This report reviews high school dropout rates and related factors in rural high schools throughout 15 Southern and Southwestern states. These schools are in districts that are among the 800 rural districts with the highest student poverty rate nationally. Seventy-seven percent of the "Rural 800" districts and 87 percent of the students in them are…

This study describes the importance of rural education in each of the 50 states, and suggests the urgency with which state policymakers should address the needs of rural schools and communities. The study compared states on two gauges of concern for their rural schools and communities. The rural importance gauge examines how important it is to the…

Using standard data sources, information is presented for each state on the importance of rural education to the state's overall educational performance and the urgency for state policymakers to develop explicit rural education policies. The 8 importance and 11 urgency indicators for each state are presented in table and graph form, and…