A consortium of small rural school districts in West Virginia was created to sponsor a regional educational computer network. The project sought to provide computer science education for selected students, to complement science and mathematics instruction through computer-assisted instructional (CAI) problem-solving activities, and to aid administrative services. Seventy-five teachers received training and participated, along with 2000 secondary students. In general, it was found that the computer performed calculations well, relieved students of tedious tasks, aided evaluations, promoted problem-solving and discovery learning, improved instruction and motivated students and teachers. All of the 647 students who took the computer science course passed at least 80% of the performance objectives and 90% of them used their skills afterwards. In the math and science courses, pre- and posttests of selected units revealed an improvement of 40% in student performance after five hours of CAI instruction. Low ability students using CAI showed marked gains in both reading and math, and administrative tasks were successfully handled by the computer. Thus, it was concluded that consortia of small districts could justify the expense of a computer network. (LB)