Based on interviews with State Education Department personnel, this report presents information regarding the status of rural education in the seven-state region (Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming) served by the Mid-Continent Regional Laboratory. Of the 2,400 school districts in this region, 93 percent fit the federal definition of rural, enrolling 2,500 or fewer students. Seventy percent of the districts enroll fewer than 500 students; 51 percent enroll fewer than 250 students and 31% enroll 100 or fewer students K-12. The major challenge to rural education is to expand the range of options for addressing the rural small school problem without further consolidation. The first section of the report reviews state educational policies affecting rural education. It describes each state's policy on rural school finance, transportation, teacher supply, accreditation standards, school consolidation, improvement, facility building, rural school interests, and new initiatives. The second section focuses on rural school improvement efforts, including improvement of personnel, statewide administrative changes, financial support, school personnel, and special programs at school level. Section 3 profiles each state's social and economic environment, its schools and its students, based on a synthesization of statistical data at state, regional, and national levels. The final sections describe the datasets and their limitations and plans for further information management and development. The appendix contains 12 maps on the region's school demography. (ALL)