Because of fewer human resources, teachers in rural schools have to assume a larger responsibility for their own curriculum development than do teachers in city schools. There is a need for a curriculum specialist to get into a situation quickly, to assess the problem, and to solve the problem quickly in order to move to another problem. In rural schools, one of the most important ways of getting teachers to assume that responsibility is to teach them to become independent learners by using the student as a major source of information and guidance in curriculum development. While this is a generic principle in curriculum development, it is a principle that assumes the critical role in rural school curriculum development. Generalizations suggested by the model developed from this curriculum project include: teachers, particularly in rural school districts, need proof of the effectiveness of a curriculum development (they must see a change in student behavior or learning needs); teachers need to value the approach to curriculum development (they must decide what is best and what is effective within the context of their own classroom); and teachers need more concrete guidance initially, but they need to work towards independence in learning via learning how to learn from their students. (AH)