Dean's Perspective
Dear Friends:
Many of the poorest children in America go to school in rural areas. Despite this, education researchers and policymakers tend to focus primarily on the problems faced by poor children attending urban schools. This past spring, HGSE hosted an Askwith Education Forum titled “Rural Education: Regional Challenges, Promising Solutions.” Several of our students and alumni, including panelist Rachel Tompkins, Ed.D.’75, a daughter of Appalachia who started her formal education in a oneroom schoolhouse, have been lone-wolf activists devoted to the plight of rural schools. Tompkins is typically the only rural education representative at the conferences and professional meetings that she attends as president of the nonprofit Rural School and Community Trust. Too often, she finds that her concerns are politely brushed aside.
Collegial disregard is not the only issue that Tompkins and others in the field of rural education struggle with, as you will read in this issue’s cover story, “Boon, Not Boondock.” Long commutes and other transportation problems are constant concerns, as low pay for teachers and the controversial trend toward consolidation. More recently, rural schools and school districts have experienced an influx of minority and immigrant students into pockets of the country that, for generations, have seen little ethnic, religious, or racial diversity, particularly among student bodies. Demographic changes have come at a time when, as the story’s author Elaine McArdle points out, overall enrollment in rural schools is growing. Between the years 2002 and 2005, rural school enrollment skyrocketed by more than 1.3 million students, or 15 percent — in sharp contrast to declining urban and suburban enrollments.
Given the increasing enrollment in rural schools, how can educators attract attention to the challenges these schools and students face? How can rural schools best adapt to growth and changing regional demographics? My hope is that this article will cause you to think about these questions and the many others faced by rural educators as we work towards solutions.
Sincerely,
August 2008
