Faced with state and federal mandates to reverse the course of failing rural schools--in some cases, by replacing teachers and principals--districts and researchers say just finding bodies for empty spots is no longer enough. Increasingly, money and attention are turning toward programs that hand-pick promising rural teaching candidates and school…

This issue, the fifth in a series on demographic forces shaping U.S. education, highlights the persistence of poverty, examining the experiences of one Kentucky school system. Wolfe County, Kentucky, uses education to lift its children out of poverty. This extremely poor county is as poor as it ever was (which is also true in central cities and…

This report contains several articles that focus on the new digital divide, which is no longer just one wide gap between those with and those without computers, but is instead a series of divides that create inequities for different reasons. The first article explains how certain types of students are not getting the high-tech experiences they…