Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

NASBE Study Group Report Explores How State Policymakers Can Improve Opportunities for Rural Students

  • 07/28/16

Alexandria, Va. - One-third of US public schools are in rural areas, and these schools enroll nearly 12 million students—nearly a quarter of all American students. According to census data, 26.7 percent of all rural public school students are minorities, and many of them are living below the national poverty line. A new NASBE report examines the unique challenges rural school districts face and offers policymakers solutions on how to address them.

“Educating Students in Rural America” explores the factors facing rural schools: cultural and virtual isolation, poverty and demographic shifts, lack of resources and assets, and staff recruitment and retention. Examining those issues, the authors of the report identified four key actions state policy can take to address them:

  1. Leverage capacity and professional training to translate technological access into high-quality learning.
  2. Help rural communities form partnerships with local organizations as part of broader economic and community development strategies and publicly recognize communities whose students are benefiting from such partnerships.
  3. Allow for increased flexibility by providing more funding, greater flexibility, and incentives for districts to build stronger connections between each other and with service providers to build capacity and save money.
  4. Proactively develop a comprehensive strategy to recruit, train, and retain the teachers, principals, and educational support staff needed to ensure all its students are provided an excellent education.

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) expands rural access to technology, allows rural schools to capitalize on partnerships and collaboration, facilitates greater flexibility in funding, and encourages development in educator capacity.  The report identifies states that have taken initiative ahead of the new opportunities ESSA offers, setting examples for other states and policymakers to follow. Utah has developed technology standards to ensure its technology investment is efficient, strategic, and effective. West Virginia has marshaled policymakers to coordinate investment in technology through its Project 24 initiative. Kentucky has established Work Ready Communities, a signal to employers on which regions have a highly educated workforce and are ready for economic investment. In partnership with state nonprofits, local colleges, and others, North Carolina is expanding rural access to early college high schools—schools that blend secondary and postsecondary education experiences. Students in these schools earn as many as 21 tuition-free college credits at local postsecondary institutions while attending high school.

“Students, parents, educators, and community member in rural areas all seek the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to succeed in college, careers, and civic life,” conclude the report’s authors. “Through considering and enacting strong, forward-thinking policies, this aspiration will become reality for significantly more students.”

To read the report, go to www.nasbe.org.

Featured

  • Cleveland High School Breaks Ground on Modernization

    Portland Public Schools in Portland, Ore., recently announced that construction has begun on a modernization project for Cleveland High School, according to a news release. The existing building will be replaced with a new, 300,000-square-foot facility at the same site.

  • Rethinking K-12 Schools as a Continuous Learning Experience

    Most students move through three or more separate facilities during their K-12 journey, yet the built environments they encounter at each stage have traditionally been designed in isolation, with little continuity in spatial language, learning philosophy, or physical resources. Each new school is a reset with different layouts, learning models, expectations, and ways of moving through a building. The next generation of school design is making the case that the first day of kindergarten and the last day of high school can and should feel connected through common support systems and infrastructure in the physical environment.

  • Minnesota District Opens New PreK–12 School

    Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop Schools in Gibbon, Minn., recently announced that construction is complete on a new, $68.9-million school for students in grades PreK–12, according to a news release.

  • URI Cuts Underwater Ribbon on New Ocean Robotics Laboratory

    The University of Rhode Island recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new Ocean Robotics Laboratory at its Narragansett Bay Campus, according to a news release. Two students used a remotely operated vehicle to cut an underwater ribbon in a 30-by-20-foot test tank.