Report Calls For Greater Federal Responsiveness To Needs Of Rural High Schools

Despite rural high schools often being shortchanged by current federal education policies, a new report from the Alliance for Excellent Education finds that rural schools routinely use practices that could be useful to boosting student performance in their urban and suburban counterparts.

According to the report, Current Challenges and Opportunities in Preparing Rural High School Students for Success in College and Careers, the tight-knit nature of rural communities has resulted in the development of promising practices in meeting the challenge of preparing students for success in the twenty-first century. For example, in the highly personal rural environment, at-risk students are not as likely to be overlooked. Additionally, successful rural high schools have utilized online courses and other distance learning to expand advanced learning opportunities for their students. By using local businesses as “place-based” learning opportunities, schools engage students’ interests, which often creates a college- and career-ready culture.

One third of the nation’s high schools are rural and that number is on the rise, the report finds. Nationally, one in five children attends a rural school. This growth in enrollment brings new challenges such as growing population diversity in the form of English language learners and additional costs for bilingual teachers, new curricula, and other services.

Current Challenges and Opportunities finds that rural high schools receive disproportionately lower amounts of Title I dollars, the largest source of federal funding for low-income school districts. Often characterized by declining local tax bases, rural school districts also encounter difficulty generating sufficient property tax revenues. Furthermore, rural districts have less staff to apply for additional competitive grant funds.

Financial constraints are just one of the challenges that the report identifies. A shortage of teachers trained to deliver a rigorous college- and career-prep curriculum, difficulty in addressing the needs of an increasingly diverse student body, limited social service support, and less access to teacher professional development create other challenges in ensuring that all students in rural areas graduate from high school prepared for college, work, and life.

The challenge for the federal government, working with local and state partners, is to develop policy solutions that recognize and address the unique circumstances that rural high schools and communities present. As the report notes, it is imperative that federal leaders understand the full impact—and unintended consequences—of current education reform efforts on America’s rural communities as Congress begins to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).