Rural Education

Rural education encompasses the schooling provided in areas with low population density, often facing distinct challenges and advantages compared to urban and suburban counterparts. Common misconceptions suggest that rural students lack resources and quality instruction, but studies indicate that they often benefit from smaller class sizes and close-knit community support, which fosters a greater sense of belonging. Despite these advantages, rural schools can struggle with limited financial resources, fewer extracurricular opportunities, and challenges related to teacher shortages and student demographics, such as higher poverty rates and a growing population of English Language Learners (ELL).

Efforts to consolidate rural schools are sometimes proposed to enhance efficiency and reduce costs; however, such measures can lead to job losses and diminish community engagement, which is often centered around local schools. The realities of rural education are complex, revealing not only the obstacles faced but also the potential for innovation and specialized learning opportunities tailored to community needs. As rural education continues to shape the lives of millions of students across the United States, it remains a vital component of the nation's educational landscape, necessitating ongoing attention and support.

Published in: 2021

By: Diorio, Gina L.

Subject Terms

Rural Education

Abstract

Overview

When considering the subject of rural education, there are often misconceptions by those in urban or suburban environments. They imagine students deprived of the latest in modern educational commodities, taught by teachers unable to gain positions in better schools, struggling to grasp basic concepts, unaware of the complexities of the larger world around them. In reality, rural schooling is perhaps one of the most misunderstood and underestimated gems of American education. Today's rural students often enjoy significant advantages over their urban and suburban counterparts. From the educational benefits of smaller class sizes and individual teacher attention to the social benefits of widespread community support and a comforting sense of belonging, rural schools provide both tangible and intangible benefits to the students and families they serve (Todd & Agnello, 2006; Silverman, 2005).

This is not to say, however, that rural schools are without their challenges. Many rural schools lack the financial or other resources to offer the variety of specialized classes often found in suburban schools. Similarly, opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities are not as numerous for students in rural schools as they usually are for students in suburban schools. Yet, these negatives are often more than compensated for by the many positives of rural schooling. Still, despite studies supporting the benefits rural education offers, many school districts in small rural communities across the country are facing increased pressure to consolidate with surrounding schools or districts on the assumption that consolidation will lead to both lower costs to communities and enhanced performance among students (Silverman, 2005).

To understand fully the status of rural education in America today and the unique opportunities and dilemmas it faces, one must first explore the diversity of America's educational landscape and the unique challenges and opportunities faced by rural schools. Following this, several misconceptions regarding rural education will be uncovered and examined, and the position rural schools occupy both in their communities and in the national educational landscape as a whole will be explored.

Further Insights

Statistical Background. Based on a need to classify counties according to levels of urbanity, the United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, in the early 1970s, established a scale of classification known as the ERS Rural-Urban Continuum Codes, or the Beale codes, so named for Dr. Calvin Beale, its developer (National Center for Education Statistics, 2003). In addition to filling agricultural purposes, today the Beale codes are used to classify public school districts. According to the Beale codes, districts are categorized as follows:

Metro Counties:

Counties in metro areas of 1 million population or more
Counties in metro areas of 250,000 to 1 million population
Counties in metro areas of fewer than 250,000 population

Non-Metro Counties:

Urban population of 20,000 or more, adjacent to a metro area
Urban population of 20,000 or more, not adjacent to a metro area
Urban population of 2,500 to 19,999, adjacent to a metro area
Urban population of 2,500 to 19,999, not adjacent to a metro area
Completely rural or less than 2,500 urban population adjacent to a metro area
Completely rural or less than 2,500 urban population, not adjacent to a metro area

The US Department of Education's Center for Rural Education has indicated that nearly 42% of America's public schools are in rural areas (New center helps rural schools, 2006). According to the National Center for Education Statistics, based on survey data from 2013 to 2014, there are more than twenty-seven thousand rural public schools in the United States (National Center for Education Statistics, 2013–14). While any percentage would merit attention, this significant national investment in rural education calls for placing critical priority on ensuring the strength and success of our rural schools. The National Center for Education Statistics has also estimated that in the fall of 2013, just over nine million students were enrolled in public elementary and secondary schools in areas classified as rural (National Center for Education Statistics, 2013–14). By state, Texas leads the way with 807,371 students enrolled in rural schools, while Rhode Island comes in last with 14,280. In 2014, the Rural School and Community Trust reported that Massachusetts had one of the lowest percentages of rural schools at 6.5 percent, while Montana had the highest at 75 percent (Rural School and Community Trust, 2014).

While these numbers vary widely from state to state, what they show is that, from Rhode Island to Texas and South Dakota to Vermont, all states are impacted to some degree by rural education; therefore, no state can escape giving close consideration to these types of public schools.

Challenges. By nature of geographical location and community resources, rural schools face unique challenges not experienced by their suburban counterparts. Among these are teacher shortages, demographic poverty, serving students with disabilities, increasing number of English Language Learner (ELL) students requiring teachers certified in ELL programs, consolidation, transportation difficulties, federally mandated requirements, and funding considerations. A brief look at each will provide more comprehensive insight into the obstacles faced by rural schools.

Teacher Shortages. In Montana, nearly 75% of all public schools are considered rural, with two out of every five of the state's students attending these rural schools (Johnson & Strange, 2005). Yet, teachers in Montana rank 48th on the pay scale when compared with the rest of the United States. Even with the high need for teachers, an alarming 70% of students graduating with teaching degrees are opting to leave the state in search of greener pastures. Recognizing the critical ramifications of this departure on the state's ability to provide quality education, legislation has been introduced to provide new teachers with financial incentives to remain in the state and veteran teachers with incentive to continue teaching. However, these measures have been voted down in the state legislature (Silverman, 2005).

Furthermore, due to years of increased federal mandates implemented with the passing of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2002, teachers have been routinely required to assume additional responsibilities and, as a result, have often find themselves stretched thin. For example, No Child Left Behind mandated that in order to teach a subject to more than one grade level, teachers must be certified in each grade level. The implications of this requirement for rural schools was particularly acute, as they are often unable to offer as extensive a variety of classes as larger suburban schools due to insufficient resources for hiring the necessary teachers. As the NCLB was replaced by the Every Student Succeeds Act in 2015, which repealed many of the federal requirements of the NCLB and gave more control to the states regarding educational policies, it remained to be seen how this change would affect support for rural schools; however, because the act did away with some of the more crippling mandates of NCLB, including the demand for highly qualified teachers for every subject, and it continued the Rural Education Achievement Program, which provides crucial funding for rural schools, educators were largely hopeful (Brenner, 2016).

Poverty. According to the Rural School and Community Trust, 48.2 percent of students who attended a rural school as of the 2015–16 school year qualified for subsidized meals (Rural School and Community Trust, 2017). Nevertheless, these numbers have a particularly noticeable effect in rural areas where communities and even states as a whole tend to be less affluent than suburban areas. A significant portion of education funding is provided by the states; therefore, more affluent states that merely have rural areas are able to redirect funding to these populations in an effort to address the poverty gap (Johnson & Strange, 2005).

Students with Disabilities. Serving students with disabilities may pose a greater challenge in rural school districts than in suburban districts. This stems from several factors, but is, perhaps, most affected by the availability, or lack thereof, of resources and personnel to provide to disabled students in rural schools the same levels of assessment and attention enjoyed by their suburban counterparts.

Growing English Language Learner (ELL) Population. Rural communities are becoming increasingly diverse, and for a growing number of students in rural America, English is not the primary language spoken in the home. For these students, additional English instruction in school is necessary in order to prepare them either to enter the workforce or pursue higher education. In order to teach these children, however, teachers must be specifically trained for ELL instruction. As with other mandates, certification to meet the language need requires funding, and funding is often what is most sorely lacking in rural school districts (Johnson & Strange, 2005, p. vii).

Consolidation. In many rural areas, education and government officials often call for consolidation of several schools or school districts as a means of reducing cost and increasing educational effectiveness. With declining birth rates and demographic changes in population, schools that thirty years ago were already considered smaller are now significantly more so. As such, they are often deemed ripe for consolidation. Yet, as Silverman (2005) points out, instead of solving all problems, consolidation often brings its own series of challenges.

For example, a loss of schools or school districts translates into a subsequent loss of teacher and/or administrative jobs. In areas that are already economically depressed, additional job losses can further exacerbate an already difficult situation. More than job losses, however, Silverman (2005) notes that consolidation can have detrimental effects on the psyche of a community. This is particularly true in areas in which the school serves as a focal point for family and community social activity and involvement.

Transportation. Closely linked with the troubles often brought on directly by consolidation, transportation difficulties are problems rural school districts must continually face. When schools and school districts consolidate, commuting distances for rural students increase. While this may seem little more than an insignificant annoyance at first glance, further exploration exposes the harmful effects lengthy commute times have on student learning capabilities and social opportunities.

When students are required routinely to spend equal or greater time traveling to and from school than actually participating in classroom activities, physical and mental fatigue ensue, and students are less able to concentrate and perform to their academic potential during the time that they are in the classroom. Furthermore, longer commutes intrude into both evening homework time and extracurricular school activities, and many students may find that they are unable to participate in extracurricular activities due to the obstacle posed by increased transportation times (Silverman, 2005).

Benefits. Despite these challenges, many would say that the benefits of rural education outweigh the challenges and may even make rural schooling preferable over suburban education. Among the specific advantages rural education holds over suburban and urban education are class size, community support, specialized educational opportunities, and innovation in resources use and administration (Silverman, 2005; Todd & Agnello, 2006).

Class Size. Rural classrooms often offer students something that urban and suburban schools cannot: smaller class sizes. Whereas in urban and suburban schools teachers find that they are often unable to give each student individualized attention due to sheer class size, in rural schools, where class size may be in the single digits, teachers are able to monitor each student's progress and provide any individualized instruction needed. The benefits to the students are undeniable as they escape being jostled along by large-class momentum without receiving the necessary help to grasp important concepts along the way.

Community Support. In rural areas, the local school is often a focal point of social life. As such, communities take great pride and interest in the school and its activities. An athletic tournament victory, for example, might result in a free meal at the local café for the players to a town-wide pep rally sponsored by business or community groups. This sense of community becomes a pillar in the lives of students and area residents alike. And while rural areas do not hold the monopoly on school pride, the nature of the rural culture is such that it lends itself more to community-wide structures of support.

Specialized Educational Opportunities. Many believe that rural education is synonymous with limited opportunities. This, of course, is not true. While structured class offerings, as mentioned above, may be fewer than in larger school districts, the opportunity for specialized learning may actually be greater. This is due, in part, to the previously mentioned benefit of smaller class sizes. Teachers in rural districts are able to work individually with students in specialized outside research projects. By going beyond the basics covered in class and delving into subjects of particular interest to the students, pupils are able to gain a more detailed knowledge of particular subject areas. In many ways, this scenario is quite similar to college or even graduate level studies, in which students are encouraged to explore areas of personal academic interest outside of the classroom environment. Additionally, in schools serving small, rural communities, teachers are able to tailor lesson plans to apply particularly to their community, thus using real life events to teach larger principles. For example, Todd and Agnello (2006) tell of a rural teacher's incorporation of a tornado in the town's history into a lesson plan teaching citizenship and problem solving.

Innovation in Resources & Administration. Due both to the lack of extra—or even sufficient—funding in many rural school districts and to the demographic nature of rural schools, teachers and administrators alike are often forced to become quite creative in utilizing the resources they possess to achieve maximum educational results for their students. For example, limitations in personnel may prompt rural school administrators to explore the use of distance or online education technology in order to provide students with access to a wider breadth of information than would otherwise be available. Likewise, teachers who have a very diverse classroom ethnically, racially, and educationally, often exercise creativity in developing lesson plans that will provide the necessary factual instruction while incorporating the lessons into the varied backgrounds and situations of the students. The end result is often a rich curriculum tailored to provide real-life benefits to the rural student.

Misconceptions. Rural education carries challenges and enjoys opportunities that are often unique. Despite, or perhaps because of, the drawbacks and benefits of rural schooling, several misconceptions surrounding rural students, teachers, and school systems have arisen. Todd and Agnello (2006) outline them as follows:

Non-certified teachers and administrators
Low standards of achievement
Lack of services for special needs students
Isolation from varied learning experiences
Inadequate access to technology
Separation from national and global community

Several of these have been previously examined in this article, yet a few items warrant further mention here. Teachers in rural classrooms are highly qualified and possess the same level of expertise and certification as their urban and suburban counterparts. In addition, because of their need for innovation, rural teachers must often think "out of the box" in accessing and developing pedagogical resources for their classrooms. Furthermore, rural schools are not lacking in technological resources. Because of the power of the internet, rural students have equal access to the same global library of information as students in the most advanced classrooms in the nation (Todd & Agnello, 2006).

Regarding low achievement, while it is true that some rural students struggle academically, due to disability, poverty, or other causes, it is by no means a fact that rural schools must also be lower performing schools. In fact, in several rural states, students perform quite well despite financial and other challenges. Educators in these states, called "Golden Egg" states by the Rural School and Community Trust, credit their success to several factors, including high standards of expectation, community and public support, small class sizes, teacher involvement, and the stability of continuity in which students attend the same school from kindergarten through high school graduation (Silverman, 2005). While schools in Golden Egg states face the same challenges as those in other rural areas, they are proving that these challenges can be met and overcome and that rural schooling does not have to be an impediment to high achievement (Silverman, 2005). According to the Rural School and Community Trust, between 2015 and 2016, the overall graduation rate in rural districts was 87.3 percent in the United States (Rural School and Community Trust, 2017).

Viewpoints

Highly educated and well-intentioned academics and professionals stand on both sides of the rural vs. non-rural advantage debate. Some administrators and policymakers continue to push for consolidation, believing that with it will come more optimized use of resources and increased capability to serve students. Other educational leaders, however, are committed to ensuring that their small schools retain their rural nature. These individuals believe that smaller is, indeed, better and that maintaining the small class size and sense of community created by the local schools is something worth fighting for.

Whatever the varied perspectives, one thing is certain. Complete with its persistent challenges and unique opportunities, rural schooling will be an important reality in the American educational landscape for some time to come, and generations of students will continue to experience both the drawbacks and benefits of receiving a rural education.

Terms & Concepts

Beale Codes: Classification of counties developed by Dr. Calvin Beale and rating each county by a number based on its level of urbanity in terms of population and distance to urban areas.

Class Size: Number of students per class, particularly as it relates to student-to-teacher ratio.

Consolidation: The combining of two or more schools or school districts, often for the purpose of anticipated fiscal savings and/or enhanced student services.

English Language Learner (ELL): Non-English speaking students, usually in the process of learning English. A language other than English is usually the primary language spoken in the ELL student's home.

Golden Egg States: Rural area schools, districts, or states in which students perform well despite financial or other challenges.

No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB): Federal legislation reauthorizing several federal education programs for the purpose of improving educational standards and accountability and providing parents with additional options in school choice. It was replaced in 2015 by the Every Student Succeeds Act.

Rural Education: Education provided in areas or communities in which the population is no more than 25,000 and often no more than 2,500.

Bibliography

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Brenner, D. (2016). Rural educator policy brief: Rural education and the Every Student Succeeds Act. Rural Educator, 37(2), 23–27. Retrieved February 16, 2018 from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=118399147&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Corbett, M. (2013). Improvisation as a curricular metaphor: Imagining education for a rural creative class. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 28, 1–11. Retrieved December 15, 2013, from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=90307691&site=ehost-live

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Howley, C.B., Showalter, D., Klein, R., Sturgill, D.J., & Smith, M.A. (2013). Rural math talent, now and then. Roeper Review, 35, 102–114. Retrieved December 15, 2013, from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=86689070&site=ehost-live

Johnson, J. & Strange, M. (2005). Why rural matters 2005: The facts about rural education in the 50 states. Retrieved February 6, 2007, from The Rural School and Community Trust http://files.ruraledu.org/whyruralmatters/WRM2005.pdf

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The Rural School and Community Trust. (2014). Why rural matters 2013–2014. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED556045.pdf

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Silverman, F. (2005). All alone. District Administration, 41 , 32–35. Retrieved February 06, 2007 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=18426705&site=ehost-live

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Todd, R. & Agnello, M. (2006). Looking at rural communities in teacher preparation: Insight into a p-12 schoolhouse. Social studies, 97 , 178–184. Retrieved February 06, 2007 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=22535740&site=ehost-live

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Rural Education

On this Page

Subject Terms

Rural Education

Abstract

Overview

Further Insights

Viewpoints

Terms & Concepts

Bibliography

Suggested Reading