Ten rural school improvement clusters involving 63 districts, 7 colleges and universities, and 6 state departments of education have been developed in Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and North Dakota through the work of the Mid-Continent Regional Educational Laboratory's Rural Education Project. Four essential steps appear necessary for forming a rural school cluster: identification of similar sized schools within reasonable driving distance of each other, commitment of technical expertise from neighboring higher educational institutions, contact with key persons in the state's educational agency, and development of an agenda for the cluster by participating districts. Clustering is a strategy that can be implemented in a wide variety of settings and that can address a range of diverse needs. A 5-district Colorado cluster is improving rural science instruction through inservice training, adoption of a common philosophy of science teaching, and sharing of successful classroom strategies. A Kansas consortium is conducting professional development seminars on challenging gifted students, "effective schools research," and teacher evaluation. Three Missouri rural cooperatives are focusing on staff training in instructional and administrataive microcomputer use. Nebraska schools are participating in a joint K-12 curriculum development program. North Dakota cluster activity is exploring the role of rural schools in community and economic development. (NEC)