Educators' main concern in 1956 is with teaching in small communities rather than exclusively with teaching in one-teacher schools. The modern rural school is likely to be one which serves an entire community, usually including a hamlet, village, or small-town center and the surrounding open country area. Yet, the school tends to be small (about 64 percent of all school districts have fewer than 10 teachers and about 11 percent have 40 or more). Written for teachers who serve small communities, the Department of Rural Education's 1956 Yearbook focuses on problems encountered by teachers in small schools throughout the United States. Emphasis is upon practical approaches to these problems, although it is recognized that no solution to one teacher's problem can be transposed to another situation. The solutions are based on the assumptions that (1) good learning experiences utilize and grow from the child's own environment; (2) education is more effective when directed toward the improvement of living; and (3) it is important that the school program be sufficiently flexible and varied to allow each child the opportunity to grow to his maximum capacity. Also included are a 53 item annotated bibliography and the roster of the Department's active members for the calendar year 1955 and those enrolled prior to April 1956, listed alphabetically by States. (NQ)