News Archives (2011)

May

Reading Levels of Rural and Urban Third Graders Lag Behind Their Suburban Peers

This Carsey Institute brief examines the interplay of family, school, and place factors in the reading achievement levels of third grade students. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, the authors report that suburban children realize greater gains in reading achievement from kindergarten to Grade 3 than their rural or urban counterparts. Rural students who were struggling readers at the beginning of kindergarten have lower average reading achievement in third grade than both urban and suburban students when children of the same socioeconomic status are compared. The authors suggest that improved professional development opportunities for rural teachers may help narrow the differences in the third grade reading achievement of rural, urban, and suburban students who were struggling readers in kindergarten.  Access this brief here.

April

U.S. Secretary of Education Discusses Rural Fixes for NCLB

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s appeared April 1 on the Texas Equity Center’s weekly radio broadcast and podcast. Joined by Lauren Cook of the Equity Center and Don Rogers, Executive Director of the Texas Rural Education Association, Secretary Duncan discussed fixing the No Child Left Behind Act to provide better support for rural schools.  Link to the podcast of this discussion here.

March

Education in Chronically Poor Rural Areas Lags Across Generations

As part of the Community and Environment in Rural America (CERA) initiative, the Carsey Institute has been investigating broad trends between rural community types, including the education level of residents and their parents. Since 2007, Carsey researchers have conducted over 17,000 telephone surveys with randomly selected adult Americans from twelve diverse rural locations to ask about both their own and their parents’ educational attainment, as well as their perceptions of school quality in their communities. Survey results conclude that educational achievement varies significantly by type of place in rural America. In chronically poor rural areas, 45 percent of residents have completed only high school or less, compared with 22 to 33 percent in amenity-rich, amenity-transition, and declining resource-dependent rural areas. Although people from all types of rural communities generally have more education than their parents, those in chronically poor rural areas still have relatively low education levels — a disadvantage that persists across generations. This brief highlights the need to invest in the educational systems of chronically poor rural areas where generations of underinvestment have contributed to persistent poverty.  Access this Carsey Institute brief here.

CREC Director to Appear on American Entrepreneur Radio Series to Discuss Marcellus Shale Development

On Friday, March 4 from 3 to 5 PM, CREC Director, Kai Schafft, will appear on the American Entrepreneur radio series to discuss workforce development issues associated with the development of Marcellus Shale natural gas in Pennsylvania. Also appearing on the panel will be Pat McCune (Washington County Energy Partners), Danielle Boston (Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association), and Jim Hayes (Westmoreland County Community College).  This discussion will be part of a 12-part series concerning Marcellus Shale natural gas development and its economic (and other) impacts.  For more information go to the radio series website here.

February

New School Consolidation Study.

Policies that promote school consolidation are likely to do more harm than good, conclude the authors of a new policy brief published today by the National Education Policy Center (NEPC) at the University of Colorado at Boulder.  Consolidation of Schools and Districts: What the Research Says and What It Means, authored by Craig Howley, Jerry Johnson, and Jennifer Petrie of Ohio University, provides a comprehensive review and analysis of research literature on school consolidation. Access the report here.

New Study on Rural Food Deserts

Lack of access to food stores with healthy and affordable food is one of the central obstacles to eradicating hunger in America. Approximately 23.5 million Americans live more than a mile from a supermarket, which makes accessing healthy food more challenging. Among low income populations, especially those with young children and limited transportation, this distance can severely limit access to affordable and healthy foods. This Carsey Institute brief reports the challenges that eighteen rural New Hampshire mothers face to secure healthy, affordable, and quality foods and suggests ways to help address these challenges.
 

January

Spending and Staffing in Rural and Non-Rural Districts

A new study by the West Regional Educational Laboratory investigates differences in resource allocation between rural and nonrural districts.  The study finds that rural districts in the West Region spent more per student, hired more staff per 100 students, and had higher overhead ratios of district- to school-level resources than did city and suburban districts. Regional characteristics were more strongly related to resource allocation than were other cost factors studied.  For more information, click here.