Rural Matters

We wanted to know more about the rural school districts that serve high poverty communities so first we statistically rounded up the 7604 districts nationwide that have over half their students in a school that is physically located in a rural community. Then we identified the 800 – about 10 percent -- that have the highest rate of eligibility for the federal Title I program. That is the program providing funds for disadvantaged students. We’ll call these 800 high-poverty rural districts the "rural 800."

Continue reading to find out more about these districts and to see a chart of the 16 states where most Rural 800 districts are located.

Continue reading "The "Rural 800" Districts" »

Posted by Marty Strange at 09:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A bill has already been filed in the Oklahoma senate to make it unconstitutional for the state to mandate consolidation or closing of small schools, making consolidation solely a local decision. A similar bill last year passed the Senate overwhelmingly but died in the House. Incumbent Governor Brad Henry (D) was re-elected. The state is in the process of raising teacher salaries to the regional average, has a fully funded all-day kindergarten program (voluntary) and a scholarship program for state colleges.

Posted by Robin Lambert at 04:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)