Community Advocate


Arkansas Groups Gear Up for Action on Formula Fairness Campaign

Two rural education advocacy groups held leadership gatherings in Arkansas this month. Both included a focus on bringing fairness to the Title I funding formulas.


Formula Grant Successful in Rural Schools, Flexibility Key

A recent report for the U.S. Department of Education finds that low-income rural schools made good use of a federal formula grant. The findings are important in the debate over whether federal grants should be awarded primarily on a competitive or formula basis.


West Virginia Community Story Tells Much About School Consolidation

The community of Meadow Bridge, West Virginia has fought for decades to keep their K–12 schools. Their story reveals many of the circumstances and events that rural communities address as they work to make their schools and communities strong.


Connecticut Reduces Suspension Rate

Publicity along with a new law limiting when students can be put out of school is credited with reducing the state’s high suspension rate.


Full Service Community Schools Grants Due July 23

The U.S. Department of Education has released the Full Service Community Schools (FSCS) grant. The Notice of Intent to Apply deadline is June 23; the application deadline is July 23, 2010.


The Rural Dropout Problem: An Invisible Achievement Gap

This report reviews high school dropout rates and related factors in rural high schools throughout 15 Southern and Southwestern states. These schools are in districts that are among the 800 rural districts with the highest student poverty rate nationally. Seventy-seven percent of the "Rural 800" districts and 87 percent of the students in them are in these fifteen targeted states.


Education Official Visits Rural Schools Partnership Conference

The newly christened Ozarks Teacher Corps is an innovative partnership that will be worth watching to see if it can be replicated in other rural areas, said John White, a U.S. Department of Education leader who attended the annual Rural Schools Partnership conference on May 6, 2010 in Thomasville, Mo.


Consolidation Fight-Back Toolkit

The documents in this Consolidation Toolkit, prepared by the policy staff of the Rural School and Community Trust, can help you educate your fellow citizens and the policymakers who have the final say in consolidation decisions.


Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Scholarships

The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Young Scholars Program supports hundreds of high-achieving students with financial need across the United States...


Fund for Teachers

Fund for TeachersFund for Teachers enriches the personal and professional growth of teachers by recognizing and supporting them as they identify and pursue opportunities around the globe that will have the greatest impact on their practice, the academic lives of their students and on their school communities.


Why Rural Matters 2009: State and Regional Challenges and Opportunities

Why Rural Matters 2009Why Rural Matters 2009 is the fifth in a series of biennial reports analyzing the contexts and conditions of rural education in each of the 50 states and calling attention to the need for policymakers to address rural education issues in their respective states.


Same Old Consolidation Claims at Issue in Maine Vote

Mandatory district consolidation — for rural small districts — is shifting education costs to rural towns and breaking down Maine's traditions of self-governance. Next month voters will decide whether to reject the law that is forcing the dissolution of many of the state's school districts. Supporters of self-governance are urging citizens to reject a law they say is unfair, badly conceived, and unable to improve education: consolidation advocates, however, are making a variety of claims about "the facts…"


Title I Inequities in Plain Language

Some districts get less Title I money per eligible student than others, often much less, even in districts with very high poverty rates. That discrepancy is explained here with easy-to-understand examples…


Rural Trust Awarded Learn and Serve Grant; Will Create Youth Network in 7 Rural Communities

Learn and Serve AmericaThe Rural School and Community Trust has been awarded a Learn and Serve America Community-Based grant by the Corporation for National and Community Service, a 3-year award valued at up to $580,000.


Voices from the Fisheries Handbook

Voices from the Fisheries HandbookVoices From the Fisheries Handbook is an oral history handbook written for teachers as well as marine-oriented and other community organizations. The handbook includes information of how to develop projects and conduct oral history interviews.