Rural Education
Written by Jackie Mader of The Hechinger Report, this blog discussed the latest news, trends, and issues facing rural schools and students. This blog is no longer being updated, but you can continue to explore these issues on edweek.org by visiting our related topic pages: rural education.
Education
Integrate Technology Into Core Of Rural Schools, Official Says
Cost and resource levels make it harder to incorporate technology at many of the nation's rural schools, said the U.S. Department of Education's point person for technology, and finding ways to overcome those obstacles is part of the follow-up work being done in response to a Rural Education Technology Summit held this summer in Washington.
Education
Ed. Dept. Officials Hit the Rural Route—Again
Education Department officials are in rural Alabama this week looking at programs in school districts rural advocates list among the most distressed in the nation. John White, deputy secretary for rural outreach, said the purpose of the three-day visit to the Greensboro, Ala., area was to talk about ways to train and place high-quality teachers in local schools and to tout the administration's 2020 college completion goal, highlighted at a White House summit this week.
Education
Momentum Builds for National Rural Teacher Corps
Momentum for a national rural teacher corps is building, say rural education advocates, buoyed by the recent resurgence of regional "grow your own" programs that develop teachers and leaders in high-need, hard-to-staff areas.
Education
White: School Leaders More Critical Than Turnaround Model
The U.S. Department of Education's top rural education official said strong school leadership is more critical to improving low-performing, high-need schools than providing schools additional federal turnaround models to try.
School & District Management
Consolidation Watch: Rural Iowa Losing Schools
Falling enrollments and shrinking state funds nudged voters in a dozen school districts in western and northern Iowa to OK a round of mergers beginning next year.
Education
Report: New Turnaround Model Needed for Rural Schools
A rural education policy expert and advocate says the current federal reform models are failing high-needs rural schools and urges lawmakers and education officials to implement and provide incentives for a new "community schools" turnaround option.
Education
Promise Grants Send $1.3 Million To Rural School Districts
Three of 21 Promise Neighborhood Grants for 2010 rolled out this week by the U.S. Department of Education target primarily rural communities and will be used to plan development of cradle-to-career services in Kentucky, Mississippi, and Wyoming that strengthen learning and children's health.
Education
Consolidation Watch: Is Fight Over for Weiner (Ark.) District?
Advocates for a small, rural school district in Arkansas say a judge's request for more time to consider their lawsuit blocking state-enforced consolidation is not a defeat, just a delay.
Education
Q&A: TFA's New Director for Native American Achievement
The new director of the Native Achievement Initiative for Teach for America says the education of Native American students would benefit from public policies that help recruit talent and provide access to data in order to better tailor student learning.
Education
Report: Challenges, Poverty at Rural Schools 'Invisible'
A journal published by a non-profit civil rights organization has found that concentrated poverty imposes a significant burden on many of the nation's rural schools, which face many of the same challenges as their urban counterparts.
Education
Title I Battle: Rural Texas Loses to Urban Maryland
The Formula Fairness blog keeps digging up horror stories to back up its contention that the way federal Title I funds are distributed puts small, poor school districts at a big disadvantage.
Education
Tiny Rural Michigan School a Rare Success Story
Most of the time when you read about tiny, rural schools, it's in the context of negatives: too few resources, low student performance, and so on. Yet that's just not true of Glenn Public School in Michigan, profiled in this recent Grand Rapids Press report.
Education
Alaska Targets Truancy to Boost Rural Student Performance
Rural school districts in Alaska have joined others across the country opting to take legal action against parents, including sending them to jail, when kids are chronically absent from school.