2. In general, a rural area is a geographic area that is
located outside cities and towns. The Health Resources
and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services defines the word "rural" as
encompassing "...all population, housing, and territory not
included within an urban area. Whatever is not urban is
considered rural."
Typical rural areas have a low population density and
small settlements. Agricultural areas are commonly rural,
though so are others such as forests. Different countries
have varying definitions of "rural" for statistical and
administrative purposes.
3.
4. Close to one in three public school students in this country
attends school in a rural area or small town—defined as one with
a population of 25,000 people or fewer. Even using a more
stringent definition of "rural," including only students in
communities of 2,500 or less, more than 20 percent of public
school students attend rural schools.
Many of these schools face problems similar to those of urban
schools—for example, 28 percent of rural children in Arizona
and New Mexico live in households with incomes below the
poverty line. Meanwhile, many rural schools face particular
challenges of falling student populations, high transportation
costs and difficulty attracting quality teachers. (The average rural
teacher's salary is only 86 percent of the average non-rural
teacher's salary.)
5.
6. There are many aspects about rural schools that make
them less fortunate than other types of schools. The
actual environment of rural schools sometimes makes
it hard for their students to succeed. Poverty is the
"600 pound gorilla" that is sitting on rural schools
(Berliner, 2004). Rural schools are dependent on
national and urban economics, and if the economy is
not prospering, this also how rural schools fail.
Because these schools are geographically and culturally
isolated due to their locations, they usually lack the
conditions that non-rural schools have
