Tax increment financing (TIF)--an economic (re)development tool originally designed for urban cities--has been available to rural communities for decades. This is the first study to focus solely on TIF in rural school districts, to examine TIF effects on school districts' property tax base and rates, and to conduct event-study estimations of TIF…

In recent years, rural school district adoption of 4-day school weeks has grown markedly. Despite this rapid growth, scant empirical evidence has documented the factors associated with district adoption and subsequent effects on student, labor, and economic outcomes. We examine the spread of the 4-day school week in rural Missouri, where over 10%…

Homestead exemptions for senior and disabled homeowners disproportionally erode rural tax bases but may still stimulate local educational spending. This article examines one such exemption in Kentucky. Two-stage generalized method of moments is used to estimate the demand for local education spending, then spending in the absence of the exemption…

Using social network analysis, we sought to characterize the professional collaboration and advice networks among rural science teachers. Furthermore, we explored how the characteristics of individual teachers and distance between teachers affected the likelihood of forming connections. Science teachers in publicly funded rural schools were asked…

State policymakers wrestle with long-standing questions and concerns about how to best provide additional fiscal support to rural school districts to ensure their students have access to adequate educational opportunities. In this study, we describe how one state developed empirically based estimates for the additional cost of operating rural…

Numerous studies have explored the labor market of school principals, documenting high turnover rates and voicing concerns regarding labor supply. However, little is known about the staffing challenges in rural schools and what promotes applicants to apply for and be hired for principalship in these locales. In partnership with the Wisconsin…

Leveraging achievement data measured in the fall and spring of kindergarten through eighth grade for 840,000 students attending 8,800 public schools, we report novel evidence on how achievement and growth patterns differ between rural and nonrural schools. Rural students start kindergarten slightly ahead of nonrural students but fall behind by…

Teacher turnover across the country presents a persistent and growing challenge for schools and districts, with the highest rates of turnover geographically concentrated in the American South. Research on teacher staffing and turnover problems consistently highlight two subsets of schools as struggling to attract and retain well-credentialed,…