The Investing in Innovation (i3) program is a U.S. Department of Education competitive grant program supporting innovation in public schools. To encourage projects focusing on rural education in its first round of grants in 2010 the Department offered two bonus points in the scoring system for "projects that would implement innovative practices,…

High-poverty schools in rural areas and small towns are under attack from state policy makers who want to consolidate these schools in order to save money. In addition to calls for consolidation, rural schools also are threatened by unfair and inadequate funding formulas.

"Why Rural Matters 2011-12" is the sixth in a series of biennial reports analyzing the contexts and conditions of rural education in each of the 50 states and calling attention to the need for policymakers to address rural education issues in their respective states. While it is the sixth in a series, this report is not simply an…

This report is the fifth in a series of biennial reports analyzing the contexts and conditions of rural education in each of the 50 states and calling attention to the need for policymakers to address rural education issues in their respective states. While it is the fifth in a series, this report is not simply an updating of data from earlier…

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 report of the Rural School and Community Trust and the Ben Lujan Leadership and Public Policy Institute presents findings from an investigation of the impact of the funding formula proposal commissioned by the New Mexico Funding Formula Task Force (FFTF) and developed by American Institutes of Research (AIR). Appointed by the New Mexico…

"Why Rural Matters" is the fourth in a series of biennial reports analyzing the importance of rural education in each of the 50 states and calling attention to the urgency with which policymakers in each state should address rural education issues. The researchers framed this report around five gauges measuring: (1) the importance of…

In 2002-2003, 27% (12.5 million) of public school students attended school in communities of fewer than 25,000 and 19% (8.8 million) attended school in smaller communities of fewer than 2,500. In this report, the authors focus on the schools in those smaller communities, the most rural schools in America. They frame the report around 22…

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…

The importance and urgency of rural education to each state was assessed using seven and nine indicators, respectively. The Mid-South Delta, central Appalachia, coastal Southeast, the north Plains, and northern New England emerged as priority rural education regions. The most important urgency indicators were teacher salaries, computer use, school…

Nearly one in three of America's school-age children attend public schools in rural areas or small towns, and more than one in six go to school in the very smallest communities. These children, their schools, and their communities matter, and they deserve more consideration than they get in the national debate over education policy. This report…

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…