The paper reviews work being done by two established Department of Education (ED) committees which are addressing concerns and issues related to rural education--the Intra-Departmental Committee on Rural Education (with representation from all 14 offices or units in the Department) and the Federal Intra-Agency Committee on Education's Rural Education Subcommittee (with membership drawn from across the Federal Government). Priorities which have arisen as a result of national conferences are noted. Among activities listed for the Intra-Departmental Committee are developing a resource directory of rural education contacts within the Department and compiling indexed summaries of the Department's 43 programs and thousands of projects related to rural education. A Rural Education/Small Schools Network has been formed and the needs it is addressing are noted. Activities covered for the Inter-Departmental Committee include preparing a consolidated report on all Federal activities related to rural education, determining the total Federal cost of those activities, identifying any inconsistency of effort among those activities, and determining what impact ED initiatives in rural education have on other Federal agencies. The conference's theme, "The Year of the High School," is addressed by stressing that rural high schools need extraordinary resources and extraordinarily resourceful teachers to compensate for their isolation. (BRR)