Established in the 1920s, the Education Policy Center (EPC) is the oldest center or institute at The University of Alabama. Our work centers on four interrelated areas: (a) access and finance of public higher education, (b) college completion, (c) Pell Grants, and (d) rural community colleges. As place-based institutions with service delivery…

A+ Education Partnership is a statewide, non-partisan, non-profit organization that works to shape policy, improve teaching and learning, and engage communities in ongoing conversations about the best ways to create great schools for every child and build a bright future for Alabama. "Alabama Public Education at a Glance" provides in…

Many reports on rural education give little attention to digital learning. At most, they tend to note either infrastructure needs or the potential of remote course access, with little focus on instruction, outcomes, or exemplars. This report intends to begin correcting that imbalance by connecting the dots between rural regions, rural education,…

This essay reviews two books on Julius Rosenwald and the Rosenwald Fund and places them within the historiography of the Fund. "Julius Rosenwald: The Man Who Built Sears, Roebuck and Advanced the Cause of Black Education in the American South," is a biography written by Peter M. Ascoli. The book entitled "The Rosenwald Schools of…

In rural America, community members are working together to reform education, revitalize communities, and improve the quality of life. This article describes long-term efforts, such as Alabama's PACERS program, Georgia's REAL Enterprises project, and Minnesota's Center for School Change. Smaller-scale efforts in Nebraska, Mississippi, and South…

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 brief study is based upon several weeks' observation of schools and mining towns in what are considered the best districts in the bituminous coal region of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Alabama, and upon some years' acquaintance with mining town schools. An attempt has been made to point out in a general way the type of school that should…

Since the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act or the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001, much has been said and written about the law by a variety of education observers, practitioners, and policymakers from both sides of the political aisle. With support from the Ford, Rockefeller, and Z. Smith Reynolds foundations,…