Rural Education

Defining Rural Education

Definitions of rural education have varied widely since the mid-1800s. States have categorized a school or district as “rural” based on population density (number of students per square mile); remoteness (the percentage of rural communities within a county); or the number of students in the grade, school, or district. Researchers and advocates have also identified rural communities and schools according to other defining features, including local language, shared values, and culture. The lack of universal criteria to classify rural schools has led to widely varying counts of the number of rural students and schools and calls for the creation of a common, standard measurement system. In 2006, the U.S. Department of Education attempted to institute uniformity in the identification and categorization of rural schools. Under the new system, rural schools are distinguished by their proximity to urban centers and subidentified as institutions in fringe, distant, and remote rural areas.

Based on this new classification system, the National Center for Education Statistics reported in 2007 that 56% of districts, 30% of schools, and 22% of students, approximately 10 million, were rural. Although a dozen states (Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming) have a majority of their public elementary and secondary school students classified as rural, the greatest number of rural students are enrolled in the high-population states of Texas, North Carolina, and California. Rural school enrollment has increased in the 21st century: From 2002–2003 to 2004–2005, the number of rural students has increased by 15%, or 1.3 million students, in stark contrast to a decline in urban and suburban enrollments during the same period.

Rural education is a diverse phenomenon in the United States. The demographic profile of rural schools varies across and within regions. In some states, like Hawai'i and Alaska, most rural students are indigenous, whereas in the Southeast, African Americans constitute the majority. In the South and West, particularly in New Mexico and Arizona, the rural population is predominantly Latino/a and Native American. Poverty is a defining characteristic of many rural students. In 2002, [Page 775]14.2% of the rural population, approximately 7.5 million people, was poor, with child poverty rates exceeding 35%. While all ethnic and racial groups had higher poverty rates in rural locales, Blacks (33%), Hispanics (26%), and Native Americans (34%) had the highest rates among the nonmetro population in 2002. Among the challenges deep poverty brings to rural schools are weak local tax bases for educational funding, children who have yet to learn foundational skills, and limited resources to recruit and retain quality teachers.

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