Arrangement is by series as follows:

Series 1: General Information and Administrative Materials - This series contains materials related to the Rural School Improvement Project including notes, lists of members, various workshop descriptions, and forms.

Series 2: Correspondence - This series contains correspondence pertinent to the Rural School Improvement Project including that addressed to Dr. Luther Ambrose (director) and Pat Wear (associated with the Ford Fund for the Advancement of Education).

Series 3: Teaching Candidates - This series pertains to information on the selection of teaching candidates for the project.  Series contains chronologically arranged correspondence, general information about applicants, candidate applications, and photographs of RSIP candidates. Materials in this series may be RESTRICTED – contact archivist for more information.

Series 4: Reports - This series incorporates various RSIP reports and includes histories, agendas, notes, summaries, newspaper clippings, philosophies, and the actual reports themselves.  The series includes the Preliminary Report of Program of Experimentation in Preparing Educational Supervisors and reports filed by individual schools, area reports, and follow up reports.  The bulk of the series pertains to County Reports. 

Series 5: Evaluations - This series contains items such as the Broadhead school evaluation, evaluations of the Teaching-Training experience, suggestions for the improvement of the supervisory program, and supervisor questionnaires from 1956 and 1957.  Pine Mountain surveys and pupil/parent opinion sheets are also included in this series.

Series 6: Publications - This series includes news clippings, bulletins, news releases, articles from the Berea Alumnus, maps, and other publicity materials.  See also Series 4: Reports.

The Rural School Improvement Project (RSIP), implemented by Berea College, began its planning in the spring of 1952.  Financed by a grant from the Fund for the Advancement of Education, the project officially began in 1953.  The project was based on two principles:  (1) good schools make for good communities and (2) good teachers are indispensable for good schools.  Implementation of the project primarily took place in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky.

Project objectives included selecting qualified young teachers for remote rural schools and to provide new teachers with continuous guidance and in-service training to improve their effectiveness. To complete these objectives, the strategy of the Rural School Improvement Project was to create a better community understanding of what constitutes a “good” school and to instigate a demand for such schools after the conclusion of the project. Luther Ambrose was the Project Director.