This module helps the facilitator in training other educators in the effective use of a wealth of field test data gathered through case studies of all nine sites at which the Rural America Series has been rigorously field tested over a 15-month period. The module is particularly valuable in assisting program planners to anticipate and avoid errors…

This paper is a checklist on ways to save money targeted to administrators of small rural schools but appropriate to schools of any size. Tips concerning staff include salary issues, early retirement, time management techniques, involving staff in budget and facilities planning, and utilizing limited-experience teachers, teacher-administrators,…

Rural education trends in the 1980s--influenced by decreased federal, state, and local funding and demands for higher academic standards and greater accountability--will have a significant impact on staff development in small and rural schools. Along with ebbing support for compensatory education and increased focus on math and science…

Seven small rural school districts (averaging less than 100 high school students each) in Lincoln County, Washington, joined to perform a vocational assessment of their districts. All grade 9-12 students were mailed questionnaires; 520 surveys were mailed and 212 were returned. Only 26% of the students indicated that they were thoroughly familiar…

Exploring the revival of interest in smaller schools, the fastback examines the legacy of the small school, the minimum school size, the advantages and disadvantages of smaller schools, the needs of smaller schools, and some important indicators and trends of what is actually likely to happen in small schools. In discussing the advantages and…

New Mexico's 19 "very small" school districts (fewer than 300 average daily membership K-12 in 1981-82) were studied to identify major problems (including program deficiencies and actions being taken to alleviate those problems), to determine appropriate additional measures which might be helpful in resolving the problems, and to…

The guide is designed to assist the small school administrator in the successful recruitment of teachers. It provides a recruitment design, which encompasses community and school assets, and a list of "ideal characteristics" of teachers who are congruent with the needs of small schools. Fifteen strategies for effective recruitment include…

Using information from relevant literature and recent surveys and interviews with administrators of many of Rhode Island's smaller school districts, the report identifies options/strategies which may be useful in counteracting the potential adverse effects that low, or significantly declining, enrollments may have on the comprehensiveness of a…

Designed to assist rural Montana schools in establishing and maintaining library-media centers, this procedures manual presents basic and specific information on all phases of operating a small school library. The first three chapters set forth the major responsibilities of the school librarian, Montana standards for school library personnel, and…

Information available on rural education remains startlingly inadequate--partly because of the great diversity of rural areas, because agencies responsible for data collection disagree on the definition of small/rural schools, and because large metropolitan schools have received far more than their share of attention, research, and financial…

Student achievement, cost, rural context, and qualitative differences relative to small/rural schools were analyzed in Alberta to address the choice between small elementary school construction and school consolidation with student busing. Studies in both the United States and Canada have found no consistant significant differences in student…

Two survey studies were conducted to determine what rural and small school personnel perceived as their communication, information, and consultive needs in the area of career guidance materials and practices, and how these needs best could be met. For the first survey a questionnaire was sent to 7,618 schools which asked about awareness of career…

The document presents organizational details of the 18-month Country School Legacy Project (June 1980-December 1981) to begin an on-going inquiry into the history of rural education and current public policies which affect country schools and which will result in greater public use of library facilities and historical collections in public,…

The country school legacy of Wyoming is rich in history, folklore, and tradition. Materials (many anecdotal) gathered from school records, oral histories, autobiographies, and memoirs provide glimpses into the diverse and demanding role of frontier teachers (who were mostly female and, by contract requirement, usually single) and the work and…

A review of the country school in literature discusses Irving's "The Legend of Sleppy Hollow," Whittier's "Snowbound" and "In School Days," Eggleston's "The Hoosier School Master," and Stuart's "To Teach, To Love" and "The Thread That Runs So True." These literary works portray the…