Learning from Business

I'm a big believer in learning from the successes and failures of organizations whether they're public schools are other types of businesses. Today's lesson comes from WEASEL Corp.

About a year ago, an upper level manager at WEASEL Corp. decided to let the worker bees in her division decide an issue by voting. There were two perspectives on the issue and both sides presented their case.

After the vote, the WEASEL manager wanted everyone to agree that there wouldn't be any complaining about the decision since there was a vote. Those on the losing side objected since they knew problems would arise as a result of the decision.

Sure enough six months later there were complaints, but not from the opponents of the decision. The complaining came from the people who had voted for the decision and now had buyers remorse. Those who orginally opposed the decision weren't complaining because things turned out exactly how they expected.

One of the lessons learned from this story is that some people support a position in deferrence to authority at the peril of the organization. In this case, people voted for the option favored by the WEASEL manager because they didn't want to be seen as opposing management. Those types of people are dangerous for school administrators because they may not raise issues that turn out to be problems later on.

School administrators should surround themselves with people who will tell them when they're about to make a mistake. That's not to say that administrators have to always follow their advice. What it means is that administrators should gather information from diverse perspectives to base their decisions.

It takes a confident administrator to listen to those who disagree with them and then use their counsel to make decisions.

Emergency Preparedness

The shooting at Platte Canyon High School yesterday is a sobering reminder that rural schools are not immune from violence. One of the more troubling aspects of the incident is that it appears the killer didn't have any connection to the school.

This is a good time for school administrators to review their emergency preparedness. The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools has excellent resources to assist in that task including Practical Information on Crisis Planning: A Guide for Schools and Communities.

Teacher Recrutment & Support

Mark your calendars to attend my session Twenty Strategies for Hiring and Keeping Effective Teachers at the National Rural Education Association Convention in Kansas City on Tuesday, October 24 at 10 am. Hobart Harmon and I will be discussing strategies that schools are using to hire and keep effective teachers.

This session will go beyond the same old tired strategies that have been reported over and over again. Instead, our focus will be on strategies that aggressive recruiter districts use to find and keep good teachers. Our session won't be very helpful if you're looking for solutions that don't take any effort. But it will be worth your time if you're willing to put forth the energy needed to improve teacher quality and ultimately student outcomes.

To learn more visit the NREA website or contact Hobart or myself.

Football on the Great Plains

It's football season for high schools all across the country. In Colorado the new season provides fresh evidence of continued population loss on the Great Plains, and how rural schools and communities are adapting.

Writing for the Denver Post, Robert Sanchez tells the story of the newly combined Sedgwick County Cougars football team, which is in its first year as an athletic cooperative between Julesburg and Revere High Schools. Reaction to the new arrangement is understandably mixed.

A majority of school board members pushed for the agreement and got the backing of students and their parents.

Without the sports cooperative, they say the two school probably would have lost their football programs, driving yet another stake through the heart of rural America. ...

But allegiances die hard, and several longtime alumni from Julesburg and Revere see the freshly minted agreement as akin to kissing an ugly cousin. ...

"When you discard 100 years of history and tradition, it does get people's attention," Julesburg resident Jim Kontny wrote in a letter to the town's newspaper late last year.

It's hard for people who've never experienced rural schools first-hand to understand the importance of maintaining rural schools and all that comes with any sort of consolidation. For them the school mascot is the hardest animal to kill.

The effect of populations declines can also be seen in the change in distribution of Colorado's rural schools playing 11-man, 8-man, and 6-man football between 2005 and 2006.

1A 11-man (Colorado's smallest classification out of five)
2005: 40
2006: 36

8-man
2005: 38
2006: 49

6-man
2005: 20
2006: 22

Sedgwick County lost its first game 19-16 to Creek Valley High School (Nebraska), which is in it's third year as a consolidated school.

Linda Hall Leaving Center for Rural Education

Earlier today Linda Hall announced her departure as the Director of the Center for Rural Education. The announcement was made on the U.S. Department of Education's Rural Education listserv.

To ListServ subscribers:

Today marks my last day as the owner of the Rural Education listserv here in the Office of Vocational and Adult Education of the U. S. Department of Education. My assignment ends tomorrow and I will return to Federal Student Aid, another of the Department's operating units. Thank you for all of your comments as we established the Center for Rural Education. Richard LaPointe will assume the leadership role for the Center until the Director's position is filled.

Linda W. Hall

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.

Take Me Away

Sometimes it's easy to take for granted how fortunate we are to live in wonderful rural places. My high school classmate Cowboy Brad Fitch recorded a song that reminds me of that every time I hear it. Take Me Away was written by Brad's brother Doug and describes what it's like to live away from the mountains.

Here are the lyrics:

Not long ago, seems like yesterday, the mountains were my home, I thought I'd always stay
Summer days of blue, and nights of shining stars, lately I can't take the sight of city lights and cars

There were times before, times I'd wish away, up among the peaks, beside a glacial lake
Living in the sky makes it hard to leave 'cause the city's got me down, down where I can't breath

To purple mountains majesty even for a day, not so very far from here, just a world away

Looking out my door this is what I see, houses row by row, planned so expertly
But the wind and rock and snow are calling out to me, it's the summits that I know where I long to be

Take me away, far far away from here,take me away, bring me home, the mountains are my home
Far away from here, send me on my way, take me home

Eleanor Roosevelt on the first White House Conference on Rural Education

I ran across an interview with Eleanor Roosevelt in which mentions the first White House Conference on Rural Education that was held October 3-5, 1944. This I Believe About Rural Schools was originally published by Chari Ormand Williams in The Nation's Schools 45, no. 3 (March 1950): 31-36.

You were responsible for making possible the first White House Conference on Rural Education ever held. What do you think are some significant outcomes of this conference, which rural educators believe has charted the course of rural education in this country for the next 50 years?

There were a number of worthwhile outcomes: the reawakening of public interest in rural education; the organization of similar conferences on the state level; nine regional conferences on rural life and education held annually under the auspices of the department of rural education of the N.E.A.; organization of the National Conference of County and Rural Area Superintendents of Schools; the rapid increase in the reorganization of rural school districts in the last five years, and many others of equal importance, it seems to me.

Luna Wins Idaho Primary

A few weeks ago Mr. Rural ED reported that former Rural Education Task Force Director Tom Luna was running for Idaho State Superintendent. Although he has won the Republican primary, his record as the Executive Director of the U.S. Department of Education's Rural Education Task Force is starting to catch up with him.

The Ridenbaugh Press comments on Mr. Luna's tenure with the Rural Education Task Force:

Luna was a Bush Administration official from early in 2003 into 2005, and one online resume lists him as senior advisor to Secretary of Education Rod Paige, director of the White House Initiative on Tribal Colleges and Universities (2003-04) but primarily, apparently, he was executive director of the U.S. Rural Education Task Force. One might expect Luna to speak at length about these experiences; instead, they tend to get perfunctory mentions. Why?

Could it be because there’s not much to tell? Or because the telling might make for some uncomfortable juxtapositions?

An editorial in the Idaho Statesman puts Mr. Luna's candidacy into a larger perspective.

Luna wants to encourage next-generation charter schools for students who are struggling to learn English or falling behind in math and reading. Jones wants to go slower, to ensure the state can provide fledgling charter schools with the technical help and legal counsel they need.

Luna supports a dramatic tax shift favored by many Republican legislators — shifting the public schools' maintenance and operations levy from the property tax to the sales tax. [Democrat Janet] Jones worries that the schools would lose a stable source of money.

Luna opposes an Idaho Education Association-backed voter initiative to raise the sales tax by a penny, pumping $200 million into schools. Jones supports the initiative.

The initiative may be a boon to Jones, a relative unknown running against an experienced Republican candidate. Teachers and public school supporters may be galvanized by an Election Day twofer: voting for the initiative and voting against Luna.

Senator Kent Conrad on Rural Schools

This continues Mr. Rural ED's look at congressional perspectives on rural schools. The quote below is from North Dakota Senator Kent Conrad. Senator Conrad is a fifth generation North Dakotan and is the ranking member of the Budget Committee and as a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee. As the representative of one of the most rural states in the nation, Conrad also serves as a senior member of the Senate Agriculture Committee.

One of the most important education priorities for Senator Conrad is preserving the quality of education in North Dakota’s rural schools. Almost 80 percent of North Dakota school districts have 600 students or less. These are unique schools and the challenges for these districts are unique as well. Senator Conrad responded to these concerns by authoring legislation to create the Rural Education Achievement Program (REAP). This landmark, bipartisan legislation was enacted in 1999. Under the REAP program, many small, rural school districts are entitled to consolidate funding from certain federal education programs to make more efficient use of the funds. Senator Conrad's legislation is critical to giving rural schools the flexibility to use federal education funding wisely. The school districts are also eligible for grant assistance that may be used to improve student achievement or provide professional development for teachers.

In the first three years of the REAP program, more than 120 North Dakota school districts received $4 million in funding. Senator Conrad will continue to fight for adequate funding for this critical rural education program.

Rural Education Dissertation Award

The National Rural Education Association is soliciting applications for the Edward W. Chance Memorial Rural Education Dissertation Award. The award recognizes doctoral research that makes a significant contribution to rural education and addresses issues of current concern. The winner of the award will be invited to present the results at the 98th Annual NREA Convention in Kansas City, Missouri, on October 23-25, 2006. The award includes a $500 stipend. The due date for applications is June 15, 2006. For more information contact Executive Director Bob Mooneyham.

Whatever Happened to Tom Luna?

A few of us have been wondering about whatever happened to Tom Luna. Some of you will remember him as the Director of the U.S. Department of Education's Rural Education Task Force. Word out of Idaho is that Tom is running for State Superintendent in Idaho and touting his accomplishments at the U.S. Department of Education. You can learn all about them at his website.

Brzezinski Rural Education Research Award

The National Rural Education Association is seeking applications for the Stanley A. Brzezinski Memorial Rural Education Research Award. Deadline for applications is June 15, 2006. The award includes a $500 stipend. Contact Executive Director Bob Mooneyham for more information.

In order to recognize outstanding, high quality research in the field of rural education, the National Rural Education Association sponsors the Stanley A. Brzezinski Memorial Rural Education Research Award. This award, funded by the Brzezinski Family, will be awarded for education research which addresses significant rural issues and makes notable contributions to the knowledge base of rural education. Research addressing rural education issues is paramount to the selection process. All rural education researchers are eligible for the award. The research could include, but not be limited to, issues of rural school efficiency and effectiveness, financing rural schools, rural poverty, the rural economy, student/rural community expectations, understanding the diversity of rural administrators, or
alternative instructional and organizational patterns for rural education. The research project judged most meritorious will receive the award and the author will be recognized at the 98th Annual NREA Convention in Kansas City, Missouri, on October 23-25, 2006.

Putting Rural Education Issues in Perspective

One way to put the issues facing rural schools into perspective is to look at what's happening with rural health care. A report in today's Denver Post paints a disheartening picture of health care for some of Colorado's rural communities.

Staff writer Karen Auge describes the situation where three Colorado counties have no full-time physician, and eight have only one.

In Crowley County in southeastern Colorado, people die in traffic accidents at a per-capita rate nearly four times that of Denver residents, according to the Colorado Health Institute.

In Baca County in southeastern Colorado, people died of diabetes at more than twice the statewide rate in 2004.

In Gunnison County on the Western Slope, 18.5 out of every 1,000 babies born in 2004 died before their first birthday. That's nearly triple the statewide rate - and higher than that of Sri Lanka and Uruguay.

Health insurance is also a problem for rural Americans.

Most people in Brush (Colorado) work. The county's 4.9 percent unemployment rate is lower than the state average of 5.5 percent.

But they earn less. The median income in Brush is $31,000 - a third less than the typical Colorado household.

And, like rural residents everywhere, people in Brush are less likely to have health insurance.

In Morgan County, 20 percent of the population had no health insurance in 2003 - the state average was 15 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

In seven rural counties, the number of uninsured is nearly 30 percent, the Colorado Health Institute says.

Putting the challenges facing rural schools in the context of the rural health care crises should give us pause. There aren't any rural counties in Colorado that don't have licensed teachers and they don't have to face life and death situations everyday. That said, rural schools should be part of the solution to rural health care problem.

Senator Burns on Montana's Rural Schools

Mr. Rural ED's series on congressional perspectives on rural schools continues with comments from Senator Conrad Burns (R-Montana).

One of the greatest challenges we have is to revolutionize education in rural areas such as Montana, where current technological capabilities may be lacking. There is nothing more important to me than making sure our kids have the education they need to get ahead in today’s competitive world. I have always championed programs such as E-Rate, which ensure that our schools have access to up-to-date technology.

While I understand the importance of ensuring that America’s young people have a strong educational foundation, I am aware that when the No Child Left Behind Act is applied to rural schools, it is not a perfect law. I have spoken with many educators around Montana and heard their concerns about Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) requirements, Highly Qualified Teacher (HQT) requirements, the assessment of special education students, and finally, funding issues.

I have always said that if the federal government is going to continue setting requirements and educational standards, we have to be prepared to adequately fund those rules so states like Montana can meet those challenges and continue to support the teachers and the students. Rules that make sense in New York or California are often cumbersome and expensive for rural states like Montana. As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I have worked hard to secure funds for a variety of critical education programs. However, funding cannot be our only focus. Presently, I am working with the Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and Montana’s education community to improve various aspects of NCLB. It is imperative that local schools are granted more flexibility in deciding the educational needs of Montana’s students.

Secure Rural Schools and Community Self Determination Act

Should the federal government sell off land to support rural schools? That's the issue behind legislation co-sponsored by U.S. Senators Max Baucus (D-Montana) and Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) to fund the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self Determination Act without selling public lands.

The bill will raise $2.6 billion over the next ten years for the rural schools program, commonly known as the county payments law, by closing a tax loophole that allows some government contractors to avoid their tax obligations. In 2005, Wyden, along with Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) and Baucus, introduced a bill to reauthorize the county payments law for another seven years. The original law is due to expire at the end of this year.

The bill is in response to the Bush Administration's proposal to sell as many as 300,000 acres of Forest Service lands to raise about $800 million for the program. The legislation would provide a steady revenue stream for the county payments law by closing a tax loophole in Federal contracts. Under current law, the Federal government does not withhold taxes owed from government contractors that provide goods and services to the Federal government. As a result, some contractors don’t comply with Federal tax law.

“Our bill will fully fund the rural schools program without selling even one acre of our prized public lands,” said Baucus, the highest-ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over tax policy. “Our public lands shouldn’t be put up for sale to the highest bidder. The Administration challenged congress to find a way to fund this program -- Ron and I just did.”

“Rural communities throughout the country rely on these payments for top quality schools and infrastructure year in and year out,” said Wyden. “We cannot abandon them, and this legislation finds a fiscally responsible way of extending this successful law.”

The county payments law, first enacted in 2000, established a six-year payment formula for counties that receive revenue sharing payments for the USFS and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands. Based on historical timber receipts, the formula established a stable source of revenue to be used for education, roads and various other county services in rural areas.

Senator Baucus, along with Senator Ken Salazar (D-Colorado), was one of the first members of Congress to condemn the land sales proposal.

Rural Students & Reading

Rural 12th grade students who were eligible for free and reduced priced lunches scored higher on the 2003 NAEP Reading Assessment than did those from central cities and urban fringes. Ok, rural students scored only 1 point higher than urban students, but it was 9 points higher than city students. This is good news for rural students and those who believe rural schools have inherent strengths.

The bad news is that rural students as a group scored the same as city students but were 5 points below their urban fringe counterparts. The moral of the story is that rural schools can do great things but there is room for improvement.

Click on the thumbnail below to see the full-size table.

NREA Mini Grant Program

This just in from the National Rural Education Association home office in Norman, Oklahoma:

Please be reminded the deadline to make application for the 2006-2007 NREA Mini Grant Program is May 1, 2006. The NREA Mini Grant Program is sponsored by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. The generous contribution made by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association funds ten NREA Mini Grants for rural school districts served by rural electric cooperatives.

NREA CARES Award

This announcement is from the National Rural Education Association.

Great American Financial Resources Incorporated has entered into a partnership with the NREA to sponsor the NREA CARES Award. This award will be presented to a rural school district in recognition of outstanding effort to build strong ties between the school district and the community it serves.

The $5000 award will be presented to a NREA School District Member at the 98th Annual Convention in Kansas City on October 23, 2006.

The receiving school district must be a NREA School District Member.

Senator Baucus on Rural Education

Max Baucus (D-Montana) is one of the few U.S. Senators who has something specifically to say on his website about rural schools:

Rural Education: I'm very proud of Montana's schools, and I've always worked to ensure that all of our schools receive the funding and assistance they need in order to provide a high quality education for our kids. I've been especially vocal about the unique needs of our rural schools during my time in the Senate. I pushed for the creation of the Rural Education Achievement Program to provide additional federal funds to rural schools, and I'm currently fighting to expand funding for the program to assist rural schools even more. In addition, I joined Senators Enzi and Conrad in forming a new Senate Rural Education Caucus in January 2003, and we are working hard to highlight the needs as well as the strengths of America's rural schools.

Local Control

One value that seems to be common among rural educators is the belief in the local control of schools. I'm not quite sure what that means in practice, particularly given the plethora of federal and state education mandates.

Senator Wayne Allard, Republican of Colorado, is clear about his position on local control:

It is important that education remain locally controlled. Those closest to the students are in the best position to know their educational needs. Parents and school boards should be able to tailor educational curriculum to local needs. Federal financial support should not encumber local programs with federal mandates. After all, the children of today are the leaders of tomorrow and it is essential that we prepare them for what lies ahead. We must continue to search for ways to make a good system of education even better. more

Of particular note is the senator's position that parents and school boards are responsible for school curriuculum. The idea that parents have a role in curriculum decisions will come as news to many parents and educators.

The Broad Prize for Urban Education

The Broad Foundation has announced that five urban school districts are finalists for the 2006 Broad Prize for Urban Education, an annual $1 million prize given to urban school districts that have made the greatest increases in student achievement.

The five finalists are:
Boston Public Schools
Bridgeport Public Schools, Conn.
Jersey City School District, N.J.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools
New York City Department of Education

The Broad Prize honors the nation's urban school districts that improve student achievement while reducing achievement gaps among ethnic groups and between high- and low-income students. The winning district will receive $500,000 in scholarships for graduating seniors. Each finalist district will receive $125,000 in scholarships. The winner will be announced on Sept. 19 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Congratulations to everyone in those districts for their accomplishments and to the Broad Foundation for undertaking the program.

What does this have to do with rural education? Simply that there's isn't a rural equivalent to the Broad Prize. Why? I'm not sure, but it doesn't help to whine about it. Perhaps it's because no one has taken the initiative to find a foundation willing to take it on. Anybody want to take a stab at it?

A Big Eastern Syndicate

It was Lucy in A Charlie Brown Christmas who spilled the beans that Christmas was actually run by a big eastern syndicate. It's starting to look like rural education is too.

A case in point is the upcoming revision of The Condition of Education in Rural Schools by the U.S. Department of Education. Rumors are that the authors of the different sections are all from the east coast with the exception of Bob Newhouse from Kansas State University. Is there nobody from west of Kansas who could have been a contributor on the project?

It's been about 12 years since the USDE published The Condition of Education in Rural Schools edited by Joyce Stern. The original report was a comprehensive look at the state of education in rural communities and is considered an important resource. The report covers the years 1980 to 1990 and is really outdated. About 5 years ago there were discussions about updating the report but USDE officials decided instead to develop a website using data from the National Center for Education Statistics. NCES has done a commendable job of keeping up-to-date data and information on the Navigating Resources for Rural Schools site.

The updating of The Condition of Education in Rural Schools is an important event for rural education. Of concern is that the only perspective represented in the report will be that of the eastern Rural-Cons. The incredible diversity of rural places is one of the challenges facing anyone attempting to do a national rural education report. Honoring that diversity should be a goal of the USDE.

Rural School Grant Writing Myths

The Top 5 Grant Writing Myths from Education Strategy Group's Grant Writing for Rural Schools and Communities Workshop

1. Rural schools can't get grants.
Lots of rural schools get grants and there are some grants that are specifically for rural schools and communities.

2. Grant writing is difficult.
Grant writing takes skill and like any skill takes practice and effort.

3. Grants always go to the projects that have the greatest needs.
Having a need is only part of what funders are looking for in a proposal. You also have to have a sound plan for addressing those needs.

4. Collaborating with others to write a grant will save time.
Collaborating with others to prepare a grant actually takes more time because there has to be coordination among the partners.

5. A well-written proposal will get funded every time.
Having a well-written is important, but it's absolutely critical that the proposal match the criteria for funding.

To learn more about the Grant Writing for Rural Schools and Community workshop contact Michael Arnold 720-641-3934 or Hobart Harmon 540-901-9932.

High Speed Internet Access

High speed internet access is no longer a luxury for rural communities wanting to participate in the knowledge economy. Voters in Timnath, Colorado have voted to offer free wireless internet to all 223 residents. A farming community between Ft. Collins and Windsor, Timnath lies in the path of impending growth that is being seen alll along the I-25 corridor in Colorado. An article in today's Denver Post reports Mayor Donna Benson hopes the free service will create economic growth that will eventually pay for the service.

Residents and businesses in Eads, Colorado, a town of 850 located in southeast Colorado also have access to wireless internet through Plains Network Services. Owner Jeanne Sorenson saw a need for the service and people have responsed. For those unfamiliar with Colorado it's worth noting that Ead's situation is diffenent from Timnath in that it's not in a high growth area.

As more rural communities get wireless access the opportunities increase for rural Americans to participate in the Knowledge Economy. Economic sustainability for many communities will require people with education levels higher than ever before. Rural schools should consider these new opportunities in thinking about their instructional programs.

Immigration Issues in Rural America

Immigration has been a hot issue in the news. Denver Post columnist Ed Quillen offers a perspective from rural Colorado. Among the issues, are language and cultural differences and the effects these new immigrants have on the local schools and economy.

Before going any further I should point out that Mr. Quillen is refering to the problem of suburban immigration to rural America. Some excerpts:

Language Differences

For one thing, there are language problems. They do not speak as we do. Few of them know a "widowmaker jack" from a "come-along," or even a "mule" from a "burro. If you refer to "my beater," they think you're talking about a kitchen tool rather than your vehicle. And when they speak, we have trouble understanding that a "BlackBerry" is an electronic device rather than something to eat.

Food Differences

It used to be simple to order "meat and potatoes" as in "burger and fries" or "sausage and hash browns" or "sirloin and baked." Now those items are a small portion of the menu if they're there at all. The immigrants have encouraged our eateries to offer organic muffins for breakfast, garden-fresh salads for lunch and braised boneless free-range skinless chicken breasts for dinner. Immigration has made it hard to find real food here, because these people insist on keeping their bizarre culture after moving to our country.

Economic Effects

My plumber recently explained that he was getting out of the repair end of the business. "I can work on clean, new construction for $50 an hour," he explained, "or crawl around in the cramped grungy cellars in the old part of town for half that. Which would you rather do?" Thus do the immigrants burden the local economy, by forcing long-time residents to pay more not just for plumbers, but also for carpenters, glaziers, masons, roofers, electricians, auto mechanics and computer technicians.

Most rural communities have to decide between two types of death. One caused by an out-migration and another caused by the in-migration of suburbanites. It's hard to say which choice is better.

NCES Locale Code Revision

The National Center for Education Statistics has released its revised 8-category locale code classification system. The new system incorporates changes in the Office of Management and Budget’s definition of “rural” that were adopted for the 2000 Decennial Census. At first glance this new classification scheme appears to be an improvement.

Locale codes are measures of a school’s location relative to populous areas. Every U.S. school is identified into one 8 categories that range from large city to rural. The new urban-centric locale codes follow the same logic as the original locale code system, but prioritize population size and distance from an urbanized area. They include four basic categories (city, suburban, town, rural) each of which is subdivided by either size or distance from an urbanized area.

Users can download a new file that includes geocoding information for 100,593 public schools reported on the Common Core of Data School Universe Survey for the 2003-04 school year. The information includes the NCES school identification code; latitude and longitude of the reported address; and two locale codes. I've never seen anyone make use of the latitude and longitude data so I'm hoping someone will figure out a project soon.

Charateristics of Rural School Districts

A new report from the National Center for Education Statistics introduces data from the fifth administration of the School and Staffing Survey (SASS). It is the most extensive sample survey of teachers and administrators in the U.S. Characteristics of Schools, Districts, Teachers, Principals, and School Libraries in the United States: 2003-04 Schools and Staffing Survey has 47 data tables, all of which break out statistics on rural/small town districts. The report includes a relatively small number of findings regarding rural/small town districts that are are included below. The most interesting finding is that a higher percent of rural/small town principals have teaching responsibilities in comparison to their non-rural counterparts.

Extended-day Programs

Forty-seven percent of public schools reported having extended-day programs providing instruction beyond the normal school day for students who needed academic assistance. Public schools located in central city locations were more likely to have this program (58 percent) than schools located in urban fringe/large towns (42 percent) or rural/small towns (45 percent). p. 3

Temporary Buildings

Thirty-two percent of public schools reported having one or more temporary buildings, and 9 percent of public schools reported an enrollment that exceeded the capacity of their permanent and temporary buildings. Public schools in rural areas were less likely to have temporary buildings (21 percent) than schools in urban fringe/large towns (34 percent) or central city locations (38 percent). The percentage of schools having temporary buildings in urban fringe/large towns was measurably different from the percentage of schools in central city locations. p.4

Teacher Experience

Eighteen percent of public school teachers had 3 or fewer years of full-time teaching experience, and 82 percent reported having 4 or more years of full-time teaching experience. Among public schools, there was a smaller percentage of teachers with 3 or fewer years of full-time teaching experience in rural/small town communities (15 percent) than the percentage of teachers with 3 or fewer years experience teaching in central cities (20 percent). There was no measurable difference between the percentage of teachers with 3 or fewer years experience teaching in urban fringe/large towns (18 percent) compared to central city or rural/small town communities. p.4

Principals with Teaching Duties

Twenty-eight percent of public school principals were currently teaching in addition to serving as principal. Principals of public schools located in rural/small town locations were more likely to be teaching in addition to serving as principal (38 percent), compared to principals of public schools in urban fringe/large town (22 percent) or central city locations (16 percent). There was no measurable difference in the percentage of principals who were teaching in public schools in urban fringe/large towns as compared to principals of public schools in central city locations. p.5

REL Contracts Announced

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Education issued a press release announcing that the department had awarded new 5-year contracts to 10 Regional Educational Laboratories. There is some information in the announcement that I didn't have when I posted Four Labs Flip on Tuesday.

The comments of Institute of Education Sciences Grover J. (Russ) Whitehurst are of interest. He noted that the labs "provide a critical link between research and practice." He added, "I'm pleased with the quality of the 10 organizations that have won the competition. We look forward to a very productive relationship as we work to meet the research needs of those engaged in improving the effectiveness of education."

The other piece of information is the total amount of each contract for the next five years. To get a sense of how much research the labs are supposed to do on issues affecting rural schools use the following calculation. (1) Add up the contract amounts for all the labs. (2) Multiple the sum by 25% since IES is required to make sure that a quarter of the labs work focuse on issues affecting rural communities. (3) Divide the product by 5 to get the amount the ten labs collectively are supposed to allocate toward rural issues each year. Could someone with a calculator post the answer for us?

AERA Rural Education SIG Sessions

The Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association is being held April 7 - 11 in San Francisco. The sessions sponsored by the Rural Education Special Interest Group are listed below. Users can do an online search of the program to find additional rural education sessions. Check the program for the most up to date information.

Saturday, April 8, 9:05am - 9:45am
Paper Discussion Session
Rural Education SIG
Moscone Center West / 3rd Floor
Rountable 24
Abstract: These papers center on the roleof identity formation in students' ways of life and interpretation of their learning world.

Session Participants:
Chair: David M. Callejo-Perez (West Virginia University)
Discussant: Kalie R. Kossar (West Virginia University)

Gender, Family Help, and Homework Management Reported by Rural Middle-School Students. Jianzhong Xu (Mississippi State University), Lyn Corno (Teachers College, Columbia University)

Patterns of Adjustment During the Transition From Middle to High School in Rural African-American Youth. Dylan Robertson (Center for Developmental Science), Tom Farmer (The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill), Matthew J. Irvin (The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill), Jana Thompson (Center for Developmental Science)

Spatial and Sociodemographic Patterns of Student Mobility. Kai A. Schafft (The Pennsylvania State University)

Student-Led Rural Community Dialogues: Discovering and Reinventing Students’ Place.
Matthew C. Calvert (University of Wisconsin-Extension), Cynthia Taines (University of Wisconsin - Madison)

The Mystery of Size: School-District Size, Curriculum Offerings, and Student Achievement in Rural Pennsylvania. Yi Gong (Keene State College), Wenfan Yan (Indiana University of Pennsylvania)

Full Circle: A Case Study of the Consolidation, Closing, Restoration, and Reopening of Barnardsville Elementary School. Gail D. Buckner (Western Carolina University), Mary Jean R. Herzog (Western Carolina University)

An Inquiry Into Achievement Differences: Traditional and Virtual High-School Courses.
Dennis M. Mulcahy (Memorial University of Newfoundland), Michael Kristopher Barbour (The University of Georgia)

Monday, April 10, 8:15am - 10:15am
Research on Rural Education: Multiple Perspectives in the United States and Abroad
Rural Education SIG
Moscone Center South / Mezzanine Level East, Room 222
Abstract: This session combines papers dealing with research on rural education in the US and abroad; creating possibilities for comparative studies in education.

Session Participants:
Chair: Edmund T. Hamann (University of Nebraska)
Discussant: Aimee A. Howley (Ohio University)

Analysis of Distance Education Use in Rural Schools. Wallace Hannum (The University of North Carolina), Tom Farmer (The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill), William R. Veal (College of Charleston), Jim Barber (The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill), Jonathan Banks (The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill), Michelle Sylva (The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill)

Mix and Match or Mismatch: High-Ability Students and Rural Schools in an Australian Context. Margaret M. Plunkett (Monash University-Gippsland), Monique Y. Osborn (Monash University)

School of the Air in Australia: From Radio to Satellite. Stephen J. Crump (University of Newcastle)

School Size and the “Power Rating” of Poverty: Substantive Finding or Statistical Artifact? Theodore Coladarci (The University of Maine)

The Influence of Rurality on Teachers' Perceptions of Their Status in English Elementary Schools. Linda M. Hargreaves (Cambridge University), Anthony Pell (Leicester University)

Monday, April 10: 4:05pm - 6:05pm
Rural Education: Rethinking the Possibilities Remove from My Schedule
SIG-Rural Education
Moscone Center South / Mezzanine Level East, Room 224
Abstract: This paper session seeks to expand research about rural education by examining issues and problems (diversity and gender identity) not usually associated with rural communities.

Session Participants:
Chair: Shana Pate (North Texas State University)
Discussant: Sharon L. Spall (Western Kentucky University)

What Can I Learn From Rural Black Family Pedagogy? Sherick A. Hughes (The University of Toledo)

Saving the Children of the Poor in Rural Schools. Aimee A. Howley (Ohio University), Caitlin Howley (AEL, Inc.), Craig B. Howley (Ohio University)

The Development of Secondary-School/Community Partnerships for a College-Going Culture in Diverse, Rural Schools: What Matters? Betty Alford (Stephen F. Austin State University), Peggy B. Gill (The University of Texas at Tyler)

What Makes Effective Rural School Teachers? Andrea M. Lachance (The State University of New York-Cortland)

Teacher Resources in High-Need Rural Schools in Texas. Debra H. Jones (Southwest Educational Development Laboratory), Celeste Alexander (Southwest Educational Development Laboratory), Michael Vaden-Kiernan (Southwest Educational Development Laboratory), Zena H. Rudo (Southwest Educational Development Laboratory)

State Funding for Out-of-State Rural Students

By Rural School Blogger (AKA Stephen Bohrer)

I understand from talking to Paula Stephenson, director of the Colorado Rural Schools Caucus, that an amendment to the Colorado school finance bill that passed out of the Colorado House of Representatives may have begun as a way to close a charter school in northwest Colorado that was predominately composed of students from Utah. One thing led to another, and we have a bill that if passed would make districts ineligible to receive state aid for students from adjoining states.

I understand there are 172 students from adjoining states attending Colorado schools. Colorado probably has as many students attending schools across the state line as come into the state. Does anyone know how many Colorado kids attend out of state? Does the legislature want to start a school finance war with other states that are educating Colorado students? School districts touching Colorado borders are all rural and small. Would we even have to talk about this if Denver touched a border of another state?

Rural schools throughout the country are experiencing declining enrollment and now someone has decided it is not fair for Colorado taxpayers to educate students from other states, regardless of how close they may live to our schools or perceive the quality of our programs. I thought we were here to educate all Americans. Many of our most ardent bashers talk of choice as if that alone were sufficient to provide an adequate education. Now the same party talking choice wants to deny students from Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Kansas from expressing their choice by enrolling in Colorado schools.

For a specific example, Peetz is 2.5 miles south of the Nebraska border. The school there enrolls 32 Nebraska students out of a total student count of 120. My district, Holyoke, has nine Nebraska students attending our district of 600 students. We could survive the loss of $56,000 that the students represent, but what will Peetz do by August when they stand to lose 26% of their students, and budget?

How might this apply to students living in an adjoining state, but in a district that does not adjoin the Colorado district? How would this apply to foreign exchange students? How would this apply to dual home families (Celebrities or CEOs) whose child spends part of the year (October 1 “count day” for instance) in Colorado, but the rest of the year in another state, adjoining or not?

On March 3, 2006, Senator Ken Salazar (D-Colorado) gave the Keynote Address at the National Farmers Union Convention in Colorado. It was a good speech in that the Senator talked candidly about the challenges facing rural America, the obstacles to addressing them, and how the federal government should respond. It does not appear the state legislators are hearing his message. This anti-rural school amendment to the school finance act is mean spirited and tasteless. Perhaps the senator can bring his bully pulpit to the Colorado State Capital and teach those elected to represent us that rural schools count too.

Mr. Rural ED has Moved

Mr. Rural ED has moved to a new weblog service. The new service is more powerful allowing for multiple authors and more flexibility in design. The new site also allows users to subscribe to an RSS news feed of the blog. Visit the new home of Mr. Rural ED at http://mrruraled.typepad.com/

Four Labs Flip

The U.S. Department of Education has annouced that four of the ten regional educational laboratories have been awarded to new organizations. The RELs constitute the largest investment by the federal government into rural education research.

The new lab contract holders are:

The CNA Corporation replaces Edvantia—formerly AEL (Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia).

Education Development Center, Inc replaces Laboratory at Brown (LAB) (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Puerto Rico, and Virgin Islands).

Edvance Research, Inc replaces Southwest Education Development Laboratory (Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas).

The Pennsylvania State University replaces Laboratory for Student Success (Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Washington, DC).

Labs successfully defending their contracts are:

Learning Point Associates serving Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning serving Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming.

Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory serving Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington.

Pacific Resources for Education and Learning serving American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia (Chuuk, Kosrae, Pohnpei, and Yap), Guam, Hawaii, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau).

University of North Carolina at Greensboro serving Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

WestEd serving Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah.

The Regional Educational Laboratory program is located in the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences.

Navigating Resources for Rural Schools

I hadn't been there for awhile, so I was surprised to see a new look for the U.S. Department of Education's Navigating Resources for Rural Schools site. It's a definite improvement over the look of the old site, which included a lot of stock photographs that had been used in other online and print publications.

At first glance it doesn't seem like there's much data on the site. Then again, is there ever enough? It seems like I can never find the exact information I'm looking for in the tables generaqted by the National Center on Education Statistics. Actually, there is a fair amount information available on the site and I could always get the data and make my own tables.

One downside is that some of the data is old. For example, the data posted on student achievement in civics on the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) is from 1998. My sense is that NCES is overflowing with data that could be used to generate information on rural schools. Should we expect NCES to do all the work and have all the fun? I don't think so.

Creating a rural education databank would be a nice project for an organization wanting to support rural education research. Anybody interested?

NREA Research Symposium

This notice came in from Bob Mooneyham, Executive Director of the National Rural Education Association.
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The National Rural Education Association will host the NREA Research Symposium on October 21-22, 2006, at the Westin Crown Center Hotel, Kansas City, Missouri. The NREA Research Symposium will precede the 98th Annual NREA Convention, which is scheduled on October 23-25, 2006. Registration for the NREA Research Symposium will be $150, unless you register for the NREA Convention. Registration for the 98th Annual NREA Convention provides a free registration for the NREA Research Symposium.

You are invited to submit a proposal to present at the NREA Research Symposium. All proposed manuscripts will be peer reviewed based on a uniform rubric.

The NREA Executive Committee has established a $500 award for the Best Research Paper. The award will be presented to the author of the paper that is judged to be the Best Research Paper. The award will be presented at the Symposium and the recipient of the award will present the Best Research Paper during the Research Symposium.
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Go to http://www.nrea.net/NREA%20Annual%20Convention.htm for more information about the Research Forum and the NREA Convention.

Rural Middle School Student Homework Management

A recently article from "The Journal of Research in Rural Education" makes the a contribution to our understanding of differences between rural and nonrural students. Authors Janzhong Xu and Lyn Corno examine homework management by middle schools students. I'm not too crazy about the definition they use for rural, but it follows standard conventions. They note that using data from only one school limits the generalizability of their findings.

Differences identified by Xu and Corno include:

"Urban students reported taking significantly more initiative in time management, focusing attention, and monitoring motivation than they did in arranging their environment or in controlling their emotions."

"Rural students ... reported taking significantly more initiative in arranging their homework environment, managing time, and focusing attention than they did in monitoring motivation or in controlling their emotions."

"Urban students took significantly less initiative in arranging their environment, while rural students took significantly less initiative in monitoring their motivation."

Xu and Corno also provide plausible explanations for the differences. You can read about them at http://www.umaine.edu/jrre/21-2.htm

Senator Salazar on Rural America

On March 3, 2006, Senator Ken Salazar (D-Colorado) gave the Keynote Address at the National Farmers Union Convention in Colorado. It was a good speech in that the Senator talked candidly about the challenges facing rural America, the obstacles to addressing them, and how the federal government should respond.

In the interest of full disclosure, I worked as a canvasser on Senator Salazar's campaign. I also tend to like him since he attended The University of Michigan Law School.

The full text of Senator Salazar’s speech is available at http://salazar.senate.gov/news/speeches/060303farmunion.html
Here are some excerpts.
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Often times, I have heard rural America described as the heartbeat of our great nation. As Colorado’s United States Senator, I am proud of my values and roots in rural Colorado, and I believe in that description. I also believe that rural America has the potential to be the heartbeat of our nation’s economy.

For years, our rural communities have produced the affordable food that feed American families. Rural Americans have been the stewards of the land for our future generations.

Time after time, the young men and women of our rural communities have proudly answered the call to service and have defended our country as members of our armed services.

In fact, a recent article in the Denver Post, wrote about a study that shows rural communities in Colorado, and across the U.S., are producing the vast majority of our new military recruits. For example, rural Jackson County, in northwest Colorado, has the second-highest recruitment rate in the country.

For years, our rural communities have embodied that democratic spirit on which our great nation was founded and, today, they continue that tradition.

Today, our rural communities are at a turning point. While they continue their great legacy, they are also emerging as reservoirs of vast potential to drive America toward a viable twenty-first century economy and meaningful national security.
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But we have obstacles to overcome. My friends, the evidence suggests that the current Administration does not share this vision of a thriving rural America. Over the past few years rural communities have carried the burden of budget cuts for the entire federal budget.

Amazingly, while agriculture accounts for less than 1% of the total budget, 25% of the proposed mandatory cuts for the next fiscal year alone will come from programs serving our rural communities. We have to keep our fiscal house in order and balance our budget - but not on the backs of the men and women of rural America.
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It’s not enough for the Administration to say it shares our values; it has to truly believe in those values if we are to make the difference we know we can make.

This Administration should not feel like investment in our communities is fiscally irresponsible spending or charity. Rural America should not be thought of, talked about, and invested in as a way for politicians to get votes. It should be a driver for our economy and certainly not an afterthought.

I want our government to be long-term partners with rural America, to share the vision of a thriving, innovative network of rural communities across this Nation acting as a driving force for our national prosperity and our national security. Failure to invest in the future of rural America is a terrible missed opportunity.

Education Service Agencies Supporting Rural Schools

An article in the March 2006 issue of "The School Administrator" describes the ways intermediate school districts are providing support to rural districts. Author Hobart Harmon uses examples from across the country to the value of educational service units. Some examples:

"Heywood Cordy, superintendent in Jenkins County, Ga., relies on the Teacher Alternative Preparation program offered by the Central Savannah River Area Regional Educational Service Agency. His district hired seven teachers who completed the RESA program in the past year. 'The bottom line is without the RESA pool of teaching candidates our students would have a sub in the classroom, rather than a high-quality, full-time teacher,' Cordy says."
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"As superintendent of the 715-student Northeast Community School District in Goose Lake, Iowa, Jim Cox relies on the Mississippi Bend Area Education Agency to adequately serve students with disabilities. The service agency has the capacity to hire high-caliber educators to serve on a regional basis. Cox finds the agency also does an excellent job in keeping school district personnel informed of new regulations and the latest research regarding special education services and issues."
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"In Washington state, Educational Service District 112 makes available an NCLB Communication Toolkit to its 30 school districts. It includes sample letters, forms, news releases and Q&A sheets to help educators talk easily and accurately with parents and community members about the law. 'It is one of many resources available from ESD 112 that saves us time and money,' says Jim Saltness, superintendent of the Stevenson-Carson School District in Stevenson, Wash."

Hobart's article is a nice contribution to our understanding of how education service agencies are supporting rural schools. You can view the article on the American Association of School Administrators website at http://www.aasa.org/publications/saarticledetail.cfm?ItemNumber=5450&snItemNumber=&tnItemNumber=

A Perfect Storm on the Great Plains

A March 16 report in the Denver Post describes a perfect storm of factors creating population declines in the Great Plains. Author Robert Sanchez (Plains Grow More Lonesome) cites minimal economic development in Colorado's agriculture-based counties coupled with drought and stagnate crop price as contributing to the problem. Adding to the problem are farm consolidations and the closing of manufacturing businesses.

For years economic development in many rural communities was built on attracting businesses that brought lower skilled and lower paying jobs. As a result, there were few if any jobs available for college graduates in rural communities. The current situation on the plains is evidence that the focus on lower skilled jobs is no longer a viable option for the long-term sustainability of rural communities.

The good news is that technology is helping create more jobs that can be done anywhere. I know someone who works out of their home in Colorado for a company where most of her colleagues work in their office in Philadelphia. She can literally do her job anywhere as long as she has access to high-speed Internet and mail delivery. These types of jobs will continue to grow as companies become more comfortable with people work off site.

How can schools adapt to these economic conditions? One way is to place greater emphasis on preparing students for post-secondary education. For most people a high school diploma is not sufficient to finding work in the knowledge economy. Even if they don't work in the knowledge economy most good paying jobs require some sort of college training though not necessarily a four-year degree.

Another aspect of the shift toward higher-skilled, higher-wage jobs is that people who work in these types of jobs have high expectations for their schools. Rural communities wanting to attract people who work in the knowledge economy need to have strong schools. Without good schools they might be washed away in the perfect storm on the Great Plains.

The 65% Solution

The Denver Post has done a great public service by educating the public about a proposed ballot measure that would require Colorado's pubic school to allocated at least 65% of their current operating expenditures to classroom instructional activities.

Thousands of well-intentioned Coloradoans have signed petitions to get the measure on the ballot. Governor Bill Owens became the 100,000 signers. I was asked to sign the petition at my local grocery store. The person collecting signatures wasn't too happy about the questions I asked.

On the face of it the proposal makes sense. Who wouldn't be in favor of requiring school districts to spend at least 65% of school funds on instruction? The Post's February 23, 2006 editorial lays out the arguments against the proposal:

(1) It eliminates flexibility in how local officials budget their tax money.

(2) It doesn't include counselors as a "classroom" expense. I would add it also excludes other support personnel (e.g., media specialists) whose efforts help students learn.

(3) It’s foolish to expect small rural school districts to budget money under the same formula used by large urban districts that have different challenges and expenses.

(4) If a community decides its schools aren't spending enough on classroom instruction, it can elect a new school board.

The Post also highlights the absurdity of a Democratic proposal to require schools to spend 75 percent or operating expenditures on the classroom. That proposal would include the costs of counselors, principals and food service.

The 65% solution is further proof that for every problem there's a simple solution that's wrong.

NRCRES Website

The other day I was wondering whether the National Research Center on Rural Education Support (NRCRES) had gotten a website yet. Son of a gun, they do! It's a pretty good-looking site. The site contains information about the center's work and articles for downloading from what appears to be work done under previous contracts.

One downside to the site is that it doesn't quite have a national feel to it. A major concern has been that the center would focus a disproportionate amount of attention on rural education issues in the southeast since it located at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Lending credence to this concern is that the majority of articles available for downloading in the Journal Article Gallery focus on studies involving African American students in the Southeast. While research on educational issues facing rural African Americans are of great importance, it would be helpful for us in the west to have access to similar types of studies focusing on Hispanic and Native American populations.

Adding to the regional, rather than national, feel of the NRCRES website is a slide show of scenes that look to be in the east and southeast. Adding some slides from the Southwest, Rocky Mountains, West coast, and Northwest would help create a national feel. Adding some pictures of people and schools would add an education feel to the site.

Another curious thing about the site is that it highlights an inconsistency between what NRCRES says is a research priority and its research program. The very first research topic listed by NRCRES is the "retention of qualified teachers." Yet there's no mention of teacher retention any of the three current research programs. Is this example of a federally funded project saying one thing and doing another? Having worked on other federally funded projects I've learned that what people do is more important than what they say.

The other interesting thing is that the center's work will focus on the "retention of qualified teachers" rather than on the retention of quality teachers. Anyone who has been a teacher knows that just because someone is qualified doesn't mean that they’re effective. I'll take effective over qualified every time.

Take a few minutes and visit the NRCRES website http://www.nrcres.org/. It's a pretty good start.

Update on Colorado HR 1150

Last week the Colorado House Committee on Education voted down HR 1150, a bill to establish statewide standards for when public schools in Colorado could start and end the school year. The bill would have required all of Colorado’s public schools to start school the Tuesday after Labor Day and end no sooner than the Friday before Memorial Day. To gain some insight into the bill, it's instructive to look at who testified in the hearing on both sides of the debate. See the previous post "Today's Nominees for Worst People in the World" for more information on the bill.

The first person to testify was one of the bill's sponsors, Representative Lynn Hefley (R). Among her comments were that having different dates set by local school districts hurts businesses and families. She also noted the impact of the current school district schedules on attendance at the Colorado State Fair—keep that point in mind.

Also testifying in support of the bill were Jerry McLain, representing the American Camp Association; Bill Darrough, representing Camp Timberline, Inc.; Kitty Clemens, representing herself; Craig Reed, representing the Broadmoor Hotel; Ilene Kamsler, representing Colorado Hotel and Lodging; and Christie O'Donnell, representing the Colorado Restaurant Association. Providing the best insight into the catalyst for the bill may have been Jim Snook, representing the Colorado State Fair as a State Fair Commissioner. Mr. Snook testified on the impact of school calendar on participation and attendance at the Colorado State Fair. Now we're getting to the real issue.

Testifying against the bill were Paula Stephenson, representing the Rural Schools Caucus; Phil Fox, representing the Colorado Association of School Executives; Jane Paxtun, representing herself as a member of board of education of Boulder Valley Schools; and Jane Urschel, representing the Colorado Association of School Boards.

To review, those in favor of the bill represented interests in the tourist industry and those who testified against it represented education organizations. Now lets not forget that tourism is very important to Colorado and to the state's children, youth and families. Until I took my first teaching job I lived in tourist areas my entire life and appreciate the importance of the industry to rural communities. But local communities are in a better position to make a determination about when their schools start and end.

A special thanks to Paula Stevens, Executive Director of the Rural Caucus, for keeping an eye on things at the state legislature and for helping defeat this terrible bill.

Today's Nominees for Worst People In the World

With apologizes to Keith Olbermann and the staff at Countdown, today’s nominees for Worst People in the World are Colorado State Representative Lynn Hefley (R) and State Senator Peter Groff (D). The two legislators have sponsored a bill that requires all of Colorado’s public schools to start the Tuesday after Labor Day and end no sooner than the Friday before Memorial Day.

What great educational purpose does this legislation serve? Hefley and Groff claim that the primary purpose of the bill is to reduce significant burdens on families. Parents who move into a district may not realize that schools in their new district starts earlier than their previous school and, as a result, their children may miss a week or two of school. Establishing a standard beginning date would ease the burden of finding out when school starts and would increase flexibility in planning family activities.

Those reasons would seem to affect a relatively small number of children, so why would the legislature take up a bill that will dictate the start and end times for all of Colorado’s public schools? The tourism industry needs child labor. According to House Bill 06-1150, “an early-August or mid-August start date for the school year places a significant burden on employers in retail, the food industry, and especially the tourism industry who are forced to work short-handed during what is for many businesses one of the busiest times of the year.”

Evidently local communities are unable to determine what dates work best for them in establishing the starting and ending dates of the school year. Luckily the Colorado Legislature has the time to help them out.

Representative Lynn Hefley and Peter Groff, sponsors of the bill to standardize school calendars to help Colorado’s tourism industry. Today’s, with apologizes to Keith Olbermann and the staff at Countdown, Worst People in the World.

Atta Boy Bob!

It’s difficult to craft a presidential address of any kind that captures my attention. They typically either set the bar so low that achieving the goals is virtually meaningless, or set the bar so high they’re essentially meaningless because there’s no way an organization can accomplish them.

An exception is Bob Newhouse’s presidential address to the National Rural Education Association that was excerpted in the Winter 2005 Rural Education News. In his address, Bob laid out his goals for his year as president:

1. To do everything required to continue building the performance, stature, reputation, and resources of NREA.

2. To ensure that the work of NREA is recognized by it’s constituency as vital matters that affect every citizen.

3. To focus intensively on maintaining access to NREA as a gateway of opportunity to the loyal members of NREA and the education community at large.

4. To ensure that NREA will be a positive model of diverse people working together

Bob’s aspirations for his presidential year reflect his skills as a researcher. His goals are clearly stated, understandable, measurable and achievable. He doesn’t over promise what he can deliver nor does he lower expectations.

Congratulations Bob, you got my attention and support. Not an easy thing to do.

Rural Ed SIG Steps Up

It wasn't until recently I realized that the Rural Education Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association has migrated it's website over to Blogger and added some new features. These new features make the site one of the most valuable online resources available to those interested in rural education issues. Of particular note is the addition of links to other rural education blogs and news items. The combination of research, news and commentary creates, what could be, a powerful forum to address rural education issues. The challenge for the SIG is to maintain an online community that pushes all of us out of our comfort zones.

Well done to SIG President Dennis Mulcahy and to everyone who has worked on the site. Visit the site by clicking the headline of this post or go to http://ruralsig.blogspot.com/

World Wide Growth in Agriculture

If you live near a rapidly expanding city that is steadily gobbling up agricultural land for development, you might be surprised by a small piece in the most recent Smithsonian magazine. According to University of Wisconsin researchers, the percentage of the world's landmass devoted to agriculture has increased significantly over the past century. Using satallite images and ground-level surveys, scientists estimate that 40 percent of the earth's landmass is under cultivation or used to graze animals. That figure is up from about 25 percent a hundred years ago. South America accounts for a good portion of this growth thanks to an increase in soy bean production, most of which is exported to China.

You can find the item on page 18 of the February 2006 Smithsonian magazine.

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.

2005 NREA Conference

It looks like the 97th Annual Convention of the National Rural Education Association is going to be a great event. Bob Mooneyham and the program committees deserve a lot of credit for developing a program that has much to offer participants.

In my admittedly biased opinion the highlight of the convention will be the 4-hour grant-writing workshop Hobart Harmon and I will be doing on Tuesday (November 8) morning. This session is a shorter version of our grant-writing institute for rural schools and communities. With state and federal funds for schools becoming scarcer, rural schools have to be able to compete for public and private grants. Our workshop is designed specifically with rural communities in mind.

The other session I'm really looking forward to attending is the U.S. Department of Education's focus group on doing another Condition of Rural Education report. It's been over a decade since the last report and a lot has changed in rural America since then. The focus group is on Wednesday (November 9) morning.

I won't be able to attend the Research Symposium on Saturday and Sunday due to a prior commitment. I'm disappointed that I won't be able to ask some questions of the presenters. I'd like to ask Tom Farmer, Director of the National Center on Rural Education Support what his center would do with an extra $1 million a year. In an earlier post (More R&D for Rural Schools) I wrote that his center should get an extra million dollars a year and it would be good to know what we would get in return.

From the representatives from any of the regional educational laboratories, I'd like to know why over the past 5 years the labs haven't fulfilled their legal obligation to develop strategies to utilize schools in revitalizing rural communities? Based on a search of the lab's network website, it doesn't look like any products have been developed in this area.

If anyone would like to ask these questions for me, I'd be happy to post their report on Mr. Rural ED. Let me know if you'd like to do it so I can give you some additional background information.

More importantly, anyone interested in rural education should register right away for the NREA conference because it will be money well spent. Speaking of money, don't forget to bring plenty of it for the NREA Foundation Auction on Tuesday night!

We Don't Need No Stinkin' Rural Reviewers

There are new concerns about the process the U.S. Department of Education used to award the contract for the National Center on Rural Education Support. Information obtained from the Institute of Education Sciences indicate that the panel reviewing applications for the center did not include any rural education experts. This revelation raises the question of whether the panel was able to conduct a competent review of the applications for a rural education research center.

To be clear, I don't know exactly who reviewed applications for the center. I had asked for the list of reviewers but was told the Institute of Education Sciences does not identify the individuals who review particular applications or who review for particular competitions. Lynn Okagaki, Deputy Directory for Science at the Institute of Education Sciences did provide a list of everyone who served as scientific peer reviewers during fiscal year 2004.

That list included the names of 141 reviewers. Of those, only David Monk from Penn State University is recognizable as someone with substantial rural education expertise. He could not, however, have been a reviewer for the National Center on Rural Education Support because Penn State was an applicant. Ted Coladarci, Editor of the Journal of Research in Rural Education, similarly didn't recognize any other reviewers on the list having substantial rural education credentials. ("Sadly, no," he confessed.)

A reasonable conclusion is that the panel reviewing applications for the primary rural education research center lacked the expertise to make judgments pertaining to rural education issues. That's a problem! It's like having no pediatricians on a review panel for a program awarding a pediatric research center.

The department notes on its website that “to ensure a fair and competent review of all applications, program staff recruit persons who have expertise in areas pertinent to a program and from as many sources as possible.” This statement implies that not having reviewers with expertise in areas pertinent to the program creates a situation in which a review is unfair and incompetent.

To be fair to the staff at the Department of Education and the contractor that ran the review, I don’t think they purposefully left of people with rural education expertise off the panel. Rather, it probably never occurred to them that they needed some rural education expertise. Which points to the larger problem that the U.S. Department of Education has a very limited understanding of rural education issues.

More R&D for Rural Schools

Last week I received an email asking me to contact my U.S. Senators to urge them to continue funding for the Regional Educational Laboratories. I found myself torn about what to do. On one hand, the Regional Educational Laboratory system represents the U.S. Department of Education’s largest research and development effort for rural schools. In 2005, at least $16.5 million is supposed to be allocated toward issues addressing rural schools. That corresponds to a minimum of $83 million over the life of a five-year lab contract. Eliminating or reducing this funding level should be harmful to rural schools because they would have less access to products developed specifically for rural schools.

You’ll notice that I used the phrase “should put rural schools at a disadvantage” because, on the other hand, the Regional Educational Laboratory system has not produced much in the way of products designed specifically for rural school problems. The result has been a very low return on the investment. You can see my dilemma—contact my senators and urge them to support an ineffective program under the “a little is better than nothing” principle, or let them know how little rural America is benefiting from the Regional Educational Laboratory system.

I was going to exercise the safe option of doing nothing when I hit upon a compromise—contact my Senators in support of the lab system but encourage them to reallocate the funds that would go toward rural school issues. This compromise may seem contradictory given my complaints about the labs, but there are some things they do well. Rural education just isn’t one of them.

The email noted a proposal to fund the labs at $70 million in 2006. By law, at least 25 percent of that funding ($17.5 million) has to go toward issues found in rural communities. Those funds should go toward creating 4 or 5 new rural education research and development centers. The centers would develop research-based materials designed specifically to improve the educational outcomes of students and the viability of the community.

An important topic for the centers would be to find ways in which schools can work with other organizations. There are a number of organizations that have interest in child development. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services come to mind. Finding ways that schools can work with collaboratively with county extension and health departments would greatly benefit rural children and their communities.

The centers should also focus on the professional development of rural educators, developing place-based instructional materials, and local policy solutions for issues facing rural schools. There should also be a center devoted to coordinating the efforts of the all the centers. This center would also manage the dissemination of materials and information to the field. I also think the National Center on Rural Education Support should also receive an additional $1 million to fund cooperative efforts with the new development centers.

There are things the labs do very well, but the Regional Educational Laboratory System has failed miserably in its responsibilities to rural schools. It makes much more sense to reallocate the funds that are supposed to go toward rural education issues to a new group of organizations devoted to improving the educational outcomes of rural students while supporting local community development. Rural communities deserve better than what they’ve gotten under the current system. Time for a change!

A Primer on the Regional Educational Laboratories & Rural Schools

The U.S. Department of Education makes a substantial expenditure each year for research and development for issues affecting rural schools through its Regional Educational Laboratory system. In 2005 that amount is supposed to be in the neighborhood of $16.5 million, which translates into at least $83 million of the five years of the current contract. Most rural educators are unaware of the responsibilities of the labs to support rural schools and communities and the level of resources they are given to fulfill those responsibilities. Having worked at a lab for 7 years, I’ve put together a short primer on the labs and what they are supposed to be doing for rural schools.

PURPOSE:
The purpose of the Regional Educational Laboratories is to conduct applied research and development, provide technical assistance, develop multimedia educational materials and other products, and disseminate information in an effort to help others use knowledge from research and practice to improve education. They have four responsibilities. (1) Collaborate with the National Education Centers. (2) Consult with the State educational agencies and local educational agencies in the region in developing the plan for serving the region. (3) Develop strategies to utilize schools as critical components in reforming education and revitalizing rural communities in the United States. (4) Report and disseminate information on overcoming the obstacles faced by educators and schools in high poverty, urban, and rural areas. Note the specific mention of rural schools and communities in items 3 and 4.

RESOURCES:
By law, the Director of the Institute of Education Sciences" shall obligate not less than 25 percent to carry out such purpose with respect to rural areas (including schools funded by the Bureau [of Indian Affairs] which are located in rural areas). The total appropriated for the five years of the current contract is $332,357,250. The minimum amount that is supposed to go to rural schools works about to be $83 million for the entire five-year contract. Notice that $83 million is the minimum amount that is supposed to go to rural schools so it could be higher. I have tried unsuccessfully to get the actual dollars spent by the labs on rural educational issues even though the labs report it to the Institute of Education Sciences each quarter.

RETURN ON INVESTMENT:
What have taxpayers gotten in return for this investment? A search of REL Network website found only six products listed under the rural education keyword for the years 2001 through 2005. Moreover, none of the six had anything to do with strategies to utilize schools as critical components in revitalizing rural communities. To be fair, there are probably some products that are not listed on the REL Network website for one reason or another. Even then the return on investment is quite disappointing.

BOTTOM LINE:
It's pretty clear that the labs have been ineffective in conducting research and development for issues specific to rural communities. It's time to look at reallocating those dollars to better serve the rural Americans. At $16 million the Institute of Education Sciences could undertake a rural education research and development program that would complement the work of the National Center on Support of Rural Education. The Department of Education could even reduce that amount and come up with better products and services than what they have now.

NREA: A Good Return on Investment

I've spent a lot of time lately looking at how little the U.S. Department of Education does for rural communities. When I compare the resources the department is supposed to be using to support rural schools with the actual outcomes I wonder why rural educators aren't fighting mad.

The antithesis of the USDE is the National Rural Education Association. I had never really thought about all the things that NREA does for rural schools on a pretty small budget. Here's a partial list of the association's efforts on behalf of rural schools and communities:

1. The annual conference
2. The Rural Educator
3. Rural Education News
4. NREA website
5. NREA listserv
6. NREA Teacher of the Year Award
7. National Rural Education Advocacy Coalition
8. NREA Essay contest
9. Research Symposium
10. Stanley A. Brzenzski Memorial Research Award
11. NREA Mini-grant Program
12. NREA Hero Award
13. Edward W. Chance Memorial Dissertation Award
14. NREA Service Award
15. Dr. Joe Newlin Scholarship Fund
16. Grant Writing Institute
17. Legislative Forum
18. Mini-grant program
19. NREA Exemplary Practices/Programs Award
20. Howard A. Dawson Memorial Award

This list doesn't include the important advocacy work that NREA does on behalf of rural school and the encouragement it gives to its affiliates and members. The upshot is that NREA is working hard on behalf of rural schools and deserves considerable credit for those efforts. You can learn more about NREA and its activities at http://www.nrea.net/.

There are NREA two events coming up that are worthy of note. The first is the Grant Writing Institute Hobart Harmon and I are doing on May 6-7, 2005 in Oklahoma City. The Institute is designed specifically for grant seekers from rural schools and communities and provides participants with strategies and tools for developing successful grant proposals. It is designed to give participants the opportunity to apply what they learn toward preparing an actual proposal for a project they would like to have funded. Participants will leave the institute with the preliminary framework of a proposal and a resource notebook. The registration deadline is April 22, 2005.

The second event is the NREA Research Symposium on November 5-6, 2005; at the Radisson Hotel, Downtown; Tucson, Arizona. The NREA Research Symposium will precede the 97th Annual NREA Convention, which is scheduled on November 7-9, 2005. NREA is returning to a format in which research sessions are held prior to the regular conference giving participants an opportunity to engage in substantive conversations about rural education research. The deadline for submitting proposals is May 1, 2005.

The bottom line is that an NREA membership is a good investment. Let Executive Director Bob Mooneyham and the Executive Committee know how much you appreciate their efforts.