School & District Management Blog

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 This blog is no longer being updated, but you can continue to explore these issues on edweek.org by visiting our related topic pages: rural education.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 Secret's Out on School Consolidation in Mississippi
The facts are now out on school consolidation in rural Mississippi.
Mary Schulken, July 13, 2010
1 min read
Education Frustration with i3 Process Prompts Study of Competitive Grants
A rural education non-profit frustrated with the i3 grant process says it will investigate how small and rural school districts fare under the Obama administration's policy of federal competitive grants.
Mary Schulken, July 12, 2010
1 min read
Education Arkansas Suit Claims District Consolidations a National Threat
Does forcing small rural school districts to consolidate create a national emergency? That's the argument being made in a creative federal lawsuit filed in Arkansas claiming the state's mandated closing of rural schools threatens the country's security and food supply.
Mary Schulken, July 9, 2010
1 min read
Education Why is FFA Still a Rural Staple?
Are agricultural education and the 82-year-old Future Farmers of America organization throwbacks to the past, even in rural schools? No, Dr. Larry Case, retiring national FFA advisor, told the Rural Education blog. Read in this recent post how record numbers of students are participating in the organization. That made me wonder why, so I asked both a teacher and a recent high school graduate.
Mary Schulken, July 8, 2010
3 min read
Education In the Future, More Than Farmers
Larry Case is what you'd expect as the nation's top agricultural education official. He's a Missouri farm boy who, by his own admission, is a talker. Yet he has no trouble getting to the point about what agricultural education and the National FFA Organization must do to draw students in a changing world.
Mary Schulken, July 7, 2010
3 min read
Education Ozark Non-Profit in OCRE Spotlight
A new non-profit that focuses on small, rural school districts in the Missouri Ozarks region will be on show when national advocates for rural education meet July 15 in Washington, D.C.
Mary Schulken, July 6, 2010
1 min read
Education Student Transience Hard on Rural Schools
Rural school districts in five central U.S. states—particularly districts with high numbers of Native Americans—have "extremely high student mobility rates," a concern that can hinder schools' progress, a new report says. The study by the Institute of Education Sciences suggests the reasons behind that high mobility need further research to better identify ways for rural schools to cope with high rates of student movement.
Mary Schulken, July 1, 2010
1 min read
Education Study: Find Another Way to Re-do Title I
Re-upping the Elementary and Secondary Education Act may be a long shot this year, but that hasn't stopped the drumbeat from rural schools to overhaul the way federal Title I funds for disadvantaged students are allocated.
Mary Schulken, June 30, 2010
2 min read
Education Brought to You By: A Small, Rural School
On a not-quite-light school-day morning, a paved farm road in North Carolina is a study in a ritual of rural life. Children in knee jeans stand bunched at mailboxes, yawning and shifting feet, waiting for an orange bus to drive out of the mist. Across the road, an old man in the garden picks beans barefooted, his pant legs rolled up to fend off last night's rain. At almost every house, one square frame of fluorescence lights a sleepy shadow inside making coffee and keeping an eye on the kids.
Mary Schulken, June 29, 2010
2 min read