Only 18% of Arizona’s public school students attend rural schools, but socioeconomic challenges and an undesirable policy context lead the state to rank third overall among the 50 states in need of rural education attention and improvement. The state’s rural schools serve an impoverished and diverse student population, with a high rate of English Language Learners and the nation’s largest population of Special Education (IEP) students. Compounding challenges, the distribution of state and local funding is the nation’s least equitable, and per pupil spending on instruction is among the lowest in the nation. Arizona’s rural schools rank among the lowest in the nation on scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress and graduation rates.