northern Alberta to work together to meet the educational needs of all community members) concentrates on the inner workings of the organizations (local…