Missouri’s rural student population totals more than a quarter of a million--the 15th largest in the U.S. Rural student populations are more impoverished than in most other states, and are rapidly becoming culturally more diverse. A poor policy context is evidenced by low levels of instructional spending per pupil and spending on instructional salaries—the nation’s third lowest on the latter. Graduation rates and scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for reading among rural students are near the U.S. midpoint, but rural NAEP math scores are the 18th lowest in the U.S. All of this ranks Missouri 14th in the country in need of rural education improvement and attention.