U.S. Department of Education officials visit poor, rural Alabama school district

U.S. Department of Education officials visited rural Greensboro, Ala., this week to examine rural school programs in one of the most impoverished regions in the nation. "John White, deputy secretary for rural outreach, said the purpose of the three-day visit to the Greensboro, Ala., area was to talk about ways to train and place high-quality teachers in local schools and to tout the administration's 2020 college completion goal, highlighted at a White House summit this week," Mary Schulken of Education Week reports on the Rural Education blog.

"Discussion included expanding degree and certificate achievement in community colleges that serve high-poverty areas, as well as the role community colleges play in training teachers for high-need rural areas," Schulken writes.  Greensboro is the county seat of Hale County, which is on the Rural School and Community Trust's list that identifies the country's rural schools districts with the highest poverty rates. Hale County and 19 other Alabama counties are in the Black Belt, a poverty- stricken area that was named for the color of its soil but has a heavy African American population. (Wikipedia map)

Earlier this week representatives from several rural community colleges attended or participated online in the White House Summit on Community Colleges. White said community colleges are key resources in rural communities, Schulken reports. "Community colleges are often the closest access to college, career training, dual-enrollment, and school and economic development partnerships for many rural students," he said. (Read more)