This report discusses the need for a research agenda to understand how rural public schools can work with their communities to improve student performance while building the community. It focuses on the potential strengths of school-community relationships. Described herein are four community engagement models a school can adopt: (1) School as Community Center, a lifelong learning center, and a vehicle for delivering services; (2) Community as Curriculum, emphasizing the community in all of its complexities as part of students' learning activities in the classroom; (3) School as a Developer of Entrepreneurial skills, suggesting that small businesses, including knowledge-based enterprises, can create new jobs, especially if they find the right market niche; and (4) Schools and Technology, in which new technologies help build and preserve community while linking students to the rest of the world. [Portions of this report are adapted from the author's article, "Rural Schools and Their Communities: Perspectives on Interdependence," which was published in the Winter 2001 issue of "The ERIC Review."]