Kentucky’s rural schools serve more than 42% of the total student population and receive over 45% of educational funds in the state. Overcoming poverty and other challenges, such as the lowest levels of rural adult educational attainment in the U.S., is made more difficult by a poor policy context that includes large schools and districts, low levels of spending on instruction, and proportionally higher spending on transportation. Graduation rates are low, as are scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Kentucky gets a ranking of tenth among the 50 states in need of rural education attention and improvement.