One of the most important goals of the NCRCN project is for the schools to become a vital part of improving the economy, the culture, and the general living conditions of our communities.

The coordinators are one of the major community links to NCRCN. They help identify community resources and develop projects with teachers and community members. Coordinators must, therefore, be a part of the community, know its history, resources, and problems, and be respected by it. The coordinators are teachers in a district who know and have worked within their community. They are people with an in-depth experience in the school district too, since teachers are an integral component in the collaboration.

The coordinator position is a combination curriculum support, community outreach, project development, technical support, and general project coordination person within an NCRCN district and between them all.

Small rural districts do not have special people assigned to curriculum or staff development positions. None of our districts have assistant superintendents. None of our schools have vice principals. In two of four of the districts the superintendent is also a principal of a school site. Teachers and administrators take on many responsibilities and they are all overloaded trying to teach, and to manage curriculum and staff development, write projects, develop standards and assess techniques, counsel and discipline students, do community outreach, and all the other things necessary to keep the schools running.

The coordinators have implemented a change process, which works. Teachers cannot be asked to make dramatic changes without the type of help provided by the coordinators. We like the fact that we do not have large bureaucracies, which tend to slow the change process. We like being generalists involved with all aspects of the teaching learning process. Our structure and size help us react quickly to changing needs and help us sustain change.

The work done by the coordinators is unique in education. Teachers have always been informally available to assist their teaching peers and serve as an individual link to the community, but these roles are always limited by time demands. In the coordinators, these roles have become more fully realized and integrated into the classroom and community life. One of the most important parts of the change process we have implemented is staff development. The most effective staff development is one-on-one in a teacher's classroom. All the coordinators provide one-on-one staff development for project-based learning, standards and other relevant topics. They have provided group in-service training on a range of topics, but one-to-one development has proven to be the most effective in sustaining change. The consultants must be seen regularly by the teachers to effectively help them make the dramatic changes required for the dynamic education we are offering students.

The NCRCN coordinators play a key role in planning and implementing the goals and objectives of the NCRCN project. They basically provide the time necessary to do staff development, technical assistance, identification of community needs and resources, and all the other things that a classroom teacher cannot do while teaching six hours a day. They also provide important links between the districts as they jointly plan and develop collaborative projects between districts. While each district defines more carefully the skills and responsibilities of the Teachers-On-Special-Assignment, the description below is a general guideline for these positions.

Qualifications:The coordinator should:

•   Either be experienced teachers or have a strong understanding about how classrooms work and what teachers need to have to improve their classrooms.

•   Have an understanding of their community's history, resources, economic status, cultural programs and values, and have demonstrated an ability to use community resources in their classrooms.

•   Be viewed as respected leaders by other teachers.

•   Have some experience in developing and delivering staff development to teachers.

•   Have experience in developing and assessing project based or collaborative projects.

•   Have an understanding and acceptance of the basic principles of NCRCN.

•   Have experience with the use of technology in education.

•   Have enough technology skills and understanding to be able to solve minor technical problems for classroom teachers.

It is often difficult to find all of these skills in one person, so districts might choose to split the positions to fill the listed needs.

Major Responsibilities: The coordinators will:

•   Work with teachers to continue present or develop new community or collaborative projects.

•   Work with other coordinators to link teachers with common interests and projects, plan and implement common staff development for teachers, plan the summer institutes, receive common training.

•   Work with the NCRCN Committee to evaluate the progress of the project, make budget decisions, link district projects, and resources.
•   Develop community based projects for their schools by identifying community resources and needs.

0 •   Involve the schools in helping to solve some of the community's problems.

•   Work with teachers in their classrooms to assist with the implementation of continuing and new projects.

•   Give necessary assistance to teachers to help them effectively integrate the use of technology into their lessons.

•   Help with maintaining the effectiveness of the local area networks, video-conferencing, and other technology. This might mean making necessary repairs or at least knowing who to call to make the repairs.