Rural Task Force July 2006 Meeting

Minutes from the July 17, 2006 meeting of the Secretary's Task Force on Rural Education have been posted on the Center for Rural Eduction section on the U.S. Department of Education's website. Of particular interest was a presentation by Phoebe Cottingham, Commissioner, Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences on the rural work of newly funded Regional Educational Laboratories. Dr. Cottingham reported that:

• Six of the startup Fast Response projects being conducted by the labs focus on rural education policy issues.

• Fourteen Fast Response projects have explicit analysis of rural education status or progress.

• Two major experimental tests of using virtual technology to improve middle school math teaching in rural schools.

• Six rigorous studies of state programs to improve science-math learning will include rural schools.

• About a third of the new work conducted by the labs is about rural education.

The next meeting of the Rural Education Task Force is scheduled for October 2006.