When asked to address the challenges faced by teacher education in an increasingly global society, the author answers only from her place-based perspective: she teaches in a Southern, conservative, primarily rural state where Whites outnumber Blacks two to one and where nearly 20% of the population falls below the poverty line. Although there are…

From the nefarious achievement gaps, to the racial isolation in increasingly segregated schools; from the digital divide that results in kids not having access to computers, to the poverty gulf that results in kids not having homes; from boys' reading difficulties and girls' problems with math, to the disparities among rural, suburban, and urban…

Responds to an article that described research on education in a poor, remote village school in Sri Lanka, discussing the wisdom of returning to a research site after an extended absence of 12 years and noting the necessity to maintain optimism and hope when dealing with school change. (SM)

The challenges in developing discursive classrooms in high-poverty, rural schools motivate less verbal students to communicate. Students tend to resist mathematics education reforms and classroom discourses.

Students who live in rural areas will almost certainly leave those areas for occupations in larger city areas when they reach adulthood. Therefore, the child needs to receive the best education possible to prepare for an unknown future. This paper discusses some of the characteristics of rural schools, especially the plethora of children living in…

The current patchwork of programs designed to ameliorate poverty has failed. Efforts to alleviate poverty by expanding educational opportunities have also had little impact. Poverty among youth has increased during the past two decades even though federal funds for reducing poverty have grown and median educational attainment has increased.…

Based on the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) recent report, this article provides the foundation for state accountability systems that focus on improvement. Contains NASBE's proposed Public Policy Position on Low Performing Schools. (Contains 14 references.) (Author/MLF)

This paper argues that rural poverty remains relatively invisible because, although shameful, it is profitable, and the rural poor pose little threat to their suburban neighbors. This is illustrated via interrogation concerning a rural poultry plant fire. The paper examines implications of this case for foundations scholars and educational…

As many as 40 percent of America's school-aged children are at-risk of failure within the current educational system. Many factors outside of school, such as poverty and debilitating parent and family influences, contribute to student failure. Within the school, the most effective factor of intervention for at-risk students is the individual…

Tells the story of a special teacher in a rural school and her influence on the writer's life. Notes qualities of the effective teaching including empathy, energy, high expectations, acknowledgement of the whole child, and perception of the hidden curriculum. Discusses teacher's ways of overcoming her students' poverty and educational…

This paper examines and questions popular ideas about education and its relationship to the economic well-being of individuals, communities, regions, and the nation. It suggests that the criteria used to develop economic and educational strategies have produced mixed results at best, especially in rural areas. Since family income is related to…

Opportunities abound for educational service agencies (ESAs) to assist rural schools districts with implementing the No Child Left Behind Act. Strategies that ESAs could pursue are presented for critical issues in the areas of school-community relationships, school roles in rural development, funding, standard setting, school size, facility…

Twenty percent of the children enrolled in rural and small-town schools are non-Caucasian, children of color. As in nonrural schools, rural schools have yet to close the achievement gap across various racial and economic subgroups of this diverse population. Overall, rural students perform as well as or better than their nonrural peers on…

Proposed welfare reform could be detrimental to the education and employment opportunities of poor rural women and children. Describes the educational experiences of women who have attended the Low Country Human Development Center (LCHDC) (South Carolina). For the past 20 years, the LCHDC has provided pregnant teenagers with a high school…

This paper addresses dilemmas facing rural schooling today as a result of industrialization and the changing nature of rural communities. Examples are drawn from the literature on Maine and West Virginia schools and from the movie "Hoosiers." Although some rural communities have benefitted economically from industrialization, in most…