The Rural School and Community Trust

RPM Special Edition on School Violence

Leadership Conference Education Fund releases report, Reversing the Rising Tide of Inequality: Achieving Educational Equity for Each and Every Child

This report outlines the next steps for narrowing the education disparities identified by the Equity and Excellence Commission and aims to bolster the effort to achieve both quality and fairness in our nation’s public education system. Reversing the Rising Tide of Inequality explains the current available state remedies for inequity; examines the Equity and Excellence Commission’s findings regarding the inequities that exist in U.S. education and its five-part agend ...

Rural Policy Matters: April 2013

Student Leadership on Historic Clock Is Community Catalyst

This article appeared in the April 2013 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Give students genuine leadership for something meaningful to do and they will run with it. That’s just what students at Trimble High School in Trimble Township, Ohio are doing. Their work is centered on the refurbishm ...

Some Rural Schools Among First to Face Sequester Cuts

This article appeared in the April 2013 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. States and school districts have been asked to return $17.9 million in funds already distributed through the Secure Rural Schools Act (SRSA). That law, passed in 2000, provides funding to support education, infrastructure, and emer ...

Louisiana Voucher Law Still in Courts

This article appeared in the April 2013 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. A federal judge in New Orleans has ruled that Act 2, Louisiana’s new voucher law, prevents the Tangipahoa Parish school system from complying with its desegregation order, but the state has appealed that decision. Lat ...

Enrollment in Dual Credit or AP/IB Courses, by Locale (2010-11)

This article appeared in the April 2013 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time.

Facts and Figures: States That Spend More Than $7,000 on Instruction for Each Rural Student

This article appeared in the April 2013 Rural Policy Matters. Question: Which 10 states spend more than $7,000 on instruction per rural student? Answer: At $10,300, Alaska spends more per rural student on instruction than any other state. Alaska is followed by New York ($10,214), Wyoming ($9,333), New Jersey ($8,783), Vermont ($8,651), Connecticut ($8,604), Rhode Island ($8,438), New Hampshire ($ ...

2013 Global Teacher Fellows Selected

This article appeared in the April 2013 Rural Policy Matters. The Rural Trust has announced the winners of the 2013 Global Teacher Fellowship travel awards. The 33 recipients represent a wide variety of subjects and grade levels. They teach in rural communities in 14 states across the country. The Fellowship supports teachers to travel to an international destination of their choice. Recipients researc ...

White House Education Budget Unveiled

This article appeared in the April 2013 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. On April 10, 2013, the Obama administration unveiled its 2014 budget proposal, a 4.6% increase over current levels. The proposal includes $75 billion for an expansion of federal pre-school programs for low and moderate-inco ...

Kansas Court Rules State Violating Constitution in Education Funding Case

This article appeared in the April 2013 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. In a court order released in January the Sunflower State legislature was directed to fund public schools at $4,492 per pupil, about $600 higher per pupil than present levels, an amount that would require an additional $442 million. ...

Police in Schools Increase Arrests, According to Report on Discipline in Mississippi

This article appeared in the April 2013 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. In Mississippi, black students are three times as likely as white students to receive an out-of-school suspension, according to Handcuffs on Success: The Extreme School Discipline Crisis in Mississippi Public Schools, a repo ...

U.S. Senate Subcommittee Holds Hearings On School-to-Prison Pipeline

This article appeared in the April 2013 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. In December, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights held a public hearing entitled “Ending the School-to-Prison Pipeline.” Over 400 attendees packed the hearing and ove ...

Office of Civil Rights Has Increased Its Enforcement Activity

This article appeared in the April 2013 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. In late November, the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights (OCR) released its activity report for the years 2009–2012,

Federal Commission Highlights Funding as a Major Cause of Inequity Among Schools

This article appeared in the April 2013 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. After two years of research, discussion, and input from stakeholders, the Education Equity Commission has released its final report on its findings. “For Each and Every Child” includes recommendations for action in five ...

Arizona Court Says Annual Inflationary Increase for Schools Are Not Optional

This article appeared in the April 2013 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The Grand Canyon State education budget will increase by around $80 million beginning next year as a result of an order saying the Legislature must make full annual increases for inflation. The Arizona State Court of Appeals has ov ...

Arkansas Court Decision Jeopardizes Lake View Funding Reforms

This article appeared in the April 2013 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. In a ruling issued November 29th, the Arkansas Supreme Court held that school districts whose property tax revenues exceed state-mandated levels may keep the overage rather than remit it to the state. The ruling in Kimbr ...

The President's 2014 Budget Proposal for Education: Early Learning Is a Key Investment

The 2014 budget proposal reflects the belief that education is a vital investment in the nation’s economic competitiveness, in its people, and in its communities. A cornerstone of the investment in education will be to expand high-quality early learning opportunities to all 4-year-olds from low- and moderate-income families. To learn more about this initiative, you may want to visit: Preschool for All. This early-learning initiative ...

Rural School and Community Trust Policy Strategy

Focus on Rural Mission We promote: political, professional, policy, and public environments that will enable rural schools to survive and thrive a powerful and sustainable rural school reform movement that actively engages and involves families, communities and the public, as well as education professionals.< ...

New Location for Rural Trust's National Office

The Rural Trust's National Office has relocated in Washington, DC effective April 1, 2013. Please note our new address and phone numbers. The Rural School and Community Trust National Office 4301 Connecticut Avenue, NW Suite 100 Washington, D.C. 20008 Tel: (202) 822-3919 Fax: (202) 872-4050 Email: info@ruraledu.org ...

RPM Special Edition on School Violence:The Distance Between

This article appeared in the RPM Special Edition on School Violence. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Special Edition on Sc ...

RPM Special Edition on School Violence:InfoGraphic: School Violence Incidents, 1974-2013

This article appeared in the RPM Special Edition on School Violence.

Investing in Innovation (i3) Grant

U.S. Department of Education Announces Start of 2013 i3 Grant Competition On March 27, 2013, the U.S. Department of Education announced the start of the $150 million 2013 Investing in Innovation (i3) grant competition with the release of the program's invitation for pre-applications for the i3 "Development" grant category and the notice of final priorities for the i3 program overall.The deadline for the pre-application is April 26, 2013. To read the Department of ...

About This Special Edition on School Violence

RPM Special Edition on School Violence:Introduction: Approaches and Definitions

RPM Special Edition on School Violence:Summary of Patterns in the Incidents

RPM Special Edition on School Violence:In-Depth Exploration of Incidents

RPM Special Edition on School Violence:Violence Begets Violence: Revenge, Copycatting, Triggers, and Threads

RPM Special Edition on School Violence:Schools Inside and Out: Practices and Policy Initiatives to Protect Everyone in School Settings

RPM Special Edition on School Violence:Chart of Mass Violence Incidents

This article appeared in the RPM Special Edition on School Violence. This chart includes specific information about the 80 incidents of Mass Violence identified in this report. The chart is presented as an oversize PDF document.

Percentage of Schools Reporting Violent Crime That Occurred at School By Locale

RPM Special Edition on School Violence:Conclusions: Putting It All In Context

RPM Special Edition on School Violence: Patterns in School Violence: It's Not What You Think

This article appeared in the RPM Special Edition on School Violence.

U.S. Department of Education Announces Start of 2013 i3 Grant Competition

The i3 program aims to develop and expand practices that accelerate student achievement and prepare every student to succeed in college and in their careers. The i3 program includes three grant categories: Development, Validation and Scale-up. The Department plans to announce applications for the Validation and Scale-up categories later this spring. This year's priorities for the Development grant category are: Improving the Effectiveness of Teachers or Principals; Improving Low-Per ...

National Assembly on School-Based Health Care convention set for June 23-26

The mission of the National Assembly on School-Based Health Care (NASBHC) is to improve the health status of children and youth by advancing and advocating for school-based health care. Every year, NASBHC brings together hundreds of providers, administrators, educators, and advocates for the National School-Based Health Care convention. This convention is geared for those who would like to learn about the latest practices, resources, and networking opportunities in the school-based health c ...

Now Archived: Utilizing the Village Rural Dropout Prevention Webinar

This recent webinar featured Communities in Schools Performance Learning Center in Berrien County, Georgia and Youthbuild of Southeast Ohio. Presenters and their colleagues highlighted lessons learned about effective use of curriculum, building partnerships, and helping students transition to postsecondary opportunities and careers. These lessons are applicable for rural districts and community partners looking to build or strengthen their own recovery program. Participants also had an oppo ...

Music Educator Award: Deadline to nominate your favorite music teacher is April 15

The Music Educator Award was launched to bring attention to the excellent and impactful work being done by thousands of music teachers across the United States. The winning recipient will receive an award and honorarium of $10,000. In addition, nine finalists will also be recognized for their contributions and they will each receive an award and $1,000. Everyone can nominate a teacher – students, parents, friends, colleagues, community members, members of The Recording Academy, sch ...

"Impact Aid" School Districts Brace for Sequester

In FY 2011, the Impact Aid Program disbursed more than $1 billion in unrestricted federal funds directly to local school districts. Many of these Impact Aid districts are located in rural communities with high levels of poverty. The Impact Aid Program, Title VIII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), provides assistance to local school districts with concentrations of children residing on Indian lands, military bases, low-rent housing properties, or other ...

Department of Education's Equity Commission Releases, "For Each and Every Child"

The Commission examined the disparities in meaningful educational opportunities that give rise to the achievement gap, with a focus on systems of finance, and recommended ways in which federal policies could address such disparities. The Commission was also tasked with recommending ways to restructure school finance systems to achieve equity in the distribution of educational resources and further student achievement and attainment. The Department of Education formed the commission in response ...

Rural School Innovation Webinar: The STAR School

Listen to Audio from event (MP3) &nb ...

Rural School Innovations Webinar: The STAR School's "3-to-3rd Project"

Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Register now for the next Rural School and Community Trust webinar: Wednesday, February 13, 2013, at 2:00 pm EST. This no-cost presentation will discuss The STAR School's 3-to-3rd Math Project and highlight the training films which show educators serving rural, low-income students how they can implement this innovative program. Presenters wi ...

"Utilizing the Village" Rural Dropout Prevention Webinar Set for February 28

On February 28, 2013 from 1:30-3:00 p.m. EST, the U.S. Department of Education, with Jobs for the Future, is sponsoring the third of a three-session series on rural dropout prevention and recovery, Utilizing the Village: Effective Reengagement and Recovery Programming in Rural Communities This webinar will feature a Communities in Schools Performance Learning Center in Berrien County, Georgia and Youthbuild of Southeast Ohio. Presenters and their colleagues will highl ...

Rural School Innovations Webinar: The STAR School

Northern Arizona's STAR School and its 3-to-3rd Math Project was the focus of the sixth Rural School and Community Trust webinar in the 2012–2013 Rural School Innovations Webinar Series. Hosted by Robert Mahaffey, Director of Communications, Rural School and Community Trust, this webinar was held Wednesday, February 13, 2013

USDA Announces Request for Applications for FY 2014 Farm to School Grants

The purpose of the USDA Farm to School Grant Program is to assist eligible entities in implementing farm to school programs that improve access to local foods in eligible schools. On an annual basis, USDA awards up to $5 million in competitive grants for training, supporting operations, planning, purchasing equipment, developing school gardens, developing partnerships, and implementing farm to school programs. In this funding round, USDA is soliciting applications for three types of g ...

March 1 - Deadline for Participating in White House Book Giveaway

The National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance (NCBLA) invites you to send in your very best activity idea for using Presidents Month to get kids excited about American History and be entered into a drawing to win one copy of the award-winning anthology, Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out for every student in your class or group --up to 40 copies. To be entered to win, simply share a creative activity idea for engaging kids during Pr ...

Rural Education Conference Set for April 3-4, 2013

The National Center for Research on Rural Education (R2Ed) will assemble researchers, practitioners and policymakers from across the country to discuss the factors influencing rural K-12 students' academic success at a conference to be held April 3-4, 2013, in Omaha, Nebraska. Titled Connect-Inform-Advance, the conference will foster dialogue about the interrelated impacts of teaching, family engagement and sc ...

Schools That Change Communities

This article appeared in the October 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Filmmaker Bob Gliner has recently released a documentary film, Schools That Change Communities, which documents the power of getting students into their own neighborhoods in urban and rural communities. Thi ...

Connecting Classrooms to the World

Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The Connected Community Contest is a team-competition, which encourages students to compare and contrast their community with rural communities around the world. Teams will research a rural community located anywhere in the world and create a video submission that demonstrates the similarities and differences between that community and their own. The ...

Rural Trust Extends Application Deadline for 2013 Global Teacher Fellowship Program

The application deadline for Rural Trust's Global Teacher Fellowship program has been extended to Jan. 30, 2013. To apply please click on the following link:

ED Teaching Ambassador Fellowship Applications due Jan. 29, 2013

The applications for 2013-2014 U.S. Department of Education Washington, DC, and Classroom Teaching Ambassador Fellowship are now available. The application period will close on January 29, 2013. The Department will work throughout the spring to make selection decisions, and 2013 Fellows will start their one-year assignments by August, 2013. Links to both applications can be found here: Washington Fellows:

The Experiences of Rural LGBT Youth

by Eliza Byard, GLSEN Executive Director This past spring, Lenoir City High School, a school in rural Tennessee, featured a section of short articles on student life in its yearbook. One article, entitled "It's OK to be Gay," profiled openly gay student Zac Mitchell. Apparently, as far as Lenoir City School Board is concerned, it ...

Rural Policy Matters: November 2012

Support the Rural Trust!

Warmest wishes for a wonderful Holiday Season! On behalf of the Rural School and Community Trust Board of Trustees and staff, we are very grateful for your continuing support and commitment to improving education and opportunities for rural students and communities. Our combined efforts are making a difference. ...

Life is Good: Educational Innovation in Rural Alaska

This article appeared in the November 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. At Whittier Community School in Alaska, 8th grader Joey has taken primary responsibility for the school’s hydroponic gardens and its two fish tanks “He loves fish,” says principal Stephanie Burgoon. Joey also m ...

The Rules We Play By, Part 3: Citizen Action and Research

This article appeared in the November 2012 Rural Policy Matters. In previous articles in this RPM series, we explored what public policy is, how it affects what is possible, and where education policy is made and enforced. In this issue we explore influences on policymakers and turn our attention to the roles of citizen involvement and research in policymaking. See the previous articles < ...

Some Ballot Initiatives Could Have Far-Reaching Outcomes

This article appeared in the November 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Some type of education initiative was on the ballot in at least 19 states this month. The majority of initiatives related to tax policy or school funding. Several of the initiatives, however, could have a national impact ...

Texas Legislators Grapple with Fixing the School-to-Prison Pipeline

This article appeared in the November 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Late last month, two legislative committees heard from over two dozen witnesses about the impact of harsh discipline measures for students in a joint meeting that began a comprehensive examination of school discipline in the sta ...

Kentucky Court Considers Miranda Warnings

This article appeared in the November 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Last month, the Kentucky Supreme Court heard arguments in a case from Nelson County that could result in students being given Miranda warnings before being questioned at school in the presence of a law enforcement officer ...

Ohio School Levies Meet Mixed Success; School Funding Fight Likely

This article appeared in the November 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Over half of the 192 district levies on Ohio ballots passed in this months elections. Renewal requests had a much better chance of passage (87 percent) than new levies, which passed at a 37 percent rate. Nearly two-third ...

Georgia Charter Law Faces Legal Fight

This article appeared in the November 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Fifty-nine percent of Georgia voters approved a constitutional amendment that will create a new statewide chartering entity in the state. However, a lawsuit is underway challenging the language used to describe the amendment on ...

Georgia District Must Clarify Use of Social Security Numbers, DOJ Says

This article appeared in the November 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has entered into an agreement with Georgia’s Henry County School District to ensure the district’s practice of demanding Social Security numbers ends and that the district effecti ...

Teacher Certification by Locale

This article appeared in the November 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time.

Facts and Figures: States That Spend Less Than $5,000 on Instruction for Each Rural Student

This article appeared in the November 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Question: Which 13 states spend less than $5,000 on instruction per rural student? Answer: At just $4,169, Idaho spends less per rural student on instruction than any other state. Other states that spend less than $5,000 on instruction of rural students are Arizona ($4,249), Utah ($4,471), Oklahoma ($4,483), Tenn ...

Global Citizen Year: Apply by Nov. 30 for 2014 Program

A year outside the traditional classroom environment before college impacts your future in ways you can hardly yet imagine. Explore the possibilities that a year living and working in the developing world holds — and see if Global Citizen Year might be right for you. Global Citizen Year is a premier global bridge year program designed to unleash the potential of the next generation of young Americans as authentic leaders and effective agents of change. Each year, Global ...

Rural Policy Matters: October 2012

Arizona School Using Culture and Innovative Math Project to Boost Student Success

This article appeared in the October 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Talk to Mark Sorensen, principal of STAR School in northern Arizona, and he will make sure you understand that the school — its curriculum and relationships &mdas ...

Voters Consider Ballot Initiatives on Education

This article appeared in the October 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Voters in a number of states are being asked to vote on a range of ballot initiatives, many related to K–12 education. The ballot initiative enables citizens to vote directly on specific changes to state law or constitution ...

The Health and Future of Our Community

This article appeared in the October 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. In Jackman, Maine high school students staff a tech support program that provides the only computer repair and setup services within 70 miles. Middle schoolers and elementary students operate a greenhouse and community garden wit ...

The Rules We Play By, Part 2: Who Makes the Rules?

This article appeared in the October 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. "Who Makes the Rules?" is the second in the RPM series "The Rules We Play By," which explores the way public policy affects local schools. You can read Part I

Marty Strange Wins Research Award for Title I Analysis

This article appeared in the October 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Marty Strange is the recipient of the Stanley A. Brzezinski Memorial Rural Education Research Award. The award is given annually by the National Rural Education Association in recognition of education research that "addresse ...

School Turnaround Policies Unlikely to Improve Student Performance, According to Report

This article appeared in the October 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. A new report from the National Education Policy Center analyzes nearly 30 years of research on high-stakes testing and school improvement strategies and concludes that many current reform ...

Schools That Change Communities

Alabama State Department of Education Sued Over Student Records

This article appeared in the October 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Alabama's controversial and extensive immigration law includes a provision that requires schools to obtain information on the immigration status of all newly enrolling students and their families. The provision does not require ...

Kentucky School Board Approves Limits on Use of Seclusion and Restraint

This article appeared in the October 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. A new policy approved by the Kentucky State School Board prohibits physical restraint of students except when a child’s behavior poses imminent danger of serious physical harm. The new policy is aligned with

New Film on Positive Effects of PBIS

This article appeared in the October 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The filmmaker in residence at the Institute on Disability at the University of New Hampshire has created a documentary, “Who Cares About Kelsey?” to illustrate the challenges for students who have emotional and behavi ...

Meridian Mississippi Officials Sued by Department of Justice for Operating "School to Prison Pipeline"

This article appeared in the October 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed suit against a number of agencies in Meridian and Lauderdale County Mississippi charging that they are operating a “school to prison pipeline.” DOJ conducted an extensive ...

Plaintiffs and Allies in Colorado School Funding Case Ask High Court to Uphold Ruling

This article appeared in the October 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Plaintiffs in the Lobato school funding lawsuit were required to respond in court to the state’s appeal of their successful case. At last month’s filing deadline, Lobato plaintiffs had garnered a ...

Grandparent Brings Constitutional Challenge to Idaho School Fees

This article appeared in the October 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Russ Joki, a former superintendent in Idaho and Colorado has filed a lawsuit in Ada County, claiming that fees charged to public school students violate the Idaho Constitution’s guarantee of free schools. He filed the suit ...

Massive School Funding Trial Begins in Texas

This article appeared in the October 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Six lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the Texas school finance system have been combined in a court case that began earlier this month. The six groups include four different coalitions of school districts. Thr ...

Proposed Pennsylvania Legislation to Revise Charter School Funding Dies

This article appeared in the October 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Pennsylvania legislators were unable to agree on how to improve the troubled charter school system in the state before adjourning for the election. The state’s charter funding system has received growing national attention, ...

Louisiana Judge Questions Whether Vouchers Impacting Desegregation Orders

This article appeared in the October 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Rural Tangipahoa Parish school system argues that a new Louisiana voucher law that diverts money per-pupil foundation funding from the local school district, is making it impossible for the district to comply with a long-standing desegr ...

California Law Requiring Charters to Serve Free and Reduced Price Meals Vetoed

This article appeared in the October 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Widely-supported legislation that would have required charter schools in the Golden State to provide free and reduced prices lunches to students has been vetoed by California Governor Jerry Brown. Brown stated that while he belie ...

2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP): Writing, Grades 8 and 12

This article appeared in the October 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time.

Facts and Figures: States With a High Percentage of Rural English Language Learner Students

This article appeared in the October 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Question: In which 11 states are more than 5% of all rural students classified as English Language Learners? Answer: In California, 18.1% of rural students are English Language Learners, the highest percentage in the country. California is followed by Alaska, where 16.3% of rural students are learning English, Texas (9.4%); Arizona ( ...

Rural Policy Matters: September 2012

Teachers Interpret International Travel

This article appeared in the September 2012 Rural Policy Matters. The 2012 Global Fellows gathered earlier this month to reflect on their experiences and share how they are translating what they learned into their curriculum and teaching. “Each fellow has ventured on a unique journey so coming together with other fellows who have had different experiences but have also made unique learning journeys is a ...

STEM STAR Offers Effective Model for Technology Integration in Rural Schools

This article appeared in the September 2012 Rural Policy Matters. A just-released report indicates the RSCT STEM STAR program offers a highly effective model for teacher training and technology integration in rural schools. The model is especially promising because many rural schools struggle to provide their students with rich technology access and learning opportunities. The program provides professional dev ...

Arizona Forced to Adopt Better Practices for Identifying English Language Learners

This article appeared in the September 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Arizona has signed an agreement that could end a long running dispute with the federal government over how it identifies students who are learning English. The U.S. Departments of Justice and Education had investigated the asse ...

Heated Tennessee Charter Battles Point Up Issues

This article appeared in the September 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Tennessee’s Education Commissioner, Kevin Huffman, is withholding $3.4 in funding from the Nashville public schools because the local school board refused to open a controversial charter school they said would serve prima ...

Studies Continue to Show Disparate Discipline

This article appeared in the September 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The evidence continues to mount that when schools use harsh and exclusionary discipline practices, they are much more likely to target those practices to specific student groups. Several recently released major reports examine ...

South Carolina Rural Districts Hear Familiar Refrain in Court

This article appeared in the September 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. South Carolina plaintiff rural districts in the Abbeville school finance case were told they should ask to be consolidated, that they spend too much on administration, that they should be satisfied with an underfunded pr ...

Kansas Districts Make Final Arguments

This article appeared in the September 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. A three-judge panel in Kansas heard closing arguments in the Gannon school funding lawsuit in late August. The arguments were presented more than eight weeks after testimony in the trial ended. Lawyers for the 54 ...

Florida Districts Will Have Their Day in Court

This article appeared in the September 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The Florida Supreme Court has found that a group of parents, students, and education advocacy groups can sue the state for failing to fund schools properly. Plaintiffs in the case were successful at both the trial and appeal co ...

Remedy Phase in Washington State Finance Case Moves Forward

This article appeared in the September 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Lawmakers in Washington State submitted the first of a series of reports to the state supreme court this month. The report explains what the state is doing to address the court’s ruling to meet its constitutional obligati ...

Georgia Districts Nearing Insolvency, But Funding Commission Recommends Only Minor Changes

This article appeared in the September 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. More than $4 billion in “austerity” cuts have been made to Georgia’s K–12 education budget in the last four years. In response, schools have cut more than 4,000 teaching jobs as well as programs, service ...

Chester-Upland District in "Recovery Status"

This article appeared in the September 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The small Chester-Union school district in Pennsylvania has reached a final settlement agreement with the state that will cover the district’s debts and provide additional funding for the 2012–13 school year. < ...

Report Highlights Underlying Causes of Finance Inequity

This article appeared in the September 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. A state-by-state analysis by the Center for American Progress examines how states fund schools and how that system stacks up along a range of measures. An extensive report by the Center for American Progress (CAP) exami ...

Most States Still Cutting Education According to Center for Budget and Policy Priorities Report

This article appeared in the September 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Thirty-seven states have cut funding since the 2008 fiscal year, according to a report from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP). And most states are continuing to slash education budgets. The report, &ldq ...

Local, State, and Federal Revenue per Pupil, by School District Locale: 2008-09

This article appeared in the September 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time.

Facts and Figures: States With Higher Percentages of Minority Rural Students

This article appeared in the September 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Question: Nationally, more than one-quarter of all rural students are classified as minorities according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Minority students exceed this average in 18 states. Which states are they? Answer: At 82.6%, New Mexico has the highest percentage of rural minority students. New Mexico is follow ...

"Utilizing the Village" Rural Dropout Prevention Webinar Set for October 12

On October 12, 2012 from 1:30-3:00 p.m. EDT, the U.S. Department of Education, with Jobs for the Future, is sponsoring the second of a three-session series on rural dropout prevention and recovery, Utilizing the Village: Using Early Warning Indicators and Interventions to Help Rural Students Succeed in School. Dr. Robert Balfanz of the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University will discuss considerations for early warning system development in rural localitie ...

Rural Policy Matters: August 2012

...

The Rules We Play By

This article appeared in the August 2012 Rural Policy Matters. There’s a list on the wall in Mr. Miller’s classroom. It says, “I promise to respect you. I value your opinion. I know that we can accomplish great things. I expect you to complete your work on time.” Across the county the list on Mr. Cook’s classroom wall says, “No running: three checks. No loud laughter: two ch ...

Budget Sequestration: Tougher Times Ahead for Rural Schools?

This article appeared in the August 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Nearly $5 billion dollars will be cut from federal education programs if Congress and the Administration don’t reach a budget agreement by the end of this year. The cuts will disproportionately affect funds distributed throu ...

RTTT-D Competition and Small High-Poverty Districts

This article appeared in the August 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The federal Race to the Top program is now in its third round and this year’s competition includes a program aimed exclusively at school districts (Local Education Associations/LEAs). The competitive grant program is focused ...

AP and IB Credits Earned by Locale, 2009-10

This article appeared in the August 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Source: U.S. Department of Education, I ...

Alabama Schools Not Allowed to Check Immigration Status

This article appeared in the August 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. One of the more controversial elements of Alabama’s sweeping immigration law, passed last year, was the requirement that schools check the immigration status of all new students and their parents and report a tally of the nu ...

DOJ Investigation Finds Mississippi County Court, Police Department and Youth Services Operating School-to-Prison Pipeline

This article appeared in the August 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has accused three Mississippi agencies of operating a school-to-prison pipeline and warned them to begin “meaningful negotiations” with DOJ within 60 days or face a federal lawsuit. ...

New Ruling Is Good News for At-Risk Preschoolers in North Carolina

This article appeared in the August 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Plaintiff districts in the state’s school funding case known as Leandro succeeded in court this month when a three-judge panel of the North Carolina Court of Appeals agreed that the state cannot create barriers that w ...

Proposed Georgia Constitutional Amendment on Charters Highlights Debate Over Funding

This article appeared in the August 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Pitched legislative debate over charter schools in the Peach State has resulted in a constitutional ballot question being placed on this November’s ballot, and voters are already hearing strong rhetoric from both supporters ...

Fact and Figures: 16 States With High Rural Student Populations

This article appeared in the August 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Question: Rural students comprise more than 1/3 of all students in which 16 states? Answer: Mississippi has a higher percentage of rural students than any other state (54.7%) and is followed by Vermont (54.6%), Maine (52.7%), North Carolina (47.2%), South Dakota (42.5%), South Carolina (40.0%), Alabama (39.7%), Tennessee (38.7%), Nort ...

A Life-Changing Experience: Global Fellows Travelogue, Part 2

This article appeared in the August 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time.

Grants and Resources for Classroom Pets

Pets in the Classroom, a program of the Pet Care Trust, helps to establish healthy child-pet relationships at an early age by supporting responsible pet care in elementary and middle school classrooms across the country. Kids benefit from exposure to pets in the classroom in ways that he ...

Utilizing the Village: Building Support for Students' Success in Rural Communities

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education with support from Jobs for the Future, Utilizing the Village: Building Support for Students' Success in Rural Communities is a three-part webinar series focused on rural dropout prevention and recovery. The series is tailored to the unique needs of rural communities and will feature strategies that are cost-effective and easy to implement in middle and high schools. State and district leaders, principals, practitioners and commun ...

Rural Policy Matters: July 2012

Vi ...

A Life-Changing Experience: Global Fellows Travelogue, Part 1

This article appeared in the July 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. June and July have found the Rural Trust Global Teacher Fellows in the midst of international travel. From Tokyo to Buenos Aires, Gujarat to Kenya, and points in between, these rural teachers report that they are experiencing more t ...

Fostering Happiness and Success in the Classroom

This article appeared in the July 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Two North Carolina elementary schools will use funds from a nationally influential grant to address a challenge familiar to many high-poverty rural communities: the playground. L. B. Yancey and Pinkston Street Elementary Sch ...

Chelsea Jerome: 2012 Rural Recipient of Scholarship from Leonore Annenberg College Scholarship Fund

This article appeared in the July 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Chelsea Jerome's family got the good news that the Hazen Union High School junior had been awarded a prestigious scholarship from the Leonore Annenberg College Scholarship Fund, but they decided to play a little trick before lettin ...

Ten Highly Rated i3 Pre-Applicants Focus on Rural Education

This article appeared in the July 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Ten pre-applicants who selected Rural Education as an Absolute Priority are among 124 who may proceed with a full application for the 2012 i3 Fund in the Development category. On July 2, the U.S. Department of Education

Some Effects of Charter School Funding Plans on Smaller School Districts

This article appeared in the July 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. What happens if a charter school draws so much per pupil funding that the regular school district can’t operate? That question has extra weight for small districts. And it is a question that more and more smaller distri ...

USDA Releases Resource Guide for Rural Communities

This article appeared in the July 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has released a guide to resources available to rural communities through four federal agencies. The report,

New Report Finds Harmful Health Effects of Harsh Discipline

This article appeared in the July 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. A new report released by several nonprofits in California concludes that there are both direct and indirect negative health effects on students when schools impose harsh and exclusionary discipline. The report, " ...

Missouri Plan Prorates Funding Shortfall Among Districts

This article appeared in the July 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Recession-related funding shortfalls are having a major impact on the Missouri’s poorest school districts. After the state legislature refused to act to address a shortfall in education funding, the State Department of Educati ...

New York Funding Lawsuit Moves Forward

This article appeared in the July 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Cuts in funding related to recessionary budget shortfalls are making matters worse for New York State districts that filed a school finance lawsuit in 2008. Late last month thirteen districts, including rural districts, and 101 pare ...

Six Finance Lawsuits in Texas

This article appeared in the July 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Two different organizations, each representing charter schools have filed lawsuits in Texas. Four other finance lawsuits have already been filed and are scheduled to go to trial in October. The charter lawsuits could be rolled into ...

Pennsylvania Lawsuit Raises New Issues

This article appeared in the July 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. A Pennsylvania district has brought a rather unusual, but potentially far-reaching, school finance lawsuit in federal court. The 6,600-student Chester-Upland district, which owes some $30 million dollars, is charging that the state ...

Total Number of Charter Schools by Locale, 2009-10

This article appeared in the July 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time.

Facts and Figures About States With High Rural Student Populations

This article appeared in the July 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Question: More than half a million students attend rural schools in these three states; which states are they? Answer: Texas, where 834,140 students attend rural schools; North Carolina (685,409 rural students); and Georgia (574,965 rural students) (Source: Why Rural Matters, 2011–12. Data source: U.S. Depar ...

Rural Policy Matters: June 2012

Vi ...

North Carolina, Others, Hotly Debate Charter School Rules

This article appeared in the June 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The last several years have seen an upswing in efforts to expand the role of charter schools. The Obama administration has included charter requirements in several federal initiatives. The free-market oriented American Legislative E ...

Charter Schools Enroll Fewer Students with Disabilities, Report Finds

This article appeared in the June 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released a report documenting that most charter schools enroll fewer students with disabilities than traditional public schools. The report calls for additional research into the r ...

Travel Inspiration from Global Fellow

This article appeared in the June 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. It was actually her mother who inspired Carol Trickler to apply for a Rural Trust Global Teach ...

"Impact in Place": A New Federal Policy Direction?

This article appeared in the June 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The idea that place matters is hardly new to most rural residents, but it’s an idea that’s finding new favor with policymakers. Earlier this month the U.S. Department of Education released a report,

Future of Highly Qualified Teacher Rules Still Unclear

This article appeared in the June 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. A Senate subcomittee has struck language from an Appropriations bill that would give Highly Qualified status to teachers who are in the process of completing alternative certification programs. Currently people who are in alternativ ...

Parents as Teachers Featured in Latest Rural Trust Webinar

This article appeared in the June 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The vision of Parents as Teachers is that all children will learn, grow, and develop to realize their full potential. The organization provides information, support, and encouragement to parents to help their children develop optima ...

White House Rural Council Announces Rural Online Community

This article appeared in the June 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. A June 13 posting to “Homeroom,” the official blog of the U.S. Department of Education announced a new online initiative of the White House Rural Council. According to the post, the initiative will create an onli ...

New Race to the Top Stresses Student-Teacher Relationships

This article appeared in the June 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The Race to the Top guidelines announced in late May continue an administration emphasis on relationship-building as a core concern in “turnaround” schools, those where student test scores rank lowest in their states.

Michigan State Board of Education Advises Districts to Revisit Zero-Tolerance Policies

This article appeared in the June 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Across the country community groups and others concerned about young people have begun to push back against the growing trend for schools to use severe and punitive discipline in response to non-violent student misbehavior. Many ...

Education Funding Reports Grade States and Districts

This article appeared in the June 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Several reports released this month profile dramatic differences in school spending levels across districts. The reports document lower levels of school spending in districts with low wealth and/or high poverty than in high wealth d ...

Major School Finance Litigation Underway Again in Kansas

This article appeared in the June 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Lawyers for fifty-four school districts and thirty-two representative school children in the Gannon v. Kansas school funding lawsuit are making their case to a panel of three state district judge in the Shawnee District Cou ...

Many Thanks to RSFN Editor Amanda Adler

This article appeared in the June 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Many thanks to Amanda Adler, Editor of Rural School Funding News, who served as Editor of Rural Policy Matters for the March, April, and May editions. Amanda’s able work enabled me to take a necessary Leave of Absence w ...

Distribution of Traditional, Charter, and Public Schools by Locale, 2009-10 School Year

This article appeared in the June 2012 Rural Policy Matters. ...

Facts and Figures about States With Most Schools in Rural Places

This article appeared in the June 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Question: In which 15 states are more than half of all schools located in a rural place? Answer: South Dakota (78.6%), Montana (75.1%), Vermont (73.7%), North Dakota (72.4%), Maine (66.8%), Alaska (63.3%), Nebraska (56.3%), Wyoming (56.1%), Arkansas (55.2%), Oklahoma (53.9%), West Virginia (53.4%), Iowa (53.2%), Mississippi (51.2%), New ...

Rural School Innovation Webinar: Parents as Teachers

The featured innovation of this Rural School Innovations Series Webinar from June 2012 was Parents as Teachers, and focused on the i3 "Improving Educational Outcomes for American Indian Children" project, named BabyFACE.

Rural Policy Matters: May 2012

The May 2012 edition of Rural Policy Matters features stories on Place-Based Learning Events in Missouri and Vermont; youth-led poverty reduction work in Louisiana; new school discipline legislation in Colorado; school finance news from South Carolina and Iowa; and more.

Thomasville Rendezvous Celebrates Place-Based Learning

This article appeared in the May 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The third annual Thomasville Rural Schools Partnership Rendezvous was held last month in Thomasville, Missouri, and over 100 participants enjoyed a day of sharing and learning about place-based education from all over the region. The ...

"Moving to Higher Ground" Event Highlights Successes for Rural Schools and Students

This article appeared in the May 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. This month, students, teachers, and community members from central and northeastern Vermont gathered for the eleventh year to focus on place-based learning (PBL) work, youth voice projects, and school-community partnerships that have ...

Rural Louisiana Students Continue to Help Build Community Wealth

This article appeared in the May 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Since its beginnings in 2007 with a single St. Helena High School student, the youth-led poverty reduction work in rural Louisiana has grown and developed into a multi-faceted community resource that improves the lives of residents.< ...

Rural Schools a Growing Part of the National Community School Conversation

This article appeared in the May 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The 2012 Coalition for Community Schools Conference attracted more than 1,400 participants from across the nation, and Robert Mahaffey, director of communications for the Rural School and Community Trust and current president of Orga ...

Global Teacher Fellows Describe the Inspiration Behind the Application: Second in a Series

This article appeared in the May 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The 2012 Class of Rural Trust Global Teacher Fellows are busily making final arrangements for their travels which will take them from their schools in Scott’s Branch, South Carolina to Egypt; from Newport, Vermont to Ghana, ...

Rural Stakeholders to Discuss Implementation of Common Core Standards

This article appeared in the May 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor’s Note: Special thanks to our colleagues at SCORE for providing this article on the upcoming convening. Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Earlier this year, the Tennessee State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE), launched the Rural Education Network, a group ...

South Carolina Supreme Court Moves on School Funding Case

This article appeared in the May 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Nearly four years after oral arguments were made in Abbeville v. State, the South Carolina Supreme Court has issued a two-page order stating that attorneys for the parties must return to court in September to re-argue the ca ...

Iowa Supreme Court Refuses to Reinstate School Standards Case

This article appeared in the May 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. In a decision announced late last month, the Iowa Supreme Court declined to reinstate the claims of plaintiffs in King v. Iowa, with the majority of justices ruling that plaintiffs needed to state different legal claims or u ...

Colorado Students Win State Law Reforms of Student Discipline Code

This article appeared in the May 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Across the country community groups and others concerned about young people have begun to push back against the growing trend for schools to use severe and punitive discipline in response to non-violent student misbehavior. Many ...

Nonprofit Petitions U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Zero Tolerance Case

This article appeared in the May 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The Rutherford Institute, a civil liberties organization, is asking that the U.S. Supreme Court find that the zero tolerance polices used to expel a Spotsylvania, Virginia, student violated his Constitutional right to due process.

New Report Focuses on Another Side of the School-to-Prison Pipeline

This article appeared in the May 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. A study released last month describes in detail what its authors call student “keep out,” a dynamic in which youth returning to their home schools following juvenile commitment or criminal incarceration are denied reentry ...

Guidance Issued on Use of Seclusion and Restraint in Schools

This article appeared in the May 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Education released the “Restraint and Seclusion: Resource Document” which includes “15 principles for state, district, and school staff; parents; and other stakeholders to ...

Rural School District Performance on NAEP U.S. History Assessment

This article appeared in the May 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time.

Facts and Figures about Rural Teacher Salaries

This article appeared in the May 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Question: Which thirteen states have the lowest rural teacher salary expenditures per full-time equivalent (a proxy for measuring full-time teacher salaries)? Answer: In order from lowest salary: North Dakota, South Dakota, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Nebraska, Montana, Alabama, Idaho, Kansas ...

Reminder: Don't Miss Upcoming Rural School Innovation Webinar!

This article appeared in the May 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The "BabyFACE" project will be the subject of the next Rural School Innovation webinar on June 13 from 2:00 until 3:00 p.m. EST. This is the fifth in a series of webinars featuring successful, innovative educational strateg ...

Rural Policy Matters: April 2012

V ...

Reminder: Don't Miss Upcoming Dropout Prevention Webinar!

This article appeared in the April 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. "Utilizing the Village: Building Community Support for Dropout Prevention and Recovery Work in Rural Communities" will be presented May 3 from 1:30 until 3:00 p.m. EDT. This is the first in a series of three webinars on d ...

2012 Rural Trust Global Teacher Fellows Announced

This article appeared in the April 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The 2012 Class of Rural Trust Global Teacher Fellows has been named, and the awardees are busily making final arrangements for their travels which will take them from their schools in Scott’s Branch, South Carolina, to Egypt; ...

Global Teacher Fellows Describe the Inspiration Behind the Application

This article appeared in the April 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The rural teachers who will be traveling to international destinations this summer as Rural Trust Global Fellows will without a doubt bring back engaging photos, artifacts, and other memorabilia. They will have made connections ...

Community Initiative Supporting Rural Arts Education in the Ozarks

This article appeared in the April 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Budding artisans in rural schools in the Ozarks are benefitting from an initiative that brings hands-on, cross-curricular art lessons that engage them and encourage them to integrate their artwork into their communities. Founded in ...

Gainesville Schools and Community Benefit from Foundation Investment

This article appeared in the April 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. In rural Ozark County, Missouri, the local school district is now using a wood-chip fueled generator which will provide significant energy savings, and which was in part funded by local investment. Gainesville R-V School Di ...

Missouri Formula Fight Likely to Produce Mostly Losers, Few Winners

This article appeared in the April 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Show-Me State legislators had promised to address the growing shortfall in state school funding this session, but the two bills that propose finance formula changes are stalled in committee. Estimates of the shortage range from $26 ...

Hold-Harmless Clause Spurs Pennsylvania Legislators' Planned School Finance Lawsuit

This article appeared in the April 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Pennsylvania State Representatives Doyle Heffley (R-Carbon), Joe Emrick (R-Monroe), and Mario Scavello (R-Monroe) announced earlier this month that they plan to challenge the constitutionality of the school funding formula. All thr ...

Ohio Still Seeking Stable, Constitutional Funding Formula

This article appeared in the April 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. In May, the Ohio State House of Delegates Finance Committee will begin a series of hearings that could last as long as a year to gather data to create a new school finance system in the state. Legislators have said they hope to hav ...

Montana Rural District Coalition Secures Additional Funding for Schools

This article appeared in the April 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The Montana Quality Education Coalition (MQEC) successfully negotiated a settlement with the State of Montana in a recent lawsuit that alleged that the state illegally cut funding from school districts. MCEC ended the lawsu ...

Rural School District Enrollment: Variations across Census Regions

This article appeared in the April 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time.

Dropout Prevention Webinar Set for May 3

Register now for "Utilizing the Village: Building Community Support for Dropout Prevention and Recovery Work in Rural Communities." This May 3, 2012 webinar presents the scope of the dropout problem in rural localities and features two community mobilization strategies that have been effective in building support for impact on this critical issue. Featured presenters for this event are Doris Terry Williams, Executive Director, Rural School and Commun ...

Facts and Figures about the Mobility of Rural Students

This article appeared in the April 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Question: Which three states have the highest rates of rural student mobility, that is, the highest numbers of rural students who have changed residence in the previous 12 months? Answer: Nevada (21.8%), Arizona (19.5%), and Alaska (17.4%). These figures are expressed as a percentage of all rural children aged 5&nda ...

Coalition for Community Schools 2012 National Forum: May 9-12

Registration is open for the Coalition for Community Schools 2012 National Forum, set for May 9–12, 2012 in San Francisco, California. The 2012 event will bring together a diverse group of leaders from the fields of education, youth development, health and human services, family support, neighborhood and community development, government, philanthropy and others who work at the local, state and national levels. Leaders will learn how ...

Children's Defense Fund National Conference: July 22-25, 2012

The Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) national conference will gather 3,000 leading researchers, educators, policymakers, practitioners, faith leaders, and advocates including 1,500 young adult leaders from July 22–25 in Cincinnati, Ohio. When 16.4 million children are poor, 8.3 million children don’t have health care, and a majority of children cannot read or compute at grade level in the fourth, eighth, and 12th grades — we have a growing national crisis that dem ...

2012 i3 Competition: Resources, Peer Reviewers, and Application Dates

The U.S. Department of Education Investing in Innovation Fund (i3) website lists deadlines for applications and includes an archive of webinars and other resources. i3 Homepage: www2.ed.gov/programs/innovation/index.html Webinars and Resources:

i3 Development Grant Preapplication Deadline

The U.S. Department of Education has opened the third year of the Investing in Innovation (i3) grant competition for districts, groups of schools, and non-profit organizations to improve student results through innovative practices. This competition invites entities interested in grants of up to $3 million — termed “development grants” — to submit a simplified pre-application through April 9, 2012. The agency also included a new absolute priori ...

Rural Policy Matters: March 2012

The March 2012 edition of Rural Policy Matters features reminders about upcoming Investing in Innovation Development Grant deadlines, stories on an important policy victory in Arkansas and foundation-building in that state; coverage of the Southern Regional School-to-Prison Pipeline ActionCamp; Rural School Funding news; and more.

Don't Miss Upcoming i3 Deadlines!

This article appeared in the March 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Pre-applications for the third round of the U.S. Department of Education’s Investing in Innovation (i3) grant program are due soon, and districts, groups of schools, and nonprofits are encouraged to

Arkansas Rural Advocates Protect Transportation Funding for Districts

This article appeared in the March 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. When Rural Community Alliance (RCA) leadership learned last month that a bill to amend Arkansas school transportation funding law was quietly making its way through committee, they moved quickly to analyze its impact on isolated ru ...

RCA and Allies Explore New Ways to Build Support for Their Work

This article appeared in the March 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Imagine losing your town’s school when board members from the larger community in your consolidated school district simply decide through majority vote to close it. Or, imagine being a remote, rural district being scrutinized ...

Rural Advocates Attend Strategy Workshop to Combat Harsh School Discipline

This article appeared in the March 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Across the country community groups and others concerned about young people have begun to push back against the growing trend for schools to use severe and punitive discipline in response to non-violent student misbehavior. Many rural community residents have identified school discipline practices, especially harsh punishments that push students out of ...

School Discipline Reform Underway in Colorado

This article appeared in the March 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. A student discipline reform bill has been making its way through the Colorado Legislature this month, and supporters are optimistic about its chances of passage. The Smarter School Discipline Bill (Senate Bill 46) requires all scho ...

New Civil Rights Data Released

This article appeared in the March 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Most everyone agrees that schools should be safe and productive learning environments for all students. Ideally, communities work with schools to develop and implement disciplinary policies that create such environments and are wid ...

ACE Amendment Voted Down But Issue Remains Alive

This article appeared in the March 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The House Education and Workforce Committee took up the All Children are Equal Act (ACE) Amendment to the Student Succ ...

Idaho School Districts Will Absorb Declining Enrollment Cost

This article appeared in the March 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Idaho’s declining enrollment protection for school districts was taken up again in this year’s legislative session, and although a new law has passed, districts that are losing students will absorb more of those costs t ...

Budget and Policy Debate in Alaska Influenced by Finance Litigation

This article appeared in the March 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Only a few days remain in Alaska’s 2012 legislative session, and members are trying to reach agreement on how to increase funding to schools while maintaining compliance with the rulings and settlement agreement in the Mo ...

Trial Date in Kansas School Funding Suit Looms Large

This article appeared in the March 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. For several months, Sunflower State residents have heard about Governor Sam Brownback’s plans to overhaul the state’s school funding formula which include major changes in both how monies for schools are collected and h ...

School Safety Measures: Violent Victimization at School

This article appeared in the March 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Notes: "v ...

Facts and Figures About Rural Student Poverty

This article appeared in the March 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Question: Which state has the highest rate of poverty (as measured by eligibility for federally funded subsidized meals) among rural students? Answer: New Mexico, with 80%. Other states where over half of rural students are living in poverty are: Louisiana (69%), Mississippi (63%), Arkansas (58%), Oklahoma (57%), Ke ...

i3 Call for Peer Reviewers

The U.S. Department of Education, Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII), is seeking individuals to serve as peer reviewers for the FY 2012 Investing in Innovation (i3) grant competition. Qualified peer reviewers must meet the criteria listed below. NOTE: Even if you applied to be a peer reviewer last year, we ask that you reapply this year (as outlined below) as soon as possible in order to be considered for the 2012 competition. WHO: The Depart ...

Voices of Spoon River: The Ellisville Opera House

Voices of Spoon River is a collaborative effort that celebrates the sense of place in small, rural communities located in western Illinois’ Spoon River Valley. Sponsored by The Rural School and Community Trust’s Center for Midwestern Initiatives (CMI) in conjunction with the Knox Writers’ House project, the Voices of Spoon River provides a school-centered narra ...

Department of Education Launches Pre-Application for 2012 i3 Program

Changes to third round of i3 competition simplify application process and add priority for Parent and Family Engagement The U.S. Department of Education announced the third year of the Investing in Innovation (i3) grant competition for local educational agencies, groups of schools and non-profit organizations to improve student results through innovative practices. This competition invites entities interested in grants of up to $3 million — termed &ldqu ...

Rural Policy Matters: February 2012

Rural Leonore Annenberg Scholars Appreciate Opportunity

This article appeared in the February 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. For rural recipients of the Leonore Annenberg Scholarship, the news that they are being considered for the prestigious scholarship comes as a complete surprise. “I learned about the scholarship out of the blue in m ...

Rural Trust's Williams Joins Work on Dropout Prevention and Recovery

This article appeared in the February 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The U.S. Department of Education has established a rural education technical working group on dropout prevention and recovery. Doris Terry Williams, Executive Director of the Rural Trust, was appointed to the group.

Finding Ways to Keep Students in School

This article appeared in the February 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. As consensus grows around the need to improve graduation rates, states are attempting to implement both intrinsic and extrinsic supports to prevent students from dropping out. Policies and practices of schools can either ...

ACE Act Will Be Considered for Adoption February 28, 2012

This article appeared in the February 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The House Education and Workforce Committee will be considering whether to adopt the All Children are Equal Act (ACE)

Consolidation and Charter Policies Make Conflicting Claims

This article appeared in the February 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Economic downturns often set the stage for calls for school and district consolidation. The argument usually goes that consolidation will save money, and (sometimes) that it will improve academics. Never mind the preponderance o ...

California Bus Funds Restored, But Districts Must Cut Budgets Elsewhere

This article appeared in the February 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. After a major outcry from educators and families, Governor Jerry Brown has signed legislation that restores transportation funding for districts for this year and has committed to preserve it for next year. Brown had authorized ...

Georgia Looking for Ways to Support Rural Teacher Recruitment

This article appeared in the February 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The Georgia State Department of Education has asked the Board of Education for clearance to use $3.6 million of the state’s Race to the Top grant monies to award tax-exempt “signing bonuses” for teachers who ch ...

Washington High Court Rules Funding Is Inadequate

This article appeared in the February 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The Washington State Supreme Court ruled last month that the state is not meeting its constitutional requirements and told the legislature to correct the deficiency. In its decision, the justices upheld the

Alaska's Rural Districts Settle Lawsuit; Win Additional Funding

This article appeared in the February 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. After eight years of litigation, and ten months of discussions between a group of plaintiff school districts, the Alaska Attorney General, and Alaska’s Commissioner of Education and Early Development, the Moore v. Alask ...

Colorado Defendants Will Appeal Loboto Plaintiff Decision

This article appeared in the February 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Despite being urged otherwise by education stakeholders in the state, the Colorado State Board of Education has decided to appeal District Court Judge Shelia Rappaport’s ruling that the school funding formula is unconstitu ...

Instructional Expenditures per High School Graduate

This article appeared in the February 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require re ...

Facts and Figures About States Where Rural Enrollment Doubled in the Past Decade

This article appeared in the February 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Question: In which eight states did rural enrollment more than double from 1999–2000 through 2008–2009? Answer: Arizona, Tennessee, Texas, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, New Mexico, and Florida. Nationwide, rural school district enrollment grew by over 22 percent from 1999–2000 through 2008–2009. This comp ...

All Children are Equal Act to be Voted On in House Education & the Workforce Committee

The All Children are Equal (ACE) Act, which addresses inequities in the formula for distributing Title I funds to public schools, will be considered as an amendment to a bill that will be “marked up” (amendments considered and a vote taken on whether to send the bill to the full House). The bill to be marked up is the Student Success Act. The mark up will likely be during the week of February 27. The Student Success Act was introduced by the Rep ...

The Celebration of Teaching & Learning 2012: March 16-17

The Celebration of Teaching & Learning 2012, set for March 16-17 in New York City, is a premier professional development conference that brings together the world’s best thinkers, practitioners, and more than 10,000 educators to share their passion for teaching and learning. A prominent educator once dubbed the Celebration as the “World’s Fair of Education.” The seventh anniversary of this event will bring experts and content from t ...

Building a Grad Nation Summit: March 18-21

Is the high school dropout rate a problem in your community? Are you looking for innovative ways to keep young people in school and prepare them for college and the 21st century workforce? If so, the 2012 Building a Grad Nation ...

Rural Policy Matters: January 2012

Marty Strange, Long-Time Policy Director At Rural Trust Resigns

This article appeared in the January 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Marty Strange, who has headed the Rural School and Community Trust policy program for 15 years, has resigned to return to consulting on rural policy issues and campaigns. Strange joined the Rural Trust as a member of the Board of Directors in 1995 and was asked to launch the policy program in 1997. He served as a part-time consultant in that assig ...

Why Rural Matters 2011-2012 Released This Month

This article appeared in the January 201 ...

Rural Arkansans Bring National Attention to Post Office Closures

This article appeared in the January 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Kudos to the Rural Community Alliance (RCA), whose efforts to fight post office closings in Arkansas have helped bring a rural perspective and national attention to ...

School Discipline Update: Maine Bill Would Prevent Expulsion Without Reentry Plan

This article appeared in the January 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Across the country community groups and others concerned about young people have begun to push back against the growing trend for schools to use severe and punitive discipline in response to non-violent student misbehavior. Ma ...

Vermont School Funding System Works

This article appeared in the January 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Vermont’s school funding system is among the most unusual in the nation (see Vermont’s Most Unusual, Most Equitable School Funding System in a Nutshell

Vermont's Most Unusual, Most Equitable School Funding System in a Nutshell

This article appeared in the January 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Vermont’s school funding system is unique, and complicated. The essential elements are these: Each district budget is developed by the local school board and (with only a few exceptions) approved by voter ...

California's Frontal Assault on Rural Schools

This article appeared in the January 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. California Governor Jerry Brown recently stunned school officials by announcing that all state aid for school transportation services would be eliminated. The $248 million slashing was nearly one-fourth of an overall billion-doll ...

The U.S. School Transportation System is Massive

This article appeared in the January 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Every school day morning 26 million public school students climb aboard 480,000 school buses that haul them more than 12 million bus miles to school. They reverse the process at the close of school. That is 52 million student bus ...

Money Matters When It Comes to Education

This article appeared in the January 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Arguments that money doesn't make a difference in education and that across-the-board budget cuts won’t hurt student outcomes are completely unfounded, according to a report issued earlier this month by the

Desegregation/Funding Decision in Arkansas

This article appeared in the January 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently issued a mixed ruling in the ongoing desegregation case involving the Little Rock, North Little Rock, and rural Pulaski County school districts in Arkansas.The case is linked histori ...

Public School Enrollment Increase, 1999-2009

This article appeared in the January 2012 Rural Policy Matters. From 1999 to 2009, public school enrollment in rural areas increased by more than 250 ...

Facts and Figures About Number of U.S. Students Attending Rural Schools

This article appeared in the January 2012 Rural Policy Matters. Question: What percentage of U.S. students attend school in a rural district or a rural school in an urban district? Answer: Nearly one-fourth (23%) of all U.S. students attend a rural school. In recent years, rural enrollment growth has outpaced growth in all other school locales. (Why Rural Matters, 2011–12. ...

Why Rural Matters 2011-12: Statistical Indicators of the Condition of Rural Education in the 50 States

...

Pre-Test, Mid-Term; A First-Year Rural Teacher Makes The Grade

from the Rural Trust Center for Midwestern Initiatives Albert Bryant is a first-year mathematics teacher in tiny Everton, Missouri, his hometown. A graduate of Drury University, Albert was in the inaugural class of the Ozarks Teacher Corps, an effort dedicated to encouraging outstanding teacher prospects to return to their rural home communities as teachers. The Ozarks Teacher Corps is funded by the

Why Rural Matters 2011-12 Press Release

Rural Policy Matters: December 2011

Montana Cites Rural Nature in Rationale for Declining NCLB Waivers

This article appeared in the December 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Montana’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau announced on December 7, 2011, that the state would not apply for a waiver to several provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind law (NCLB). Among the reason ...

All Children Are Equal Act Gains Sponsors, Garners Attention

This article appeared in the December 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The All Children are Equal (ACE) Act (H.B. 2485) gained two more Congressional co-sponsors this month. Representative Tim Bishop (D-NY) and Representative Phil Roe (R-TN) became the 17th and 18th members of Congress to add their ...

Many Title I Schools Don't Get Comparable Share of State and Local Funding

This article appeared in the December 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Many parents and teachers who have long suspected that their high-poverty schools are receiving less that their fair share of state and local funding may find much of interest in a new report examining this very issue. T ...

New Guidance for School Districts Seeking to Achieve Diversity, Avoid Racial Isolation

This article appeared in the December 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. In December, the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights and the U.S. Department of Justice collectively issued guidance for how school districts can “voluntarily consider race to further compelling interests i ...

Colorado Coalition Wins Major Victory in School Finance Suit

This article appeared in the December 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. In what has been called “a complete legal victory,” twenty-one Colorado school districts have received a decision that the state’s school funding formula is unconstitutional. The District Court also directed th ...

Percent Public School Districts With Any Students Enrolled in Distance Education Courses, 2009-10

This article appeared in the December 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Rural schools, at all gra ...

Facts and Figures About States With the Largest Organizational Scale of Rural Schools

This article appeared in the December 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Question: In which five states is the “organizational scale” of rural schools largest? (Hint: “organizational scale” is a proxy for the overall size of schools and districts — or how consolidated, or not consolidated, rural schools are. It is computed by multiplying the total school enrollment by the total district en ...

Rural Policy Matters: November 2011

All Children are Equal Act (H.R. 2485) to be Considered by the House Education and the Workforce Committee

This article appeared in the November 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Contact Your Member of Congress Now to Urge Support The U.S. House of Representatives’ Education and the Workforce Committee will probably soon be considering a bill addressing issues in Titl ...

Leonore Annenberg Winner Innovates with Technology

This article appeared in the November 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. When Owsley County Elementary School in Booneville, Kentucky received a Leonore Annenberg School Fund grant, staff knew they wanted to extend the school's efforts to engage students in non-traditional means of learning and expo ...

Alabama Judge Finds Rural Discrimination in School Funding But No Legal Basis to Rule for Plaintiffs

This article appeared in the November 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. A federal district court judge has ruled against plaintiffs from Lawrence and Sumter Counties, Alabama who claimed that black schoolchildren in the state are disproportionately affected by the state’s tax code and that it ...

Alabama Immigration Law Draws More Federal Scrutiny

This article appeared in the November 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. In a letter to school superintendents in Alabama, Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez of the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) has reminded them of the responsibility of schools to ensure that no students experience barriers to ...

Report on Urban School Closures Touches Rural Consolidation Themes

This article appeared in the November 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. A report released last month examining the effects and processes of school closures in six large cities uncovers many experiences in these cities that rural residents will recognize. The report, "Closin ...

Center for Midwestern Initiatives Blog Launched

This article appeared in the November 2011 Rural Policy Matters. The Center for Midwestern Initiatives recently launched a blog that features work of rural students, teachers, and community residents in its service area. You can learn more about the blog and sign up to participate — even if you don’t live in the Midwest — at http://www.cmi.ru ...

Additional Texas Funding Lawsuits Filed

This article appeared in the November 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. As predicted in last month’s RSFN, the state of Texas now faces a second school funding lawsuit, and a third lawsuit was also recently filed. The challenges focus on the school finance plan that was passed in 2006. (See ba ...

Studies Recommend Funding Changes in New Mexico

This article appeared in the November 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Two recent reports in New Mexico come from very different sources and are making very different recommendations about education funding in the Grand Canyon State. But both recognize the economic reality that additional funding f ...

Colorado Voters Reject Tax Increase for Schools

This article appeared in the November 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Colorado voters went to the polls this month to vote on a referendum to raise sales and income taxes for the state’s education budget. The proposal was rejected by a nearly 2 to 1 margin. Proposition 103 would have increas ...

School Fees Pose Problems in Several States

This article appeared in the November 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. A number of states have turned to imposing student fees for various educational services as a way to meet budget needs, but those actions are often on shaky legal ground, as indicated by recent events in South Dakota, Indiana, a ...

Kansas Governor Making School Finance Reform Proposals

This article appeared in the November 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Administration staffers of Governor Sam Brownback are shopping a school finance reform proposal that will likely be introduced to legislators next session. Part of the proposal involves the state’s collecting a portion of ...

Total Number of Rural ELL Students, 2006-07 to 2009-10

This article appeared in the November 2011 Rural Policy Matters. The total number of students learning English in rural schools ...

Facts and Figures About States With Lowest State Funding for Rural Schools

This article appeared in the November 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Question: Which six states spend the lowest percentage of state education funds on rural schools? Answer: It is no surprise that the states that spend the least on rural education have populations that are largely concentrated in urban areas. These states include Massachusetts, which spends 4.1% of its education budget on rural scho ...

Rural Policy Matters: October 2011

Global Teacher Fellowships Alter Lives of Participants

This article appeared in the October 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Kelly Welsh Ellis knew high school students in her 20th Century World History class in Thetford, Vermont weren’t gaining a clear understanding of what happened in Cambodia in the 1970s. The class addresses genocide ...

Apply for a Rural Trust Global Teacher Fellowship

This article appeared in the October 2011 Rural Policy Matters. The Rural Trust’s Global Teacher Fellowship program is now accepting applications for the Summer 2012 Fellowships. The $5,000 fellowships ($10,000 for teams of two or more teachers) will be awarded to 25 teachers to support self-designed summer learning experiences and a two-day place-based learning institute in the fall. Deadline to ...

Upcoming Webinar: Rural Classroom: Importance of Cooperative Learning

This article appeared in the October 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Join us for Rural Classroom: Importance of Cooperative Learning — Rural Trust Global Teacher Fellows' Perspective, a special webinar set for November 10, 2011, from 5:00 to 6:00 pm EST. Space is limited! Res ...

Judge Suspends Portions of Alabama Immigration Law Affecting K-12 Education

This article appeared in the October 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Earlier this month a federal judge temporarily blocked implementation of portions of Alabama’s controversial new immigration law, including its K-12 education provisions, while the law is on appeal by the U.S. Department of ...

Why Some High-Scoring i3 Rural Projects Did Not Receive Funding

This article appeared in the October 2011 Rural Policy Matters. There were many disappointed “near misses” among the applicants in the first round of Investing in Innovation, the U.S. Department of Education’s competitive grant program. Overall, 212 proposals earned a score of at least 80 points (out of a possible 100). Those that were not funded have been dubbed “Tier 2” applican ...

Investing in Innovation Round Two Rural Priority

This article appeared in the October 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Applications are in for $148.2 million in funding available in the second round of the Investing in Innovation (i3) competitive grant program and while it is too soon to reach any conclusions about how authentically rural proposals will do, it is clear that the new i3 guidelines are having an impact. Of 488 applications submitted for the approxima ...

Northeast Tennessee College and Career Ready Consortium Webinar

This article appeared in the October 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Students in northeast Tennessee, like rural students in most regions, face challenges to college attendance that are unique to their experience and their rural locale. The Northeast Tennessee College and Career Ready Consortium ( ...

Formula Fairness Campaign Update

This article appeared in the October 2011 Rural Policy Matters. The All Children Are Equal Act received an important boost this month when the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) listed "Funding Equity Among Schools, Districts, and States" as a CDF priority for the re-authorization of ESEA. ESEA is the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which, through its Title I program, provides school dist ...

School Discipline Update: Colorado Task Force Recommends End to Zero Tolerance; New Study Details Disparity in Discipline Rates Across Country

This article appeared in the October 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Across the country community groups and others concerned about young people have begun to push back against the growing trend for schools to use severe and punitive discipline in response to non-violent student misbehavior. Ma ...

Texas Faces New School Finance Litigation

This article appeared in the October 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. This month, a new school funding lawsuit was filed in Travis County Court, supported by over 250 districts in the state. Plaintiffs in the Texas Taxpayer and Student Fairness Coalition (TTSFC) include rural, suburban, and city di ...

Alaska Rural Districts' Case Decided

This article appeared in the October 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. A settlement has been reached in the Kasayulie school facilities lawsuit that was brought in 1997 by rural school districts that were unable to build needed schools or maintain aging facilities under the state’s fund ...

New Finance Lawsuit in Montana

This article appeared in the October 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The Montana Quality Education Coalition (MQEC) is going back to court to try to rescue $8 million in school funding that they allege was illegally cut from the state’s education budget this year. Schools in Montana are guar ...

Rural New Jersey Districts Head Back to Court

This article appeared in the October 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Sixteen rural school districts in the Garden State are seeking a court order, similar to one secured by urban districts last year, requiring recent school be restored. The sixteen rural districts, known as Bacon districts, ...

Average Scores in NAEP Science (2009) at Grades 4, 8, and 12, By School Locale

This article appeared in the October 2011 Rural Policy Matters. SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of ...

Facts and Figures About States With Highest State Funding for Rural Schools

This article appeared in the October 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Question: Which five states spend the highest percentage of state education funds on rural schools? Answer: Maine spends the highest percentage of its education budget on rural schools at (58.7%). Maine is followed by South Dakota (57.6%), Vermont (54.9%), North Carolina (49.6%), and Mississippi (47.8%). These states also have a high ...

Obama Administration to Lower Student Loan Payments for Millions of Borrowers

The Obama Administration is moving forward with a new "Pay As You Earn" proposal that will reduce monthly payments for more than one and a half million current college students and borrowers. Starting in 2014, borrowers will be able to reduce their monthly student loan payments to 10 percent of their discretionary income. But President Obama realizes that many students need relief sooner than that. The new "Pay As You Earn" proposal will allow about 1.6 million stu ...

Rural Classroom: Importance of Cooperative Learning Webinar

The Center for Midwestern Initiatives hosted the webinar Rural Classroom: Importance of Cooperative Learning — Rural Trust Global Teacher Fellows' Perspective on November 10, 2011.

Rural Trust Launches Global Teacher Fellowship Program

Get ready for 2012! The Rural Trust's Global Teacher Fellowship program is now accepting applications for the Summer 2012 Fellowships. Up to 25 fellowships will be awarded in 2012 to support the professional and personal development of rural teachers. The awards (up to $5,000 for individual teachers and $10,000 for a team of two or more teachers) support teachers’ participation in self-designed summer learning experience ...

Appalachian Higher Education Network 2011 Annual Bus Tour

You’re invited to participate in the Appalachian Higher Education (AHE) Network 2011 Annual Bus Tour, an event sponsored by the Appalachian Regional Commission and committed to sharing effective practice associated with increased college going rates. The AHE Network Annual Bus Tour is an activity that gives school-based staff (counselors, teachers, principals, etc.) from all participating states (AL, GA, KY, MS, NC, OH, TN, VA, and WV) the opportunity to visit illustrative g ...

Successful Community School Initiatives Inform New Scaling Up Guide

Built on the experience of the growing number of local community schools initiatives across the country, Scaling Up School and Community Partnerships: The Community Schools Strategy from the Coalition for Community Schools is a guide to help school districts and their public and private community partners organize and mobilize the resources of the entire community to support student success. “As our schools and communities face the demanding task of ...

"Ready, Steady, GO!" Grants for Middle School Teachers

The Office Depot® Star Teacher Program in conjunction with the Office Depot® Foundation are national sponsors of the Kids In Need Teacher Grants program with "Ready, Steady, GO!," a grants initiative especially for middle school teachers being conducted by the Kids In Need Foundation. Grant applications are being accepted online through October 30, 2011. Grants are a ...

Rural Policy Matters: September 2011

View PDF ...

Place-Based Learning Offers Opportunities for High-Poverty Rural Schools

This article appeared in the September 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Place-Based Learning (PBL) can be a powerful tool to improve student achievement and strengthen the local community, but what exactly is it? “Place based learning takes the real world around the school — the community — and turns it into a 21st century learning laboratory,” explains Margaret Maclean, Project Coordinator/Tra ...

Rural Winners of Lenore Annenberg School Fund Grant Delve Into Place-Based Learning

This article appeared in the September 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. This summer two high-poverty rural elementary schools participated in a place-based learning workshop led by Rural Trust staff. “Place-based learning is a way for teachers and students and community residents to lear ...

Alabama Teachers In Political and Legal Crosshairs

This article appeared in the September 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Like a number of other states, Alabama has taken action in recent years aimed at curtailing tenure protections for teachers and at reducing the influence of teachers on education policy and budgeting. But lawmakers in Alabama didn ...

Don't Miss It!

This article appeared in the September 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Rural Trust Policy Director Marty Strange calls for responsive federal policy for rural schools in “Rural Student Suc ...

New Co-Sponsor of All Children Are Equal Act

This article appeared in the September 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Representative Bill Owen (D-NY) is the newest among a growing list of Congressional co-sponsors of the All Children are Equal Act (ACE), H.R. 2485. Owen, whose 23rd district includes much of northeastern New York, became the sixth ...

Bill Would Expand Federal Funding for Charter Schools

This article appeared in the September 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Earlier this month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation that would amend the charter school portion of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The bill, H.R. 2218, entitled “Empower Parents throug ...

In The "Size Matters" Category...

This article appeared in the September 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The Missouri State Board of Education voted earlier this month to downgrade the accreditation status of two very small school districts because average student test scores had dropped recently. The move is a troubl ...

Poverty Increasing in Most States

This article appeared in the September 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. For decades the percentages of people living poverty in the United States trended downward. That trend has reversed, markedly, since 2000. This

Key Portion of Alabama Immigration Law Upheld

This article appeared in the September 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Although several states have recently enacted far-reaching laws designed to stop or slow down illegal immigration into the country, Alabama’s H.B. 56 is touted as the “strongest in the country.” Notable i ...

School Discipline Update: Arkansas Considers Changes to Education Programs in Youth Lockups

This article appeared in the September 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Across the country community groups and others concerned about young people have begun to push back against the growing trend for schools to use severe and punitive discipline in response to non-violent student misbehavior. Man ...

South Dakota Lawsuit Ends

This article appeared in the September 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. A group of South Dakota school districts have lost their challenge to the state’s school funding formula, but attorneys for the districts say future legal challenges could still succeed. Earlier this month, the state ...

Committee Releases Initial Proposals for School Funding in Georgia

This article appeared in the September 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. A committee to review Georgia’s main school funding mechanism, the Quality Basic Education Act (QBE), released initial recommendations earlier this month. Those recommendations include increasing funding for technology and l ...

Arizona Revisits Consolidation

This article appeared in the September 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Arizona’s Joint Legislative Study Committee on Unification and Consolidation has a five-month timetable for drafting recommendations and options for Arizona’s 227 school districts. In Arizona, ‘unification’ ...

School District Enrollment by Locale, 2009-10

This article appeared in the September 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. < ...

Facts and Figures About States With Low Rural Graduation Rates

This article appeared in the September 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Question: In which states are average graduation rates for rural students below the average national rural rate? (Hint: U.S. rural graduation rate is 69.2%.) Answer: Graduation rates for rural students are lower than the U.S. rate in 12 states. Those states are South Carolina, which has the lowest rural graduation rate at 52.3%. Sout ...

"Being an American" High School Essay Contest Opens

U.S. high school students and their teachers are invited to participate in the Bill of Rights Institute’s sixth annual Being an American Essay Contest. The largest contest of its kind ...

Early Childhood Education in Rural Communities

Early Childhood Education in Rural Communities: Access and Quality Issues, a monograph edited by Doris Terry Williams, Ed.D., and Tammy L. Mann, Ph.D., focuses on th ...

Rural School Innovations Webinar: The Niswonger Foundation's Northeast Tennessee College and Career Ready Consortium

The Niswonger Foundation's Northeast Tennessee College and Career Ready Consortium was the focus of the fourth Rural School and Community Trust webinar in the 2010–2011 Rural School Innovations Webinar Series. Hosted by Robert Mahaffey, Director of Communications, Rural School and Community Trust, this webinar was held Wednesday, September 21, 2011, at 2:00 pm ET.

Rural Policy Matters: August 2011

View PDF ...

Rural Trust Launches Regional Center

This article appeared in the August 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Last month the Rural Trust announced the launch of the Center for Midwestern Initiatives (CMI), which will work to build a regional infrastructure to support rural schools and communities. The center is based in Missouri and will serve school and communities in several Midwestern states. “Schools ar ...

Positive New Developments in the Formula Fairness Campaign

This article appeared in the August 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The campaign to fix the formulas that distribute Title I funding to school districts continues to gain momentum. This month, three new co-sponsors signed on to the All Children are Equal Act (ACE/HR2485), a bill in the U.S. House of ...

Fact and Figures About States With High Rural Graduation Rates

This article appeared in the August 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Question: Which 10 states have rural graduation rates above 85%? Answer: Nevada has the highest rural graduation rate at 102.3%, which also reflects the state’s high rural mobility rate (students moving into rural districts and graduating). Nebraska is second with a 93.9% graduation rate and is followed by Connecticut (93.8%), New ...

Rural School Innovations Webinar: The Niswonger Foundation's Northeast Tennessee College and Career Ready Consortium

This article appeared in the August 2011 Rural Policy Matters. The fourth webinar in the Rural Trust’s 2010–2011 series on rural school innovations is scheduled for September 21, 2011 at 2:00 p.m. EDT. Registration information is available on the Rural Trust website. The webinar will feature the Niswonger Foundation's Northeast Tennessee Coll ...

Proposed Post Office Closures Fall Hard on Rural Communities

This article appeared in the August 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. In July, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) announced that some 3,700 post offices are under “study” for closure. Most of the targeted post offices are in rural communities and low-income urban neighborhoods. An additional 72 ...

Southeast Regional Education Summit Releases "Roadmap"

This article appeared in the August 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The Southeast Regional Education Summit, held July 19-20 in Nashville, brought together educators, policymakers, and other stakeholders to share best practices and discuss regional and national policy developments. The meetin ...

States' Rights, Anti-Tax Officials Block Local Efforts for South Carolina Schools, Reject Federal Funding

This article appeared in the August 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and State Schools Superintendent Mick Zais are making good on campaign promises to block taxes and reject federal investments in the state. While neither government official has the power to act fu ...

North Carolina Wrangling Over 4-Year Kindergarten

This article appeared in the August 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. As reported in last month’s RSFN, the judge in North Carolina’s Leandro school funding case has ordered the state’s preschool programs to accept all ...

Colorado Lawsuit Opens

This article appeared in the August 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Plaintiffs in the Lobato school funding case are having their day in a Denver district court this month. The lawsuit, which was filed in 2005, survived two lower court decisions that would have ended the case after plaintiffs ...

Percentage of Rural Students Qualifying for Free or Reduced Meals

This article appeared in the August 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Source: National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education. C ...

Rural Policy Matters: July 2011

View PDF ...

ACE Act Would Ease Title I Inequities

This article appeared in the July 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Rural citizens concerned about inequities in Title I funding have been instrumental in bringing the issue to Congress. Their work paid off this month when a bipartisan bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives to alter t ...

Paying Teachers for Performance: Issues and Dilemmas for Rural Schools, Teacher Tenure

This article appeared in the July 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The Role of Teacher Tenure in Pay-for-Performance Initiatives The idea behind Pay-for-Performance — also called performance, incentive, or merit pay — asserts that workers will be more productive if they rece ...

Groundbreaking Texas Report Finds Harsh Discipline Is the Rule, Not the Exception

This article appeared in the July 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Across the country community groups and others concerned about young people have begun to push back against the growing trend for schools to use severe and punitive discipline in response to non-violent student misbehavior. Addressi ...

Supreme Court Rules Children Must Be Treated as Children by Police

This article appeared in the July 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. A decision announced last month by the U.S. Supreme Court in J. D. B. v. North Carolina will force police officers to consider age when determining whether to inform a juvenile suspect of his or her Miranda rights. < ...

Washington School Funding Arguments Heard by State High Court

This article appeared in the July 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The Washington Supreme Court heard arguments last month in McCleary v. State, where defense attorneys argued that the state is funding “100% of the costs of a basic education,” despite almost $4 billion in cuts to ed ...

North Carolina Budget Writers Cannot Impede State’s Constitutional Duty, Judge Says

This article appeared in the July 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Wake County Superior Court Judge Howard Manning has ruled that the state cannot implement portions of its annual budget that jeopardize North Carolina students’ constitutional rights to a sound, basic education. Attorneys for Hok ...

Sources of Public School Funding, by Locale

This article appeared in the July 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Data Source: 2007–08 NCES Common Core Data. Read more from the July 2011

Annenberg Public Policy Center News

Working with the Annenberg Public Policy Center, the Rural School and Community Trust provides support for rural schools in the form of scholarships, and student-focused programs. The

Maine Student Receives $250,000 Leonore Annenberg Scholarship Award

Kassandra Hopkins of Vinalhaven, Maine, is the recipient of a $250,000 Leonore Annenberg Scholarship to attend any undergraduate college or university in the country. As the first student from Maine to receive the prestigious award, all that’s left for Hopkins to take the next step toward her dreams is deciding where to spend it and what to study when she gets there. Read more about Kassandra in this article from the

Facts and Figures About Locales That Depend on State Funding for Education

This article appeared in the July 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Question: Schools in which locale — city, suburb, town, or rural community — are most heavily reliant, on average, on state funding as a percentage of their education budget? Answer: Suburban schools get an average 79.1% of their funding from the state, a higher percentage than urban, town or rural schools. See this month&rsqu ...

Bill Would Require Districts to Spend “Comparably” In High-Poverty Schools

This article appeared in the July 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Hard as it may be for some to believe (although sadly familiar to many parents and advocates for low-income children), many school districts actually spend more state and local resources in schools with low poverty rates ...

All Children are Equal Act Introduced

The All Children are Equal (ACE) Act was introduced July 12 in the U.S. House of Representatives by 11 original co-sponsors led by Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA). HR 2485 addresses the inequities in the formula for distributing Title I funds by lowering the weights used in the number weighting brackets to inflate the student count in larger districts. Under current law, a district with at least 6,900 Title I students gains funding no matter how low the rate of student pov ...

Promise Neighborhoods Grant Applications Due Sept. 6

U.S. Department of Education has released the application for the second phase of the Promise Neighborhoods program, including new implementation grants and a second round of planning grants, totaling $30 million. The program will again have Absolute Priorities for serving rural and tribal communities. Nonprofits, institutions of higher education, and native American tribes are eligible to apply ...

Every Child in Every Neighborhood

“Every Child in Every Neighborhood” is a video from the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) that outlines their efforts to transform that school system into a full-service community school district, where schools act as resource and service hubs that connect with local partners to help build healthy and vibrant schools and communities. In this model, every school site offers high levels of learning along with physical health, mental health, dental and eye care; nutritio ...

Nominate a Rural Champion of Change

Do you know someone who is doing extraordinary things to make a difference in their rural community? Nominate them to be a Champion of Change. "Champions of Change" recognizes Americans who are doing extraordinary things in their communities to out-innovate, out-education, and out-build the rest of the world. The program is run by the White House and will highlight rural communities as part of the recently established

Rural Policy Matters: June 2011

View PDF ...

Rural Students Channel Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars to Their Communities

This article appeared in the June 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Rural high school students in Iberville Parris, Louisiana, and in Warren County, North Carolina captured more than half a million dollars for their communities this spring. How did they do it? They worked as v ...

New i3 Guidelines Better for Rural Schools

This article appeared in the June 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Several changes important to rural schools were incorporated into guidelines for the 2011 federal Investing in Innovation (i3) program. Program information is now available on the Department of Education website

Facts and Figures About Enrollment in Rural Schools

This article appeared in the June 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Question: True or False? Enrollment in rural schools continues to shrink as rural population ages and declines. Answer: False. Enrollment in rural schools increased between school years 2004–05 and 2008–09 by 34%, from 8.7 million to 11.7 million. Source: National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education ...

Test Your Rural School Knowledge With This Fun Quiz

This article appeared in the June 2011 Rural Policy Matters. True or False: Most rural public school students live in sparsely populated western states. False: 60 percent of rural students live in 14 states, only one of which (Texas) is west of the Mississippi. Source: National Center for Education ...

Peer Reviewers Needed to Assess i3 Applications

This article appeared in the June 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The 2011 federal Investing in Innovation (i3) competitive grant program includes an Absolute Priority for rural education, which means that applicants have the option of focusing on the unique learning challenges of rural schools when ...

No Rural Cachet

This article appeared in the June 2011 Rural Policy Matters. “There is no cachet in studying rural areas…. If you are studying rural communities or rural problems you are not getting any cachet or the attention [you would get] studying other places.” That’s the blunt assessment of the federal role in rural education research presented by Dr. Mark S. Schneider to an American Enterprise In ...

Number-Weighting Bill Drafted

This article appeared in the June 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. A bill to address number weighting in the Title I formulas has been drafted in the U.S. House of Representatives. Number weighting is a provision in the current Title I formulas that provides more federal funding for very low-income st ...

Save the Date for the 2011 Southeast Regional Rural Summit

This article appeared in the June 2011 Rural Policy Matters. The Southeast Regional Rural Summit, set for July 19–20, 2011 in Nashville, Tennessee, will bring together rural educators, administrators, policymakers, and other stakeholders for two days of engaging sessions to highlight best practices and influence regional and national policy. The speaker lineup includes Former Sen. Majority Leader Bill Fris ...

White House Rural Council

This article appeared in the June 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. On June 9th, President Barak Obama issued an Executive Order to establish the White House Rural Council. The Council is charged with coordinating Federal programs and maximizing the impact of Federal investment to promote economic pros ...

School Discipline Policy Update

This article appeared in the June 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Across the country community groups and others concerned about young people have begun to push back against the growing trend for schools to use severe and punitive discipline in response to non-violent student misbehavior. Addressi ...

Reducing Exclusionary Discipline in Schools

This article appeared in the June 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The use of suspension and expulsion to punish students can act as a “pushout” that causes students to leave school before graduating. A student is more likely to drop out if she has been suspended or expelled. A student ...

Colorado TABOR Lawsuit Filed

This article appeared in the June 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. A group of plaintiffs that includes current and former state legislators, local officials, and school board members is challenging Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights law (TABOR) in district court, saying that it is unconstitution ...

Indiana Legislature Starves Small Districts; Feeds Voucher Program

This article appeared in the June 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Small and rural school districts in the Hoosier state will have to overcome major financial shortfalls now that the Indiana Legislature has implemented a new school funding formula that reduces state funding for smaller districts and e ...

Student Enrollment by Locale, 2000-2010

This article appeared in the June 2011 Rural Policy Matters. From 2000–01 to 2009–10, total student enrollment decreased by 1% in City districts, increased by ...

Peer Reviewers Needed for Next i3 Grant Competition

The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII) supports innovative practices that are demonstrated to have an impact on improving student achievement. OII is currently seeking individuals to serve as peer reviewers for the newly announced FY 2011 Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund grant competition. The Call for Peer Reviewers may be found on the i3 website at

Save the Date for the 2011 Southeast Regional Rural Summit

The Southeast Regional Rural Summit, set for July 19–20, 2011 in Nashville, Tennessee, will bring together rural educators, administrators, policymakers, and other stakeholders for two days of engaging sessions to highlight best practices and influence regional and national policy. The speaker lineup includes Former Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist; U.S. Department of Education Deputy Assistant Secretary for Rural Outreach John White; Rural School and Communit ...

The Influence of Teachers: Reflections on Teaching and Leadership

How can schools and teachers change to keep up with the current educational landscape, a world in which young people must learn how to ask the right questions, not merely parrot back the 'right' answers? In this urge ...

Rural Policy Matters: May 2011

View PDF ...

Scope of Rural Tornado Destruction Under-Reported

We Are Tushka, Smithville, Maben, Hackleburg, Phil Campbell, Rainsville Special Report by Robin Lambert, RPM Editor This article appeared in the May 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Dozens of school systems across much of the South cancelled classes for the day; ot ...

Federal Office of Rural Education Policy Proposed

This article appeared in the May 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Eight U.S. Senators have joined Max Baucus (D-MT) and Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) as co-sponsors of legislation to create an Office of Rural Education Policy within the U.S. Department of Education. The proposed legislation, Senate B ...

Leonore Annenberg School Fund Grants Awarded

This article appeared in the May 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The Rural School and Community Trust in partnership with the Leonore Annenberg School Fund for Children has awarded grants to Dermott Elementary School in Dermott, Arkansas and St. Helena Elementary School in Greenburg (St. Helena Paris ...

Facts and Figures About States With the Highest Salary Expenditures for Instructional Staff in Rural Schools

This article appeared in the May 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Question: Which five states have the highest average salary expenditures for instructional staff in rural schools? Answer: New York has the highest average rural instructional staff expenditures at $74,800 (expressed as full time equivalent/FTE for all instructional staff). New York is followed by Alaska at $74,193 per instructional staff ...

Rural Innovations Webinar Series: New England Network for Personalization and Performance (NETWORK)

Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. In the third Rural Innovations webinar, held May 11, staff of three rural New Hampshire high schools that participate in the New England Network for Personalization and Performance NETWORK shared their experiences re-structuring their schools around student-driven learning and assessments that require students to demo ...

Many Highest Poverty Districts Would Be Better Off If Congress Had Not Tried to Help Them

This article appeared in the May 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Nearly one in four of the schools districts with the highest student poverty rate would be better off if the formula for distributing federal funds for the education of disadvantaged students made no effort to target that funding to high-poverty districts. Funding for disadvantaged students is provided under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Educa ...

Idaho's Declining Enrollment Safety Net Survives Another Year

This article appeared in the May 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Somewhat lost among the many education policy reforms that were debated in the Idaho legislature this session was a protection for schools experiencing declining enrollment that Idaho schools chief Tom Luna had hoped to abolish. ...

Maine Funding Formula Under Scrutiny

This article appeared in the May 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Communities in rural Maine that have experienced dramatic changes in property valuation are seeking help in dealing with shrinking state support. They want the state’s funding formula changed to better address their needs. ...

Alabama School Funding Trial Wraps Up

This article appeared in the May 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Last month, Lynch v. Alabama was heard by Federal Court Judge Linwood Smith. The state's tax law is being challenged, and both sides made extensive presentations related to the state's history, with emphasis on the circumstance ...

Percent K-12 Students Qualifying for Special Education Services, By School Locale

This article appeared in the May 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time.

Rural Policy Matters: April 2011

View PDF ...

Urban Consolidations Raise Issues Similar to Rural Consolidations

This article appeared in the April 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The drive to turn around so-called failing schools is one factor fueling a spate of urban school consolidations across the country. Also in the urban consolidation mix are declining enrollment, poor facilities, and budget crises &mdas ...

Case Has Far-Reaching Implications for Religious Freedom and Education

This article appeared in the April 2011 Rural Policy Matters. The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear a challenge to an Arizona law that grants a tax credit to taxpayers who designate a portion of their state tax bill to privately-run organizations that provide scholarships to religious and private schools. In turning down the case, the Court ruled that the taxpayer plaintiffs lacked “standing,” that is t ...

YouthBuild USA Co-Sponsors Formula Fairness Campaign

This article appeared in the April 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. YouthBuild USA has joined as a co-sponsor of the Formula Fairness Campaign. The national non-profit organization offers meaningful learning opportunities and real-world work sk ...

Save the Date for the 2011 Southeast Regional Rural Summit

This article appeared in the April 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The Southeast Regional Rural Summit, set for July 19–20, 2011 in Nashville, Tennessee, will bring together rural educators, administrators, policymakers, and other stakeholders for two days of engaging sessions to highlight best ...

Register Now for the Rural School Innovations Webinar: The New England Network for Personalization and Performance, May 11, 2011

This article appeared in the April 2011 Rural Policy Matters. The New England Network for Personalization and Performance (NETWORK), created by the Plymouth, Massachusetts School District and the Center for Secondary School Redesign, Inc. (CSSR), will be the focus of the third Rural School and Community Trust webinar in the 2010–2011 Rural School Innovations Webinar Series. Hosted by Doris Terry Williams, ...

School Discipline Update: April 2011

This article appeared in the April 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Several States Move to Ban Corporal Punishment in Schools ...

Zero Tolerance and the School-to-Prison Pipeline

This article appeared in the April 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Texas Texas lawmakers are considering a bill that would ban the practice of law enforcement-issued citations in public schools for “disturbing class,” which is the largest category of ticketed offenses in schools ...

Seclusion and Restraint

This article appeared in the April 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Florida One of Florida’s largest school districts is proposing strict limits on how often the “prone” restraint hold can be used on special education students after a number of reports showed that t ...

Rural School Funding News Special Series:Financing Rural Schools: Characteristics of Strong Rural School Finance Systems

This article appeared in the April 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. In this series, Rural School Funding News is reviewing general principles of school finance and sharing information about school funding systems that support rural schools and their unique characteristics and needs. While there are ...

Arkansas Increases School Funding and Addresses Transportation

This article appeared in the April 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Arkansas’ recently enacted $1.9 billion budget includes a 2% increase for public schools in the state. In addition, Governor Mike Beebe agreed to set aside a special school transportation fund that will help rural districts. ...

Arizona Taxpayers Barred from Challenging Tuition Tax Credit Program

This article appeared in the April 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. A tuition tax credit program in Arizona has survived a challenge that progressed to the U.S. Supreme Court. In a closely watched case, Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn, taxpayers challenged the ability for ...

Rhode Island Lawsuit Will Be Resumed

This article appeared in the April 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The school funding lawsuit in Rhode Island will continue despite the passage of the new school finance formula. (See previous coverage from RSFN here and

Total Number of Regular Public Schools, 2009–10 School Year

This article appeared in the April 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time.

Rural School Innovations Webinar: The New England Network for Personalization and Performance

The New England Network for Personalization and Performance (NETWORK), created by the Plymouth, Massachusetts School District and the Center for Secondary School Redesign, Inc. (CSSR), was the focus of the third Rural School and Community Trust webinar in the 2010-2011 Rural School Innovations Webinar Series. Hosted by Doris Terry Williams, Executive Director, Rural School and Community Trust, this webinar was held Wednesday, May 11, 2011.

Facts and Figures About States With the Lowest Average Salary Expenditures for Instructional Staff in Rural Schools

This article appeared in the April 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Question: Which five states have the lowest average salary expenditures for instructional staff in rural schools? Answer: Alabama has the lowest average rural instructional staff expenditures at $37,932 (expressed as full time equivalent/FTE for all instructional staff). Alabama is followed by North Dakota at $38,895 per instructional st ...

Schoolyard Habitat Guide Now Available

Teachers and Educators — the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Schoolyard Habitat Program is proud to announce the availability of the brand new Schoolyard Habitat Project Guide. Click here to see the video of this initiative. This is your roadmap for transforming your school grounds into a destination that will engage the entire school community in habitat restoration. Once you use this how-to guide, ...

Rural Policy Matters: March 2011

View PDF ...

Rural North Carolinians Address Important Education Policies

This article appeared in the March 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Many schools use harsh and punitive disciplinary policies against students, often for minor infractions. Many such schools also implement harsh punishments unevenly among groups of students. When the North Carolina Rural Education Working Group (NCREWG) got started, one of the issues many members were concerned about was disciplinary practices in thei ...

Save the Children Joins Funding Formula Campaign

This article appeared in the March 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Save the Children is the most recent organization to join the Formula Fairness Campaign. The organization is widely r ...

Paying Teachers for Performance:Issues and Dilemmas for Rural Schools, Part One

This article appeared in the March 2011 Rural Policy Matters. This first installment in an occasional series on performance pay introduces the topic and some of the related issues that are part of the debate. Almost everyone understands that a great teacher can have a lasting influence on a person’s life. Most of can remember a teacher who inspired our imaginations and stretched our minds. Unfortuna ...

Rural School Funding News Special Series: Financing Rural Schools: Characteristics of Strong Rural School Finance Systems

This article appeared in the March 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. In this series, Rural School Funding News is reviewing general principles of school finance and sharing information about school funding systems that support rural schools and their unique characteristics and ...

South Carolina Faces Multiple Budget Woes

This article appeared in the March 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. South Carolina faces a state budget shortfall of $800 million and the consequences could be severe for schools that have already made dramatic cuts. Statewide more than 3,600 teaching positions have been eliminated, class sizes have i ...

Kansas Lawmakers Propose Constitution Change

This article appeared in the March 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. New constitutional language proposed. A committee in the Kansas State of Representatives Committee has passed a proposed constitutional amendment that would bar courts from ordering increases in school spending. The move is a r ...

California Lawsuits Must Have Different Focus

This article appeared in the March 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. This month two plaintiff groups challenging the California school finance system have resubmitted their complaints to an Alameda County Superior Court Judge who ruled in January that the state constitution does not require any set lev ...

Wyoming Backs Off Local Control

This article appeared in the March 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The Wyoming legislative session has ended with Governor Matt Mead signing into law several key pieces of education legislation, including the five-year school finance recalibration required by the Campbell school funding court ...

Alabama Funding Discrimination Lawsuit Moves Forward

This article appeared in the March 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. After multiple setbacks in the state courts through 2002, Alabama school funding plaintiffs have turned to federal court for relief with a new litigation strategy. The hearing in Lynch v. Alabama, first filed in 2008, began ear ...

Percent Rural Students Eligible for Free or Reduced Meals, 1992-2009

This article appeared in the March 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Data Source: NCES Common Core Data, U.S. Department o ...

Facts and Figures About States With Highest Percentages of Rural Students Qualifying for Special Education Services

This article appeared in the March 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Question: In which five states is the percentage of rural students who qualify for special education services is highest? Answer: New Jersey, at 27.3%, has the highest rate of rural students with an Individualized Education Plan (IEP), followed by New Mexico (18.5%), Arizona (18.1%), Kentucky, (18.1%), Maine (18%), and West Virginia ...

Rural Trust Webinar Series Features Rural Innovations: Search Institute: Building Assets-Reducing Risks

This article appeared in the March 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The Rural Trust is hosting a series of webinars featuring programs doing innovative work in rural schools. “These programs present innovations that have promise or have been proven in rural places,” explains Doris ...

Join Marty Strange in a Kappan Conversation

Marty Strange, Policy Director for the Rural Trust, is the featured guest in a Kappan Conversation at 4 p.m. ET, Thursday, March 24. Marty's article, "Finding Fairness for Rural Students," appeared in the March 2011 edition of Kappan, which focused on education for rural and remote students. If high-poverty rural and small town districts were one school district, it would be the largest, poorest, most racially diverse district in the nation, says Marty Strange. ...

Advanced Placement Incentive Program Grant

On March 16, 2011, the U.S. Department of Education announced the publication in the Federal Register of the notice inviting applications (NIA) for the Advanced Placement Incentive (API) program. Deadline for Notice of Intent to Apply: April 15, 2011. Deadline for Transmittal of Applications: May 16, 2011. The API program awards competitive grants designed to increase the successful participation of low-income students in advanced placement courses and ...

Rural School Innovations Webinar: Search Institute's "Building Assets-Reducing Risks"

Search Institute's "Building Assets-Reducing Risks (BARR) Program: Replication and Expansion of an Effective Strategy to Turn Around Low-Achieving Schools" was the focus of the second Rural School and Community Trust's 2010-2011 Rural School Innovations Webinar Series. Hosted by Doris Terry Williams, Executive Director, Rural School and Community Trust, this webinar was held March 16, 2011.

Number Weighting in a One-Page Handout

This article appeared in the March 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Most school districts and millions of children are affected by serious inequities in the way the federal Title I program distributes funding to school districts to support the education of very low-income children. (Visit the

Rural Policy Matters: February 2011

View PDF ...

New Report Finds Consolidation More Likely to Yield Harm Than Benefit

This article appeared in the February 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. A report released this month offers the most comprehensive analysis of research on school and district consolidation to date. The highly readable report, “

Rural Students Deserve Fairness

This article appeared in the February 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. “One-third of American ch ...

Facts and Figures About States With Funding Parity in Rural School Districts

This article appeared in the February 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Question: In which ten states do funding levels vary the least between rural districts? In other words, in which states are rural schools most likely to have about the same amount of funding as other rural schools? Answer: Delaware, Arizona, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Alabama, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Mary ...

Rural Trust Signs Letter On Highly Qualified Teachers

This article appeared in the February 2011 Rural Policy Matters. The Rural Trust has joined more than 70 other organizations in a letter to President Obama and key Congressional leaders in both parties. The letter expresses concerns about a statutory change made by Congress to the Highly Qualified Teacher provisions of No Child Left Behind. At issue is language inserted in H.R. 3082, the Continuing Resolution fo ...

School Discipline: An Occasional Series on Developments in School Disciplinary Policies and Practices

This article appeared in the February 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Related Articles ...

Alabama Schools Facing Lawsuit over Use of Pepper Spray

This article appeared in the February 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has brought a civil rights lawsuit against the school board of Birmingham City Schools and the Birmingham police chief on behalf of seven students who say they were brutalized by school resour ...

Arizona High Court Refuses to Hold Student Criminally Liable

This article appeared in the February 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The Arizona Supreme Court has held that a student who cursed at a teacher did not violate the state’s law against “knowingly abusing a teacher or other school employee on school grounds or while that person is performin ...

Gang Activity Policies Addressed by Courts

This article appeared in the February 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Mississippi School District Clarifies Gang Policy After Court Ruling The DeSoto County School District in Mississippi has settled a court challenge brought by a seventh-grade honors student who was expelled after school o ...

RSFN Special Series Financing Rural Schools: Characteristics of Strong Rural School Finance Systems

This article appeared in the February 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. In this series, Rural School Funding News is reviewing general principles of school finance and sharing information about school funding systems that support rural schools and their unique characteristics and needs. While there ...

Mississippi Communities Pushing Hard to Protect School Funding

This article appeared in the February 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Public education supporters in Mississippi are celebrating a small positive development in the state legislature this month as the House of Representatives approved a school funding plan that provides “level” funding to ...

Changes to Arkansas Consolidation Law Proposed

This article appeared in the February 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. A state representative from Marvell, Arkansas, located in the Mississippi Delta in the eastern region of the state, has filed a bill that would give school districts more time to avoid consolidation. Currently, Arkansas law gives t ...

Iowa Debating Funding Solutions

This article appeared in the February 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Political divisions in the Hawkeye State are bringing school funding issues to the forefront relatively early in the legislative session. One of the major Republican funding proposals would increase state funding of schools ...

School Funding Interpretation Challenged as Arizona Legislators Cut Corporate Taxes

This article appeared in the February 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. A group of school districts and the Arizona Education Association have filed a second lawsuit challenging the legislature’s interpretation of the state’s school funding law, Proposition 301. Proposition 301 requires the ...

Average Score for NAEP Science at Grade 4

This article appeared in the February 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time.

Annual Competitive Book Donation Program

The Annual Competitive Book Donation Program, funded by Pathways Within, is designed to donate books to literacy programming in small and rural communities only. The proposal deadline for the 2011 program is March 30, 2011. The organizational budget limit to be eligible is currently set at $150,000.00 annually. The community where the organization is located must be an underserved community. It is not enough to have a certain number of families within a community that ...

Consolidation Fight-Back Toolkit

Are you a citizen activist facing the threat of school closure or consolidation? As you address proposed consolidation on a local or state level, your most potent weapon is good information. 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. If you have questions about these documents, please send an e-mail to ...

The Rural Solution: How Community Schools Can Reinvigorate Rural Education

Doris Terry Williams, executive director of the Rural School and Community Trust and director of the Trust's Capacity Building Program, explains the value of full-service community schools in rural areas in this report from the Center for American Progress. The Rural Solution: How Community Schools Can Reinvigorate Rural Education combines data from the literature and other public sources, interviews, site visits, and the organizational experience of The Rural School and Commun ...

Rural Trust Will Present Teen Financial Literacy Workshop at 2011 Youth Leadership Conference

Veniayetta Aikens, Youth Coordinator in the Capacity Building Program of the Rural School and Community Trust, will be hosting the workshop “Teens for Financial Literacy” at the 22nd Annual National Service-Learning Conference, April 6-9, 2011, in Atlanta, Georgia. The Time is Now is the theme of the 2011 conference, which will bring together more than 2,200 people from around the country and the world to participate in three days of general sessions, interactive works ...

Research Raises Doubts About Benefits of Consolidation

Policies that promote school consolidation are likely to do more harm than good, conclude the authors of a new policy brief published today by the National Education Policy Center (NEPC) at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Consolidation of Schools and Districts: What the Research Says and What It Means, authored by Craig Howley, Jerry Johnson, and Jennifer Petrie of Ohio University, provides a comprehensive ...

Rural Trust Executive Director Appointed to Department of Education's Equity and Excellence Commission

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today announced the appointment of 28 education advocates, civil rights leaders, scholars, lawyers, and corporate leaders to the Department of Education’s Equity and Excellence Commission. Doris Terry Williams, executive director of the Rural School and Community Trust and director of the Trust's Capacity Building Program, is among those appointed. The commission will examine the disparities in meaningful educational opportunities that giv ...

2011 Race to the Top Commencement Challenge

Applications are open for the 2011 Race to the Top Commencement Challenge. The Commencement Challenge invites public high schools across the country to demonstrate how their school best prepares them for college and a career, helping America win the future by out-educating our competitors and achieving President Obama’s goal of having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020. The application includes essay questions and statistical information that illust ...

Taking Advantage: The Rural Competitive Preference in the Investing in Innovation Program

Rural Policy Matters: January 2011

View PDF ...

Homelessness is a Rural Problem Too

This article appeared in the January 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Volunteers and others are spreading out across the nation this week to conduct a point-in-time count of homeless individuals. The count is required every two years (many states do it annually) by the Department of Housing and Urban ...

Formula Fairness Campaign Continues to Grow

This article appeared in the January 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Southern Echo and the National Farmers Union are the latest two organizations to join the

Rural School Funding News Special Series:Financing Rural Schools: Characteristics of Strong Rural School Finance Systems

This article appeared in the January 2011 Rural Policy Matters. In this series, Rural School Funding News is reviewing general principles of school finance and sharing information about school funding systems that support rural schools and their unique characteristics and needs. While there are no easy answers to questions about how to fund schools, especially in this economic climate, we hope that these articles wil ...

Wyoming Legislation Could Add Strings to Funding

This article appeared in the January 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The Wyoming legislature is considering changing its funding and accountability provisions. Two separate bills are under consideration. The proposed Education Accountability Act, would move ultimate accountabil ...

South Dakota Funding Proposal Worse Than Expected

This article appeared in the January 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. South Dakota schools are bracing for even deeper cuts than those proposed last month by outgoing Governor Mike Rounds (see December RSFN). Newly-electe ...

Washington Special Education Funding Lawsuit Ends

This article appeared in the January 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The Washington State Supreme Court has ruled against a coalition of school districts seeking to force the state to change the way special education is funded. Arguments in the Alliance for Adequate Funding of Special ...

North Carolina Weighing Options

This article appeared in the January 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. North Carolina is facing serious budget decisions when the legislature returns late this month. The state deficit is estimated to be $3.7 billion, and Governor Beverly Perdue asked education leaders to describe to the ...

California Settles School Fee Lawsuit

This article appeared in the January 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. California has settled a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union over the charging of illegal fees by school districts. (See background in September ...

Funding Crisis Driving Some Rural Oregon Districts to Charters

This article appeared in the January 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Several rural and remote school districts in Oregon have found a way to survive declining enrollment and dwindling resources by using the state law to convert their schools to charters. Oregon’s charter school l ...

Average Base Salaries for Public School Teachers, 2008

This article appeared in the January 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time.

Facts and Figures: Comparing Funding Levels for Rural Schools By State

This article appeared in the January 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Question: In which ten states do funding levels vary the most between rural districts? In other words, in which states is the funding gap largest between high-wealth rural districts and low-wealth rural districts? Hint: In most cases, the answer has to do with how heavily the state’s funding formula relies on local wealth, usually lo ...

Marty Strange Briefs U.S. Senate on i3, Title I

This article appeared in the January 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Staff representing more than 30 Senate offices and key committees were present on January 24th to hear Rural Trust Policy Director Marty Strange discuss the impact of the federal Investing in Innovation (i3) program on rural schools ...

RT Report: Few i3 "Rural" Grants Generating Rural Innovation

This article appeared in the January 2011 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The federal Investing in Innovation (i3) program did little to surface innovative solutions to the unique challenges of high-needs rural schools, despite the program’s stated emphasis on rural schools. That’s one of seve ...

Financing Community Schools: Leveraging Resources to Support Student Success

Financing Community Schools: Leveraging Resources to Support Student Success, a report from the Coalition for Community Schools, details how community schools efficiently leverage dollars to support student learning. The November 2010 report highlights five findings: Community schools use the bulk of their resources to directly assist schools in meeting their core instructional mission, while also strengthening the health and well-being of students, ...

New Publication on EITC

The Foundation for the Mid South just released Earned Income Tax Credit: Working Hands Getting a Hand Up to share information on this valuable anti-poverty tool helping working, low-income people keep more of their earnings. Take a few minutes and read this brief 6-page document to learn more about the credit and how we hope it will gain wider use and increase financial security in the Mid South.

Fund for Teachers: 2011 Applications

Fund 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.

Thank You for Registering!

Thank you for registering with The Rural School and Community Trust. As a benefit of registration, you have been enrolled as a subscriber to the electronic newsletter, Rural Policy Matters. If you wish, you can unsubscribe whenever you receive the newsletter. You can also create your own "My RSCT" homepage -- content on topics that you choose. This way when you return to the website you will see posted for you items that you have selected as most important to y ...

Rural Policy Matters: December 2010

View PDF ...

Formula Fairness Campaign Gains Three New Sponsors

This article appeared in the December 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. This month, three new organizations became co-sponsors of the Formula Fairness Campaign, bringing the total number of state and national organizations that have joined as co-sponsors to 20. The

Senators Raise Concerns About Rural Districts in i3

This article appeared in the December 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Earlier this month thirteen senators co-signed an open letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan expressing concern that rural states and districts were not able to compete successfully for Investing in Innovation (i3) gran ...

Facts and Figures About Instructional Expenditures for Rural Students

This article appeared in the December 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Question: In which 11 states do average instructional expenditures fall under $4,500 per rural student? Answer: Idaho averages $3,952 in instructional expenses per rural student, followed by Arizona ($4,021), Oklahoma ($4,022), Utah ($4,092), Tennessee ($4,132), Mississippi ($4,168), Florida ($4,186), Alabama ($4,35 ...

It Is Time for Something More Meaningful Than No "Excuses"

This article appeared in the December 2010 Rural Policy Matters. We’ve noticed a troubling development in school politics: the no-excuses-for-students proclamation. We’re not advocating excuse-making. In fact, it is the excuse-making behind “no excuses” that’s so troubling. The problem is not that administrators and teachers tell their students that they will brook no excuses for fa ...

Worth Noting

This article appeared in the December 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation recently issued its third annual “Soul of the Community” ...

Rural School Funding News Special Series:Financing Rural Schools: Characteristics of Strong Rural School Finance Systems

This article appeared in the December 2010 Rural Policy Matters. In this series, Rural School Funding News is reviewing general principles of school finance and sharing information about school funding systems that support rural schools and their unique characteristics and needs. While there are no easy answers to questions about how to fund schools, especially in this economic climate, we hope that these articles wi ...

Consolidation Lawsuit in Arkansas Addresses Funding Issues

This article appeared in the December 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The rural Deer-Mount Judea school district near the Ozark National Forest in northwest Arkansas has invoked the Lake View funding decision in a lawsuit aimed at stopping consolidation of its two small K–12 schools. The ...

Wisconsin Funding Plan Unveiled

This article appeared in the December 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. As planned, Wisconsin Superintendent of Education Tony Evers has made his biennial budget proposal in the form of a new funding plan for state, which he has titled, “Fair Funding for Our Future.” As repor ...

Montana in Fight Over School Funding Shifts

This article appeared in the December 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. After Montana schools braced for deep cuts that could include eliminating teaching positions and money for full-day kindergarten, Governor Brian Schweitzer has proposed a budget that includes both tax cuts and increa ...

Alabama Faces Serious Budgetary Woes

This article appeared in the December 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Alabama schools are hoping to avoid further “proration” this school year. During proration the state makes across-the-board cuts in school funding after the state’s budget has been passed and, conse ...

South Dakota Districts to be Heard Before State Supreme Court

This article appeared in the December 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. A lawsuit brought by a coalition of primarily rural school districts suing the state over its funding system will be heard in the South Dakota Supreme Court next month, more than four years after being first filed.

Total Number of English Language Learner (ELL) Students Enrolled in Rural School Districts

This article appeared in the December 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Data sou ...

Rural New York School Recruits Overseas Students

Dwindling populations in small towns have caused hundreds of districts to consolidate their schools and bus kids long distances to bigger schools. But some remote communities are fighting back with a new idea to fill their empty classrooms: They're recruiting international students. This story by National Public Radio’s Brian Mann profiles Newcomb Central School, a pre-kindergarten through 12th grade school located in a remote valley in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New Yo ...

Rural Policy Matters: November 2010

View PDF ...

Taking Advantage of the Rural Preference in the Investing in Innovation Grant Competition

This article appeared in the November 2010 Rural Policy Matters. The $650 million Investing in Innovation (i3) competitive grant program drew 1,698 applications. Ultimately, just 49 were selected to receive grants. Of the 49, 19 claimed that they would serve at least one rural school district, making them eligible for two extra scoring points. The i3 competition guidelines allowed applicants to claim this &ldquo ...

Facts and Figures About States Where More Than Ten Percent of Rural Students Are Learning English

This article appeared in the November 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Question: There are ten states in which more than 10% of rural students are learning English. What are the states? Answer: In New Mexico, 33.8% of rural students are English Language Learners. The other nine states are California, where 26.7% of rural students are learning English, Arizona (24.3%); Texas (19.0%), Nevada (17.0%), A ...

The Rural Factor in the New Republican Majority in the U.S. House of Representatives

This article appeared in the November 2010 Rural Policy Matters. In the 2010 mid-term elections rural voters played a heavy role in turning the majority party in the House of Representatives from Democratic to Republican. In all, 63 congressional districts held by Democrats moved to the Republican column. Three districts went the other way. The Republican net gain, as of this writing (one seat still undecided) i ...

Rural Trust Wishes Harrison Well in New Position

This article appeared in the November 2010 Rural Policy Matters. This month the Rural Trust says good-bye to Lynnette Harrison who has worked as Field Services Coordinator of the Policy Program since 2001. Harrison has taken a new position with the DeKalb County (Georgia) Board of Health, where she will be sharing her immense community talents. While at the Rural Trust, Harrison worked to create and support stat ...

School Discipline: An Occasional Series on Developments in School Disciplinary Policies and Practices

This article appeared in the November 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. U.S. Supreme Court Will Hear Police Interrogation Case The United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case involving a police interrogation of a special education student in North Carolina public schools ...

Utah Takes on Revenue Issues to Address Low Spending

This article appeared in the November 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. An interesting debate over school funding is shaping up in Utah, the state with the lowest per-pupil spending in the nation. Utah’s per pupil spending averages $5,765; the national average is $10,259. Adding spice to ...

Oklahoma Ballot Initiative on School Funding Soundly Defeated

This article appeared in the November 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Question 744, a ballot initiative that would have required Oklahoma to increase its per-pupil spending to a regional average, an increase of about $830 million or $1,300 per pupil, did not garner even 20% of voter support on Electi ...

Alaska Ballot Initiative on School Funding Successful

This article appeared in the November 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Almost $400 million in education bonds, the largest education bond initiative in the history of the state, were approved by Alaska voters this month. The bonds include funding for several university projects and for new rural schoo ...

Arkansas Adequacy Level Set

This article appeared in the November 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. A panel of Arkansas legislators is recommending an increase in school funding of 2% to 2.4% in the next state budget. The increase would provide an additional $60 million for schools. The Joint Adequacy Evaluation O ...

Florida Class Size Limits Will Remain in Place

This article appeared in the November 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. An initiative to relax Florida’s new class size limits failed earlier this month on Election Day. The ballot question would have changed Amendment 8 of the Florida Constitution to raise size limits and to allow public schools ...

Ohio Funding Formula Remains Controversial After Election

This article appeared in the November 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Ohio’s school funding formula, a heated topic throughout the gubernatorial race, has taken on new significance as the state prepares to implement its Race to the Top grant. The formula, championed by outgoing Governor ...

Kansas Lawsuit Filed

This article appeared in the November 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. As anticipated, a coalition of school districts has filed a new funding lawsuit, Gannon et al v. State of Kansas. The plaintiff group, Schools for Fair Funding (SFFF), now includes 63 districts in the state, many in rural ar ...

Proposed California Funding System Fixes Are a Mixed Bag for Rural Schools

This article appeared in the November 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. California's system of public school finance is one fo the most complex in the nation. Its complexity makes it hard to preduct how much funding schools will receive. It is also inequitable across the state and between distr ...

2009 NAEP Performance on Grade 12 Reading and Mathematics, by Locale

This article appeared in the November 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Source: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Sta ...

Rural School Innovations Webinar: "Schools to Watch"

“Schools to Watch: School Transformation Network" was the theme of the first Rural School and Community Trust 2010-2011 Rural School Innovations Webinar Series.

Rural Policy Matters: October 2010

View PDF ...

Child Poverty Highest Among Rural African-Americans and Rural Single Mothers

This article appeared in the October 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Young children (those under age six) in rural America are much more likely to live in poverty than children in suburban or central city communities. A brief from the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey ...

School Discipline: An Occasional Series on Developments in School Disciplinary Policies and Practices

This article appeared in the October 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. North Carolina Court Requires Districts to Provide Students with More Info in Discipline Cases

Mississippi Working on Discipline

This article appeared in the October 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. See Al ...

Consolidation Watch: State Policies on an Important Rural Issue

This article appeared in the October 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm’s state budget recommendation to set aside $50 million for a competitive grant program to encourage consolidation and cost-sharing was denied by the legislature. Despite the controversy around studies on both sides of the issue, the Grand Rapids Press takes the Michigan Legislature to task over it ...

RSFN Special Series: Financing Rural Schools: Characteristics of Strong Rural School Finance Systems

This article appeared in the October 2010 Rural Policy Matters. In this series, Rural School Funding News is reviewing general principles of school finance and sharing information about school funding systems that support rural schools and their unique characteristics and needs. While there are no easy answers to questions about how to fund schools, especially in this economic climate, we hope that these articles wil ...

Kansas Political Buzz All About School Finance

This article appeared in the October 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. In the Sunflower State, school funding continues to dominate the political landscape as policy makers, school leaders and political candidates address the issue. The gubernatorial candidates continue to ...

Florida Voters Will Weigh in on Class Size Limits

This article appeared in the October 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The Florida Supreme Court has ended the Florida Education Association’s challenge to Amendment 8, a ballot initiative that would change a current state provision that sets strict limits on the size of every clas ...

Texas Preparing for Funding Challenge

This article appeared in the October 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Some Texas state senators want the state to adopt a statewide property tax to try to avoid more school finance litigation, and school leadership organizations are putting forth their own recommendations about how to fix the funding ...

Arizona School Funding Lawsuit Ends

This article appeared in the October 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The Arizona Supreme Court has refused to hear a lawsuit filed this summer by a group of school districts, district representatives, and education organizations, including the Arizona Rural Schools Association. The pl ...

A New School Finance Report Ranks State Funding Systems

This article appeared in the October 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. A new national report card on school finance has been developed by the Education Law Center (ELC). The report, "Is School Funding Fair? A National Report Card," uses four measures to gauge how well the poorest districts in ...

Do Court Cases Matter?

This article appeared in the October 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. A recently released article discusses the difficulty in accurately measuring the effects of school finance litigation. In "School Finance and Courts: Does Reform Matter, and How Can We Tell?" which

Percent Schools Reporting Discipline Policies That Allow Long-Term Suspensions Without Continuing School Services, 2005-06 School Year

This article appeared in the October 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Notes: Long-term suspensions are those extending to the end of the current school year or beyond. Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), 2005–06 School Surv ...

Facts and Figures About States with the Highest Percentage of Small Rural Districts

This article appeared in the October 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Question: Which eight states have the highest percentage of small rural districts? Answer: North Dakota, Montana, Vermont, South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Maine, and Alaska. Read more from the October 2010 Rural Policy Matters. ...

i3 Awards Don't Reach Many High-Needs Rural Districts

This article appeared in the October 2010 Rural Policy Matters. The U.S. Education Department’s Investing in Innovation (i3) competitive grant program is supposed to improve K–12 achievement and close achievement gaps, decrease dropout rates, increase high school graduation rates, and improve teacher and school leader effectiveness. All laudable objectives, and critical ...

Rural Trust's Doris Williams Authors National Report on Community Schools

This article appeared in the October 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. “Community is a place where people and institutions collaborate to build social capital that in turn strengthens families, institutions — including the school, and the community itself,” says Dor ...

2010 Rural School and Community Trust / Fund For Teachers Grant Recipients

During the summer of 2010, 14 teachers from 12 schools from around the country travelled and learned thanks to a grant from the Rural School and Community Trust and Fund for Teachers. By following their passions these teachers were ready when they returned to the classroom to inspire their students and help the ...

New Report Compares Afterschool Program Access in Rural, Urban Communities

The Afterschool Alliance, in conjunction with JC Penney Afterschool, has released new survey data on afterschool program participation, satisfaction, and demand in rural, urban, and suburban communities. America After 3PM: From Big Cities to Small Towns is a special report based on a study of nearly 30,000 households. Conducted for the Afterschool Alliance and sponsored by JC Penney Afterschool, the report answers the questions: < ...

Rural Policy Matters: September 2010

View PDF ...

Community Center Seeks to Re-Knit Divided Community

This article appeared in the September 2010 Rural Policy Matters. The Coal River Valley community in southern West Virginia celebrated the opening of a new community center this month. The center, located in Whitesville (near the Boone-Raleigh County line), has a greenhouse, community gardens, a canning kitchen, arts and crafts center, and business incubator. And, it has already begun hosting a variety of community acti ...

Consolidation Watch: State Policies on an Important Rural Issue

This article appeared in the September 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Several states are addressing consolidation — but not all are promoting it. The following group of articles examines current consolidation news in South Dakota, Texas, Iowa, and Michigan.

High-Poverty Rural Districts Largely Left Out of Race to the Top

This article appeared in the September 2010 Rural Policy Matters. The Race to the Top (RTTT) sweepstakes was not very effective in reaching high-poverty rural areas. The second round winners, announced last month, include Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island and Washington, D.C. Together they will receive $3.4 billion. Tennessee and Delaware, first ...

Title I: Contact Your Representative — And Your Candidates

This article appeared in the September 2010 Rural Policy Matters. As things heat up in the mid-term elections, it’s important to let your representatives, and the candidates challenging them, know that you care about Title I funding and want the formulas fixed. Congress will likely take up re-authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (currently called No Child Left Behind) in the ...

Small Arkansas Town Focus of Secretary Visit

This article appeared in the September 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Grow-Your-Own-Teachers Hamburg, like many smaller districts, has had a hard time getting and keeping the teachers it needs. But the district is now working with the University of Arkansas-Mo ...

Fate of Secure Rural Schools Act Unclear

This article appeared in the September 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The federal legislation that provides funding to rural school districts located in many of the nation’s timber counties is set to expire in 2011. Whether or not it will be renewed is uncertain as Congress wran ...

South Dakota Candidates Speak Out Against Consolidation

This article appeared in the September 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. South Dakota’s forced consolidation law has become an issue in the gubernatorial race. Both candidates, Republican Lt. Gov. Dennis Daugaard and Democratic Sen. Scott Heidepriem, have taken stands against the s ...

Texas Proposal Rewards District Cost-Sharing

This article appeared in the September 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Governor Rick Perry is promoting a plan that would give incentives to districts sharing administrative services and other costs. Under the proposal, districts would receive a percentage of what they save. Texas&rsqu ...

Iowa Losing Rural School Districts

This article appeared in the September 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Iowa is seeing an increase in the number of district consolidations, and more districts are considering consolidation as a way to deal with mounting financial pressures. Some school leaders have charged that Iowa&rs ...

Calls for Consolidation in Michigan Reveal Many Issues

This article appeared in the September 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. We noticed this fall a little shift in school consolidation proposals bubbling up in states. It’s not unusual during the season before legislative sessions open for a state official or commission or legislator to annou ...

School Discipline: An Occasional Series on Developments in School Disciplinary Policies and Practices

This article appeared in the September 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Iowa Rules Limit Physical Restraints, Seclusion Discipline incidents in several Iowa schools have been the focus of recent media attention because they violate new state rules that restrict the use of restraint ...

Middle School Suspension Report

This article appeared in the September 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. A new report looks closely at federal data on school suspensions to determine the impact of harsh exclusionary discipline on students and on schools. The report, “Suspended Education,” is authored by Dan ...

Nevada Considers New Formula

This article appeared in the September 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The Clark County, Nevada school district has sent a proposal to the legislature asking for the revision of the state’s school funding system. In Nevada, requests for drafting may be made by legislators, legisl ...

South Carolina System Subject of Gubernatorial Campaign

This article appeared in the September 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. South Carolina’s funding system is the topic of yet another legislative study committee. But committee members predict the law is not likely to be up for amendment, despite the fact that both gubernatorial can ...

Arkansas Panel Waits to Make Budget Recommendation

This article appeared in the September 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. An Arkansas legislative committee charged with determining the adequacy of student funding in the state has postponed making its annual recommendation in order to do more study. The Joint Adequacy Eval ...

West Virginia Governor Calls for Review of State Education Spending

This article appeared in the September 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. A West Virginia task force initially charged with moving forward education reforms related to the federal Race to the Top (RTTT) grant requirements has called for bids for an outside firm to conduct an audit of educ ...

Arizona ELL Case Back in Court

This article appeared in the September 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Flores v. Arizona, the federal lawsuit that charges the state is not fulfilling its educational obligations to English Language Learners (ELL) is back in an Arizona court this month after being h ...

Georgia Charter Law Under Fire

This article appeared in the September 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. A charter school funding case that will be heard by the Georgia Supreme Court next month could determine how much control over charter school budgets that regular school districts will have. As first reported in the ...

Florida Funding Lawsuit Moves Forward

This article appeared in the September 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. An adequacy lawsuit in Florida is moving forward after a Circuit Judge ruled against the state’s motion to dismiss the case. Citizens for Strong Schools v. Florida State Bd. of Education

Class Action California Lawsuit Challenges School Fees

This article appeared in the September 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Several American Civil Liberties affiliates in California and attorneys working pro bono have brought a class action lawsuit against the state of California for allowing school districts to violate the state ...

Number of Charter Schools by Locale, 2003–04 to 2006–07

Fact and Figures About States With the Highest Mobility Rates Among Rural Households

This article appeared in the September 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Question: Which nine states have the highest rates of mobility among rural households? Answer: At 23.3%, Nevada has the highest percentage of rural households that chang ...

Rural Policy Matters: August 2010

View PDF ...

Coalition Releases Document Calling for "Opportunity to Learn" for all Students

This article appeared in the August 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. On July 28th, a coalition of eight civil rights organizations issued a “

Districts Headed by African-American Superintendents Lose Funding to Number-Weighting

This article appeared in the August 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Ninety-three high-poverty rural school districts headed by African-American superintendents received almost $8.2 million less Title I funding in school year 2008-09 than they would have received if the formula for distributing these funds did not contain a provision that favors large districts over small districts. The provision, known as & ...

Take Advantage of Congressional Break to Contact Representatives

This article appeared in the August 2010 Rural Policy Matters. The Congressional recess means that most U.S. senators and members of the House of Representatives are in their home districts. It’s a great time to contact them and tell them that they should fix the formulas that distribute Title I funding so that all poor children get equitable access to federal funding, no matter where they live. You do ...

Education Week Launches Rural Blog

This article appeared in the August 2010 Rural Policy Matters. In June, Education Week, launched a new blog devoted to rural education. In the opening post, writer Mary Schulken describes her youth growing up on a North Carolina tobacco farm and attending all twelve grades at the same small rural school. The

School Discipline: An Occasional Series on Developments in School Disciplinary Policies and Practices

Texas Internal Report Confirms Special Ed Students Punished More Often This article appeared in the August 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The agency responsible for education oversight in Texas has confirmed that students receiving special education services are much more likely t ...

Congressional Action on Corporal Punishment in Schools

This article appeared in the August 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Just prior to the Congressional recess, U.S. Representative Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) introduced the “Ending Corporal Punishment in Schools Act” that aims to eliminate the use of corporal punishment in sc ...

North Carolina District Takes Steps to End Zero Tolerance

This article appeared in the August 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. The Wake County (Raleigh) School District in North Carolina has decided to amend its discipline policies that automatically remove students from school for lengthy terms in favor of alternative discipline strategies aimed at keep ...

RSFN Special Series: Financing Rural Schools: Characteristics of Strong Rural School Finance Systems

This article appeared in the August 2010 Rural Policy Matters. In this series, Rural School Funding News is reviewing general principles of school finance and sharing information about school funding systems that support rural schools and their unique characteristics and needs. While there are no easy answers to questions about how to fund schools, especially in this economic climate, we hope that these articles ...

Wyoming Debates Funding Accountability

This article appeared in the August 2010 Rural Policy Matters. Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time. Wyoming’s school finance process is unique in that it requires the state to recalibrate the funding model every five years. (See the June RSFN at ww ...