Importance
Six of the 13 states where rural education is most important to the overall educational performance of the state are located in the Prairie/Plains region (South Dakota, Oklahoma, Montana, North Dakota, Iowa, and Kansas). The rest of the 13 are in Northern New England (Maine and Vermont), the Southeast (North Carolina), the Mid-South Delta (Mississippi and Alabama), the Far West (Alaska), and Central Appalachia (Kentucky).
 

Percent rural schools
Percent small rural districts
Percent rural students
Number of rural students
Percentage of state's overall education funds going to rural districts

 

 

Socioeconomic Challenges
Socioeconomic challenges, such as the percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price meals or the adult unemployment rate, present the most persistent threats to high levels of student achievement. Eight of the 13 states facing the worst rural socioeconomic challenges are located in the Southeast and Mid-South Delta (Mississippi, Louisiana, Souh Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Georgia). Other regions represented in the top 13 are Central Appalachia (Kentucky and West Virginia) and the Southwest (New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arizona).

 

Percentage of rural adults with high school diploma
Rural adult unemployment rate
Rural median household income
Percentage of rural families in poverty
Percentage of rural students eligible for free or reduced meals

 

 

Student Diversity
Public schools do not have a good track record in meeting the needs of diverse student populations. A great deal of diversity among rural students indicates both a challenge and an opportunity for a state to contribute to closing the many national achievement gaps. Four of the 12 states in which attention to rural student diversity is most crucial are located in the Southwest (Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas), and another four are in the Southeast (Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia). The remaining states are scattered in different regions: the Northwest (Oregon), the Midwest/Great Lakes (Illinois), and the Far West (California and Alaska).

 

Percent rural minority students
Number of rural minority students
Percent increase in rural minority students over a ten-year period
Percent rural English Language Learner (ELL) students
Percent rural Special Education (IEP) students

 

 

Policy Context
Characteristics of the public schooling system that are driven by policy decisions-such as instructional expenditures per pupil or the size of schools and districts-are often closely related to student achievement and overall student well-being. Four of the states in which the policy context is least conducive to rural educational achievement are located in the Southeast (Louisiana, Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi). Three others are all or partly in the Central Appalachian Region (Kentucky, Virginia, and Ohio). The remaining top 13 states are scattered across several regions: the Southwest (Arizona), the Midwest (Illinois and Missouri), the West (Utah and Idaho), and the Great Plains (North Dakota).

 

Ratio of instructional dollars to transportation dollars in rural districts
Rural instructional expenditures per pupil
Salary expenditures per instructional staff member (FTE) in rural districts
Median organizational scale among rural districts
Inequality in the combined state and local revenue per pupil among rural districts

 

Outcomes
Student academic achievement outcomes-such as performance on national assessments or schools' success in graduating students-illustrate the urgency with which policymakers should approach improving rural schools. Seven of the 13 states with the poorest educational outcomes are located in the Southeast and Mid-South Delta (Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana, Tennessee, and North Carolina). Two each are in the Southwest (Arizona and New Mexico), Central Appalachia (Kentucky and West Virginia), and the Far West (California and Hawaii).

 

Rural NAEP math score
Rural NAEP reading score
Rural high school graduation rate

 

 

Rural Education Priority
The states ranking the highest overall are located in quintessentially rural regions of the country: the Southeast (North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, and Georgia), the Mid-South Delta (Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana), the Southwest (Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas), and Central Appalachia (Kentucky). Oklahoma, which borders the Mid-South Delta and the Southwest, is also included. The lowest ranking states are mostly urban states on the East Coast and in the Great Lakes Region. No state scores at the top on all five indicators, but the four highest priority states (Mississippi, Alabama, Arizona, and North Carolina) score the highest on four of them.

 

The top priority states have challenging rural populations, few resources, and poor outcomes. States identified as the highest priority are ones whose rural schools face more substantial challenges than rural schools in other states, receive fewer resources than others, and produce less than others in terms of student educational outcomes. Poverty, fiscal incapacity, low levels of adult education, and low levels of student achievement run in the same mutually reinforcing circles in these states, many of which are as fiscally challenged as their citizens and schools.

 

Rural students in urban states are out of sight, out of mind. The states where rural education is most notably underperforming (that is, the state's performance ranks worse than its socioeconomic challenges would suggest it should) are predominantly non-rural states on the East or West coast where the rural population is "out of sight, out of mind," including, among others, California and Maryland.