Small, rural school districts face a special challenge when implementing the next generation of academic standards known as the Common Core State Standards. This is the task facing the instructional consultants with the Tulare County Office of Education. The county, located in central California with its dominant agricultural economy, has 45 school districts enrolling 98,000 students. About 25 percent are English language learners, and only 57 percent of the high school graduates continue their education at postsecondary institutions. Thirty of the districts operate a single school. Many of these schools have limited access to instructional resource personnel, which defines the model of service provided by the county office, an education service agency. The Tulare County Office of Education meets the rural districts' needs through content experts, who provide expertise and support on using instructional practices. The county office has six English language arts consultants, four math consultants and one consultant each for social studies, science and technology. This article describes how this rural county has followed a four-step collaborative process to work with small districts in central California.