2005 Mr. Rural ED Awards

2005 was a pretty good year for rural schools. The U.S. Department of Education made significant efforts to better serve rural schools and one of its comprehensive centers sponsored an important rural education summit. There were also some very good rural education articles published. On the downside, the Regional Educational Laboratories continued to neglect their obligations to rural schools, but at least they’re consistent.

BEST COMEBACK
After a dismal 2004, the U.S. Department of Education made a good comeback undertaking significant efforts to improve educational outcomes for children and youth living in rural communities. The most important of these activities was the establishment of the Center for Rural Education within the Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE). William L. Smith, the last U.S. Commissioner of Education, was named director. Another significant development was that Bevo Gonzalez, Acting Assistant Secretary of OVAE is now chairing the Rural Education Task Force taking over from Tom Luna. These events signal a new focus at the department on rural education—something that has been sorely missed in recent years. Rather than take these events for granted, take a moment and send Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings a letter or email thanking her for the department’s efforts on behalf of rural children and communities. Tell her Mr. Rural ED says hey!

BEST FEDERALLY FUNDED RURAL EDUCATION MEETING
In 2005, the Region VII Comprehensive Center stepped up to the plate to sponsor the Rural School Improvement Summit. Housed at the University of Oklahoma, the Center brought together educators from a six states to examine significant issues facing rural schools and to develop action plans to address those issues. The event was the last big activity for rural schools under the former Comprehensive Center structure. The University of Oklahoma was successful in winning the competition for the new Mid-Continent Regional Comprehensive Center that will serve Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Hopefully, the new center will pickup where the old one left off in serving the needs of rural schools. Let's hope the other ones take note of their success and sponsor their own summits.

BEST RURAL EDUCATION RESEARCH ARTICLE
Nancy Jennings, Steve Swidler and Christopher Koliba get the nod for 2005 Best Rural Education Research Article for their article “Place-based Education in the Standards-based Reform Era—Conflict or Complement?” You may have missed it since it appeared in the American Journal of Education. Nancy, Steve and Christopher examined practitioner and policymaker views on placed-based education and standards-based education in Vermont, a state that includes two place-based standards in the state’s Framework of Standards. Their findings “challenge the common view of incompatibility between state standards and locally responsive curriculum.” Oh, oh, watch out for some backlash from the Rural-Cons who’ve made hay complaining that state standards push out locally responsive instruction.

BEST RURAL EDUCATION COMMENTARY
This year the name of this award could be the Shameless Self-Promotion Award since the best rural education commentary was my own “Rural Education: A New Perspective is Needed at the U.S. Department of Education.” The Journal of Research in Rural Education had never printed a commentary before, so I appreciate Ted Coladarci taking a chance on it. A key point of that commentary was that “it is time for the [U.S. Department of Education] … to back their stated commitment to rural schools with substantial and significant action that provides tangible benefits for rural Americans.” To their credit, the department has taken steps toward achieving that goal. (See Best Comeback Award). Past experience indicates, however, that the true measure of the department’s commitment to rural schools lies in its actions not its words.

BEST REGIONAL LAB PRODUCT
It was no contest for the winner of the Best Regional Educational Laboratory Product for rural schools: "How to Recruit and Retain Teachers and Other School Leaders in Hard-to-Staff Rural and Small School Districts" from SERVE. Hobart Harmon took a lead role in developing the guide that he co-authored with Charles Ahern and Jack Sanders. One small problem is that I can’t find a copy of the toolkit on the SERVE website, though it is listed on the Pulling Together R&D Resources for Rural Schools website. Nevertheless, it is the runaway winner of this years award mostly because there weren’t any other rural education products produced by the labs in 2005. I checked both the REL Network website and that of the Pulling Together and only found this one product. Evidently the $16.5 million the labs were supposed to spend on rural education products wasn’t enough to generate more than one product. We should all probably contact our congressional delegation to urge them to allocate more money for the labs to spend on rural education. Maybe if their funding for rural is doubled we might get a couple of more products. $83 million over five years doesn’t get as many products as one would think.

Curious Timing

On Friday (December 16) the U.S. Department of Education issued a press release announcing the creation of the Center for Rural Education and naming William L. Smith as its director. Some of you will remember that Dr. Smith was U.S. Commissioner of Education before the creation of the Department of Education.

What’s curious about the timing is that Dr. Smith had already been introduced as the director of the center, most notably at the National Rural Education Association Convention in November. Why did the Department issue a press release now?

My friends who believe in a vast urban/suburban conspiracy against rural schools may see the timing as an indication of the low priority that rural schools receive at the department. Those friends are thinking, “I guess it was a slow news day and they didn’t have anything else to report.”

Those who are politically inclined, or at least watch The West Wing, may see the timing as part of “take out the trash day.” For those of you who aren’t familiar with the term, Friday is “take out the trash day.” Since fewer people read the paper or watch the news on Saturday, Friday is the day the administration releases information they would rather people didn’t see or hear.

Another explanation is that it was announced at a meeting of the Council of Chief State School Officers by Beto Gonzalez, the acting assistant secretary for the Education Department's Office of Vocational and Adult Education. That an assistant secretary level official announced it to a meeting of chief state school officers trumps earlier announcements to groups that are perceived to have lower status.

The real news in the press release is the naming of an assistant secretary to head the Rural Education Task Force. In a previous post, Reforming the Rural Education Task Force, I called for naming a high-ranking Department of Education official to head the task force. Naming Beto Gonzalez to lead the group is a step in the right direction.

The creation of the Center for Rural Education and the selection of Dr. Smith to head it are indeed good news for rural children. Dr. Smith lead a department team that actively participated in the National Rural Education Convention in Tucson. I was greatly encouraged by what I saw of that group.

I am a little concerned that the new Rural Center is housed in the Office of Vocational and Adult Education because it suggests that rural school improvement should focus on vocational and adult education. That seems like a rather minor issue at this point.