The Rural Education Association, at its annual conference last week, responded to the report of the National Commission on Excellence in Education by adopting a series of position statements to promote excellence in rural education. Among other efforts, the rea will encourage rural schools to:
Review their high-school graduation requirements and course offerings, with particular attention to strengthening the curriculum in English, mathematics, science, social studies, computer science, and foreign languages.
Formulate policies calling for more rigorous and measurable standards and higher expectations for academic performance and student conduct.
Examine the length of the current school day and year, as well as the use of class time, to ensure sufficient time for thorough instruction.
In addition, the organization will seek support from all possible sources to make known “the lack of private-sector involvement in many rural school districts and the disparity of educational opportunity which may result in rural areas not included in such programs,” according to the rea policy statement.
Because “80 to 90 percent of mi-grant farmworker youths do not complete high school,” the rea will also urge all districts to “reach out into migrant homes and camps to re-enroll and/or make educational opportunities available to dropout migrant farmworker youths,” the group said.--sr
