Rural Schools, Teacher Preparation for Diversity

Most of the existing studies examining the education system are focused explicitly (and sometimes implicitly) on urban education systems. The state of rural education systems is greatly underresearched. This deficiency is very important to bring to light, because 244 out of the 250 poorest counties in the United States are rural. This entry discusses the definition of the term rural, describes demography related to diversity within rural settings, and examines strategies for preparing, recruiting, and retaining teachers for schools in rural settings.

Defining Rural

The term rural evokes widely shared images of farms, ranches, open spaces, villages, and small towns. Yet, when it comes to distinguishing rural from urban, federal agencies employ more than 24 different definitions for the two terms. Because of the variety in definition, ...

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