Recognizing that strong educational leadership is the pivotal point in successful school improvement programs, the Kansas school districts of Arkansas City, Winfield, and El Dorado joined together during the 1988-89 school year to establish the AWE Leadership Academy. The purpose of the academy is to provide a program of continued professional…

Systematic activities of the guidance program at the Halstead, Kansas high school--enrollment 215--are used to illustrate what a small rural school can do to help students register and prepare for the ACT (American College Testing Program) and use test results to plan their educational futures. Halstead students' ACT scores consistently exceed…

This narrative description of a special program for third-grade students to raise funds for and to construct, launch, and fly their own rockets illustrates benefits of heightened confidence and self-perception among participants, hands-on experience in a highly technical area, and increased community support and involvement. (MM)

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…

Technological delivery systems currently available or in use are examined for adaptability by rural schools, especially high schools faced with increasing demands to expand curriculum. This report focuses on the Mid-Continent Regional Educational Laboratory's (McREL's) service area of Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South…

Partnerships is an Emporia State University program designed to strengthen university relationships with public schools in Kansas. It contains four strategies for offering services needed by public school practitioners: (1) providing leadership, research, and staff development assistance to formal school district consortia in the university's…

The 12 states comprising the North Central Region have been affected in similar ways by the farm crisis of the 1980s. Statewide surveys show sizeable proportions of farm operations that are experiencing moderately high levels of financial stress. The problems caused by chronic stress on family structure and functioning, the loss of mainstreet…

To meet the need for improved science instruction in rural schools, a project to identify, honor, and provide training for outstanding rural science teachers in grades 6-9 was designed cooperatively by the National Science Foundation, Kansas State University, Kansas Cosmosphere and Discovery Center, and rural school districts. In order to create a…