Rural Education Task Force

One of the most informative pieces you can read about the U.S. Department of Education’s commitment to helping rural schools is in Appendix II of the Government Accountability’s report “No Child Left Behind Act: Additional Assistance and Research on Effective Strategies Would Help Small Rural Districts.” In the appendix, Deputy Secretary Eugene W. Hickok responds to the report by identifying the activities the department had undertaken to assist small rural school districts.

One small item in Secretary Hickok’s response is mention of the department’s rural education task force. I’ve heard rumors of a rural education task force but have never seen anything from it. I did a search of the department’s website to get some information.

First I found mention of it in a Department of Education press release from April 2, 2003. As part of another press conference, Secretary Rod Paige announced the “formation of a high-level task force within the Department to help identify challenges faced by states and school districts and to work with the caucus on finding solutions.”

Another mention of the rural education task force is on a page from the Office of the Deputy Secretary. It's essentially the same information but does add that “the efforts of the task force will include the challenges and opportunities facing rural education and the promising prospects made available through the effective use of state-of-the-art technology.”

The one accomplishment I can find is a virtual town-hall meeting on how rural schools can use technology to meet the requirement of the No Child Left Behind Act. Otherwise it seems that the principle activity of the rural education task force is to ask rural parents, educators and citizens to tell them about the challenges facing rural schools.

Not finding much information, I contacted the department to find out how I could learn more about the task force’s work. I was referred to the web page from the Office of Deputy Secretary that I had already found.

It’s been almost two years and the only tangible thing the Rural Education Task Force has accomplished is a virtual town hall meeting. The purpose of a task force is to accomplish a task! What are these guys doing? If you know, send me an email.