Thursday, May 22, 2014

Report examines the condition of rural education in the U.S. using state-by-state analysis

States in the South most need to prioritize addressing rural education issues, according to "Why Rural Matters 2013-2014," a yearly report by the Rural School and Community Trust, a lobby for rural schools.

The rankings are based on five main categories: importance of rural schools in a state, diversity, socioeconomic challenges, educational policy context and outcomes. Researchers "added the state rankings on each indicator and then divided by the number of indicators to produce an average," their report says. The five average gauge rankings were combined to determine an overall average ranking, termed the Rural Education Priority ranking.

Mississippi was the state with the lowest combined score. It was followed by Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, Arizona, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana and West Virginia. The states rated best were Maine, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maryland, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Vermont, New York, Wyoming and Delaware.

"Growth in rural school enrollment continues to outpace non-rural enrollment growth in the United States, and rural schools continue to grow more complex with increasing rates of poverty, diversity and students with special needs. . . As that evidence mounts, it is becoming impossible to ignore the national relevance of these students, families, schools and communities," according to the report."

The full report, as well as a report on each state is available by clicking here. (Overall state rankings from highest priority to least priority of needing changes)

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