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Why Rural Matters 2005: The Facts About Rural Education in the 50 States
Last Updated: May 12, 2005
 Full Report PDF (4.2 MB) Order Hardcopy $35 Executive Summary PDF (358 KB) State-by-State Results News Release PDF (85 KB) Press Guide PDF (165 KB) News Conference PowerPoint PDF (52 KB) News Conference Transcript |
Why Rural Matters 2005 is the third in a series of reports analyzing the importance of rural education in each of the 50 states and calling attention to the urgency with which policymakers in each state should address the problems of rural education.
In 2002-2003, 27% (12.5 million) of public school students attended school in communities of fewer than 25,000 and 19% (8.8 million) attended school in smaller communities of fewer than 2,500. In this report, we focus on the schools in those smaller communities, the most rural schools in America.
We framed the report around 22 statistical indicators grouped into four gauges measuring: (1) the relative importance of rural education, (2) the level of poverty in rural schools, (3) other socio-economic challenges faced by rural schools, and (4) the policy outcomes achieved in rural education. Policy outcomes include both student achievement measures (NAEP scores and graduation rates) and structural factors that both influence student outcomes and are within the control of policymakers to be "policy outcomes," such as student-teacher ratios, organizational scale of schools and districts, and per pupil spending on instruction.
The higher the ranking on a gauge, the more important or the more urgent rural education matters are in that state.
In sum, the results for each gauge are:
Importance: Half of the states where rural education is most important to the overall educational performance of the state are either in the Great Plains or the Midwest (South Dakota, Montana, North Dakota, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Kansas). Others are scattered in Northern New England (Maine and Vermont), Central Appalachia (West Virginia and Kentucky), the Mid-South Delta (Mississippi), and the Southeast (North Carolina).
Policy Outcomes: Eight of the 13 states with the worst policy outcomes are located east of the Mississippi River, mostly in the Southeast (Louisiana, Florida, Delaware, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, and West Virginia). Three are in the West (Hawaii, California and Oregon), and two in the Southwest (Arizona and New Mexico).
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Related Tags: All States, Consolidation, Distance Learning, Education Policy and Activism, Educational Technology, Facilities, PDF, Place-based Learning, Report, RT Policy Department, Rural School Teaching and Leadership, Rural Trust Publication, School Finance/Funding, School-Community Partnerships, School/District Size, Small Schools/School Size, Teacher Issues, Title I, Why Rural Matters
Related Tags: All States, Consolidation, Distance Learning, Education Policy and Activism, Educational Technology, Facilities, PDF, Place-based Learning, Report, RT Policy Department, Rural School Teaching and Leadership, Rural Trust Publication, School Finance/Funding, School-Community Partnerships, School/District Size, Small Schools/School Size, Teacher Issues, Title I, Why Rural Matters
