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More than 9.3 million students go to public schools in rural areas, more than the combined total of the nation’s 85 largest school districts.
Rural schools, ranging from the Black Belt in the South to tiny Alaska Native villages, have many strengths but grapple with funding disparities, teacher shortages and limited college and career opportunities. Solutions are seldom explored because few reporters focus on rural schools.
The Hechinger Report is working to fill that gap.
The Big Picture
Waiting for the traveling teacher: Remote rural schools need more hands-on help
Students in these tiny schools get personal attention, but need exposure to higher education to compete for college and careers.
Out of the fields: In a North Carolina county where few Latino parents have diplomas, their kids are aiming for college
Latinos have some of the lowest education levels in the country, but poverty and immigration fears aren’t holding back some students and schools trying to break the cycle
Number of rural students planning on going to college plummets
Trend threatens rural economies, widens their drift from cities and suburbs
How one college is tackling the rural nursing shortage
Grow-your-own community college programs in rural communities reach nursing students who might struggle with a commute to campus
Rural schools have a teacher shortage. Why don’t people who live there, teach there?
Out-of-towners don’t stay long in rural schools, but convincing qualified locals to stick around and teach is harder than it sounds
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Rural universities, already few and far between, are being stripped of majors
With budgets and enrollment crashing, some schools cut humanities in favor of ‘workforce needs’
PROOF POINTS: Seven new studies on the impact of a four-day school week
As policymakers debate the schedule switch, some research shows a tiny negative effect on rural students
STUDENT VOICE: How alt-right memes on Instagram and Reddit are radicalizing my classmates
Teachers need to teach students how to identify radical memes, fake news and internet extremism for what they are
A year in the life of a small-town superintendent shows the federal bailout won’t be enough
Unless America dramatically changes its public school funding model, the current $122 billion meant to shore up K-12 education will do little to fundamentally change how reliant schools are on local money
‘It’s so hard and so challenging’: An oral history of year three of pandemic schooling
Teachers, parents and administrators from across the country told us what it’s like to be in school this year and how completely not normal it’s already become