Education in Rural areas

Rural areas of the United States are uniquely characterized yet each one is affected in some measure by our country’s continued economic and demographic restructuring. As telecommunications advance at a rapid pace, our rural public school systems must take advantage of new and exciting teaching methodologies and tools which are used as supplements to teacher supply, fostering motivation, and curriculum development. Several of these current techniques include distance learning, experiential education, and computer networking. These “links” with outside resources hold the key to a student’s academic success and future livelihood. Rural areas must be kept well informed as technological innovations continue to evolve. It is the intent of this publication to provide access to the current literature discussing innovations in teaching methods so that teachers and parents can increase student success. This resource was designed to reach those who work with minorities, youth-at-risk, gifted, and emotionally and physically handicapped. Other important information in this resource focuses on giving rural students the same opportunities as urban students, and provide a broader scope of resources to increase teaching effectiveness. The format of this publication is broken down into user-friendly divisions such as funding assistance, curriculum design, technological advances, periodicals, multimedia, books, articles, and cooperative teaching. Consult your local libraries to locate materials listed in this publication. The National Agricultural Library (NAL) call numbers are provided for the items owned by NAL. Refer to the “Document Delivery Services to Individuals” lending policy within this publication for information on obtaining those documents with the NAL call numbers that are unavailable through local libraries.