RSEQ 4th Retrospective Issue Introduction

As I have read the introductions to the three previous RSEQ retrospective issues, I have enjoyed the personal reflections in each. Each introduction serves as a testimonial to the professional and personal meaning of the American Council on Rural Special Education (ACRES). In keeping with this spirit, I would like to share the profound importance of ACRES on my professional development. I came to post-secondary education after 20 years in the public schools. I was introduced to ACRES by the first dean with whom I worked at Eastern Montana College. He advised me to join the organization, knowing it would enhance my position as coordinator of a rural special education personnel preparation grant project. He had no idea how ACRES would enhance my career. I attended my first ACRES conference in Nashville, TN. I met Dolly Parton on the elevator in the Peabody Vanderbilt Hotel and Dr. Terry Berkeley at the bar. I have returned to every conference but one since in the hopes of seeing Dolly again; I have seen Terry lots but never Dolly! Because our institution, now MSU Billings, was a month away from a joint NCATE-Montana Office of Public Instruction (OPI) accreditation review, I did not attend this year's 2010 conference in Memphis. (I might have run into Dolly!!) Having been a public school teacher and administrator, I came late to the "publish or perish" game. ACRES provided me with a safe and nurturing environment for launching into professional conference presentations and journal publications. There were mentors ready and willing to guide my progress with encouragement and sage advice. Not the least of these was Dr. Berkeley. Approximately one-third of the professional presentations and nearly half of the publications listed in my curriculum vita are with ACRES. ACRES also provided professional opportunities for organizational involvement. At an early conference, I volunteered to help at the registration table. Since that time, I have been totally immersed working on the initial and following revisions of the ACRES' By-laws, serving multiple terms on the National Board of Directors, chairing the board for two consecutive terms, serving as an RSEQEditon?a Board member and manuscript reviewer, currendy serving as the ACRES Historian, and ending a 5 -year contract with ACRES for MSU-Billings and the Montana Center on Disabilities hosting the National Headquarters. In the 20 years of my involvement with ACRES, I ask, "What have we learned as rural special educators?" In the previous retrospective issues in both the introductions and commentaries, audiors have spoken to ACRES leadership and futures, thinking as tliey have contemplated the included retrospective articles. This journey in time lets me know the core of rural issues does not seem to change. In the beginning of ACRES, over 30 years ago, issues addressed included the following: * Defining "rural" * Recruitment and retention of fully qualified special educators for rural schools * Funding, lack thereof, or lack of a stable funding source * Consolidation of small rural schools for efficiency and economy What are the issues today? In Montana, they include the following: * Defining "rural" - While Arfstrom (2001) provided updated definitions, Montana is currently classified as "frontier" with Billings (the largest metropolitan area with a population of approximately 100,000) classified as "rural." * Recruitment and retention of fully qualified special educators for rural schools - the Office of Public Instruction Special Education Endorsement Project (Burdge, Fishbaugh & Christensen, 2003; Fishbaugh, 2002; and Fishbaugh, Christensen & Burdge, 1999), begun in 1987, is flourishing today. The purpose of this project is recruiting and retaining special educators in the small, remote, rural schools scattered throughout the state. Participants have 3 years to complete requirements for earning the special education endorsement on a Montana educator license. …