Education Across America: Cities, Suburbs, Towns, and Rural Areas

Education Across America: Cities, Suburbs, Towns, and Rural Areas is designed for individuals interested in the condition of education across different geographic locales within the United States. Topics include family characteristics, educational experiences, educational outcomes, and school resources and staffing, with an initial emphasis on rural areas. The website serves as a hub for existing data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), including tables from the Digest of Education Statistics, as well as other resources. Drawing on these sources, select indicators on topics by geographic locale have been released as part of NCES’s Condition of Education. As of August 30, the Education Across America website also features a dynamic “At a Glance” data tool that facilitates comparisons of key statistics across the four geographic locales (i.e., cities, suburbs, towns, and rural areas) using NCES data. This tool allows users to test whether differences in means or percentages are statistically significant. Some key findings from Education Across America indicators released as part of the Condition of Education include the following: Family Characteristics Nationally, 14 percent of related children ages 5 to 17 in rural areas were living in poverty in 2019. This poverty rate for children in rural areas was higher than this poverty rate in suburban areas (12 percent) but lower than this poverty rate in towns and cities (21 percent each). In 2019, parents of students in rural areas, in general, had lower expectations for their children’s educational attainment, compared with parents of students in cities and suburban areas. Educational Experiences In 2019, public elementary and secondary schools in rural areas enrolled 9.8 million students, representing 19 percent of total public school enrollment. In fall 2019, English learner students made up 4 percent of total public school district enrollment in rural areas, compared with 7 percent of enrollment in towns, 10 percent of enrollment in suburban areas, and 15 percent of enrollment in cities. School Resources and Staffing In 2020–21, the percentage of public school principals who held a doctor’s or first professional degree as their highest degree was lower in rural areas (8 percent) than in suburban areas (13 percent) and cities (14 percent) but higher than in towns (6 percent). Educational Outcomes In 2019–20, the adjusted cohort graduation rate (ACGR) was higher in rural areas (90 percent) than in suburban areas (89 percent), towns (87 percent), and cities (82 percent).