The village center model is designed to eliminate fragmented social service delivery problems in rural areas. The Whole Village Project at Plymouth, New Hampshire, offers interagency collaboration, local control and leadership, and increased client access to family and child services. Alternative strategies are outlined for development of similar…

Valdosta State University (Georgia) uses audio/video conferencing in its teacher education program, a low-cost alternative to travel that enables student teachers to access the expertise of their supervisors more frequently; supervisors to observe student teachers; simultaneous interactions between supervisor, student teacher, and mentor, or among…

The West Virginia Rural Health Education Partnerships program and West Virginia Extension Service played primary roles as community gatekeepers in helping researchers involve rural residents in focus groups to elicit cultural perspectives on diabetes and its management. The collaboration helped researchers gain entry to rural communities and…

Alaska's efforts toward sustainable development include protecting the subsistence lifestyle by involving indigenous people in stakeholder decisions about whaling and fishing quotas and offshore oil drilling; developing rural energy, water, and sewage infrastructures; using telecommunications to bring health care and education to remote areas; and…

Unquestionably, rural schools face many obstacles in their attempts to attract teachers. However, a survey of preservice teachers working in rural districts found that many of these obstacles stem from misconceptions or a lack of knowledge about what it means to live and work in a rural area. Perception, however, is reality and therefore deserves…

This map of the contiguous United States uses a seven-color scheme to display a rurality index score for counties. The measure of rurality is intended to represent degree of isolation from and inability to participate in the programs of the larger society. It is intended to reflect both physical isolation and the isolation that comes from a lack…

This module is designed to serve as part of a special education course in which rural-based problems and issues are addressed. The study guide is in five sections. It begins with a brief introduction to the program. Part 2 is a lecture outline, detailing the sections of the course that address rural special education challenges, life in rural…

Fourche Valley School District in central Arkansas has a single K-12 school serving 157 students. Surrounded by the Ouachita National Forest, Fourche Valley is unusually isolated and lacking in economic opportunity, leading to "low aspirations" among students who desire to remain in the area. Nevertheless, the school is thriving in the…

In 1998 the Charleville School of Distance Education (SDE) in Queensland, Australia, began using telephone teaching to replace high frequency radio as its means of communicating with rural and remote students. A study investigated the extent to which telephone teaching has contributed to the development of a constructivist teaching and learning…

The Alaska Family Practice Residency (AFPR) is a graduate medical education training program for family physicians headed for rural and remote practice sites. Located in Anchorage and affiliated with the University of Washington family practice residency network, the program has an integrated curriculum aimed at preparing family physicians to…

This conference proceedings of the Society for the Provision of Education in Rural Australia (SPERA) contains 19 presentations and workshops. An introductory section includes SPERA's mission, goals, and history; a brief welcome address by SPERA president Sheila King; a list of past conference proceedings; and abstracts of presentations. The…

Students in nursing, allied health, social work, and medicine at the University of Maryland are offered clinical experiences on Smith Island in Chesapeake Bay. The program exposes them to the special health care needs and problems of an isolated, economically disadvantaged, rural community. (SK)

Presents results from ethnographic fieldwork regarding a program to develop telematically delivered distance learning packages in Britain. Describes aims of the program, including building an infrastructure for distance learning and community development, to provide training software, and to identify limitations of attempts to break down economic…

Interviews with service providers and welfare recipients on 15 Arizona American Indian reservations indicated that low levels of education and work experience were barriers to employment, and employment was scarce. In remote areas, the lack of support services, paved roads, transportation, and communication made it impossible for many residents to…

In remote Bristol Bay (Alaska), award-winning librarian Tiki Levinson built a library program that inspired students to read and teachers to embrace new resources for their classrooms. She recommends new books and Web sites to students and teachers and searches avidly for new resources that might pique a child's interest or meet a teacher's needs.…