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Rural graduate students face numerous barriers and obstacles in attending higher education. One such obstacle is academic advising from a distance. The intent of the authors was to examine the advising experiences of master's degree level special education students who had received e-advising from their academic advisor. A short email survey was designed to collect data relating to e-advising received by rural, part-time students. Results of the survey indicated that in-person advising at a university site (traditional advising model) would not have been suitable and e-advising was meeting their needs at this point in their graduate education. The participants also explained that the necessity of being advised in person is no longer valid.

Educational limitations for Mexican American students in American public schools remain in the 21st century. Although Hispanics are the fastest growing ethnic population in the United States, education has difficulty meeting the teaching and learning needs of Hispanic students. Beyond ethnicity, Mexican American students suffer from distinct educational, social, and cultural pressures that play out in class. This study represents the voices of six Mexican American students enrolled in special education for learning and/or behavioral disabilities. The students express alienation, disinterest, and anxiety regarding their classrooms, teachers, and classmates. Ever-present concerns and barriers expressed by these students, coupled with current research, point to the ongoing challenges to education and school culture in particular. Learning at the Margins If one is the other, one will inevitably be perceived unidimensionally; will be seen stereotypically; will be defined and delimited by mental sets that may not bear much relation to existing realities. There is a darker side to otherness as well. The other disturbs, disquiets, discomforts. It provokes distrust and suspicion. The other makes people feel anxious, nervous, apprehensive, even fearful. The other frightens, scares. . . . For some of us, being the other is only annoying; for others it is debilitating; for still others it is damning. (Madrid, 1988, p. 56) Hispanics arc the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States, with Mexican Americans comprising the majority of the Hispanic population (see United States Department of Commerce, 2001). Although demographic momentum can sometimes be very powerful, the data continue to show educational gaps and barriers for Mexican American students in public schools. Being the "other," as noted by Madrid (1988), Mexican Americans still face enormous challenges in American education. According to the United States Department of Commerce (2001), Mexican Americans have the highest rate of persons with fewer than five years of schooling (15.9%), and they have been traditionally over-represented in special education classes. The United States Department of Education (1999) reported that there are approximately 9.2 million school age students in the U.S. whose primary language is not English, with Spanish being the most prevalent language spoken after English. Estimating that 10.7% to 15% of these students may have disabilities, then 984,400 to 1,380,000 students with disabilities are also linguistically diverse (Baca & Cervantes, 2003). Research shows that teachers of the majority culture are better able to relate to children of their own ethnic/racial and linguistic background and usually are unaware of their differential and culturebound treatment toward children of the minority culture (e.g., Bennett de Marrais & LeCompte, 1995). Unfortunately, it is estimated that only 5% of our nation's teachers are teachers of color, yet students of color make up 33% of our school-aged population (Walker, Saravanabhavan, & Asbury, 1996). Furthermore, it is projected that by 2020, 46% of all students will be students of color (Cushncr, McClelland, & Stafford, 1996). Students' academic performance often follows in the direction of teacher expectations (Apple, 1996; Cummins, 1989; Sadker & Sadker, 1994), with gender, ethnicity, and social-economic status being traits that influence low teacher-student expectations. Teacher-student interactions and teacher-student cultural incompatibility have contributed to the historical over-representation of ethic minority youth in remedial classes and special education. Ethnic minority students often fail to see themselves positively integrated into the culture of the school (Cazden, 1988). Typically, Hispanic students do not have daily interactions with Hispanic teachers who understand their culture or language. As a consequence, Hispanic students, especially those who are Spanish dominant, may not have the benefit of an appropriate education due to the lack of bilingualqualified educators. …

This article describes the Reaching American Indian Special/Elementary Educators (RAISE) program, a community-based native teacher education program located on the Navajo reservation in Kayenta, Arizona. The RAISE program is a preservice teacher preparation partnership program between Northern Arizona University (NAU) and the Kayenta Unified School District (KUSD). RAISE is designed for two groups of students: uncertified Navajo special and elementary education preservice students who work with the local school district, and traditional teacher education students recruited from the main campus of NAU. The RAISE program prepares students to teach in impoverished rural and remote areas and to work in inclusive schools with culturally and linguistically diverse populations. On completion of the program, the students earn a dual teacher certification in special and elementary education.

Students with emotional/behavioral disabilities often come to the classroom with an array of problems. What is it that helps these students become successful in the school environment? In interviewing five Mexican-American adolescents enrolled in public school special education classes and their four teachers, their voices illustrated that special education teachers who exhibit care-giving qualities create positive student–teacher relationships with their students identified as having emotional/behavioral disabilities.

The following article describes a program that was designed to identify gifted and talented Hispanic and Native American children in the visual arts in two rural schools. The multidimensional identification procedures as well as the needs of each community are presented. The overall outcomes are discussed emphasizing the positive effects that were observed in the participating students.

Editors and staff of the Rural Special Education Quarterly (RSEQ) provide practitioners in the field of rural special education with practical knowledge of the criteria and procedures needed for submitting manuscripts to be considered for publication in the RSEQ. An historical overview of the RSEQ's publication rate, major topical strands, and a brief review of literature addressing publication practices of refereed journals are included. Specific guidelines for manuscript preparation and style are provided.

Theorists and practitioners agree that involving families in the education of a child with a disability is beneficial to all concerned. Unfortunately, initiating and sustaining that involvement is often difficult, particularly in rural communities where distance factors may impede school involvement. In this article, a rationale for and challenges to family involvement are briefly reviewed. Finally, 21 already-been-tried practical strategies for involving rural families with disabled children are presented.