One way to develop creative solutions to problems facing rural education today is through cooperative projects sponsored by schools and colleges and funded by small incentive grants. In 1983, the Council of Chief State School Officers, with grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, awarded 39 planning grants for $2,000 to enhance/facilitate working relationships between elementary/secondary and postsecondary education. Again in 1986, a major Mellon grant enabled funding of collaborative projects focusing on improving the current teaching force or attracting exceptional persons into teaching. Exemplary original Mellon projects were the Gadsden (Florida) project to train school personnel to prepare/counsel rural black students for postsecondary education and the Montana project to include rural/remote teachers as members of accreditation teams. Current Mellon projects compared rural, suburban, and urban staff development programs in Colorado, developed quality teacher inservice training modules and recruitment/retainment measures in Idaho; designed staff development programs impacting student learning in Minnesota; and built transitions for secondary students to postsecondary education in North Dakota. While federal funding may be unavailable, modest amounts of incentive monies can be obtained from local businesses and banks, state department of education discretionary funds, colleges, universities, community colleges, and private foundations. (NEC)