Maine ranks 28th in the country in need of rural education attention and improvement. With more than half of its students and just over 56% of its schools in rural areas, Maine’s schools are the most rural in the country. Socioeconomic challenges are consistently in the middle across various indicators of well-being. The state’s rural student population is rapidly growing more diverse, and the percentage of rural special education students is among the nation’s highest. Concerns about the policy context rank moderately low, with the exception of funding equity across rural districts and schools, which is the 17th worst in the U.S. Scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for math are low, but graduation rates and NAEP reading scores are above national averages.