Educational Innovation, Sociopolitical Culture, and Depressed Rural Communities.

In order to iniestigate the problems of educational innovation in depressed rural communities, and the efficacy of strategies for change employed by state and federal authorities in the United States, data were gathered in four areas of rural Appalachia and three rural communities in New York. An analysis of these data, and a mien of other relet ant data, indicate that the assumptions underlying prevailing strategies for change are often poorly in tune with the social and political realities of depressed rural communities. These findings point to a need for more realistic innovation strategies as well as a need for more research on this problem.