This study explored the barriers and facilitators to outdoor learning and outdoor activities in a small K–12 case school in rural Maine. The case school was a positive outlier (PO), providing significant outdoor learning and activity opportunities to all students during the school day. Outdoor learning and outdoor pursuits in school settings can increase student physical activity, provide opportunities for students to reap the mental and emotional benefits from time in nature, and help them make important connections to local culture. The positive outlier methodological approach sought to uncover reasons for the case school’s PO status and find practical strategies that could be useful to other rural schools seeking to increase outdoor learning. The PO case school was identified following surveys of administrators and physical education teachers of all K–12 inclusive schools in Maine. The PO school took part in the next phase of the study, including multiple interviews with educators and administrators, a site visit, and administration of two components of the Rural Active Living Assessment. A case narrative for the PO was created from the collected data. We found that incorporating outdoor learning time during the regular school day and curriculum was an important facilitator. In addition, providing outdoor learning related professional development opportunities and curricular connections for teachers, strategizing long-term program sustainability, and connecting outdoor curricula to the local culture were critical in supporting this work.
The roles of school building and district administrators in rural areas have expanded in the last decade. Expanded responsibilities are amplified in rural school districts where there are fewer administrators to assume a multiplicity of roles. Additionally, educator shortages make it increasingly challenging to recruit and retain school leaders. While larger school districts in metropolitan areas have developed ongoing professional development and support programs to help school leaders meet the ever shifting and complex expectations placed upon them, school administrators in relatively rural regions receive less support. The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore leadership constructs believed to influence development of school leaders’ administrative, adaptive, and enabling leadership behaviors and outputs in largely rural contexts.
This article explores the adoption and integration of artificial intelligence (AI) within rural education, with a specific focus on the rural context of Idaho. While AI offers new possibilities for educational transformation, its implementation in rural schools presents unique paradoxes. Using a mixed-methods approach involving a statewide survey, working focus groups, and associated documents, this study investigates how AI can empower and challenge rural educational practices. Drawing on Rogers’s diffusion of innovations theory, we illuminate the AI opportunities and barriers perceived by rural education stakeholders. We conclude by discussing implications for advocacy, policy, practice, and research to ensure just and equitable futures for rural education amid rapid AI change.
This study investigated how 133 educators in six rural schools experience and address youth mental health challenges and the adaptations they use to meet students’ needs. Interview and focus group data were examined through the lens of rural community wealth to draw attention to the ways educators support their students and the resources on which they draw in their efforts. Findings illustrate that rural educators shift to providing as many services to students as possible on their school campuses; increase the capacity of staff members to address students’ mental health through targeted professional development and training; and integrate social-emotional learning into curricula and programming across content areas. While not discounting the very real obstacles educators face, we highlight the strengths and assets that educators employ to address their students’ mental health challenges. This article concludes with implications for educators, policymakers, and mental health professionals who work in rural locations.
Addressing the gender gap in engineering necessitates a thorough understanding of self-efficacy, and this study specifically focused on engineering self-efficacy of adolescent girls in secondary school. It identifies patterns linking rural students’ engineering self-efficacy to other areas of their lives to unearth trends for students with high engineering self-efficacy that could be used to help overcome this gender gap. The study used a mixed-methods instrumental case study approach and clarified the relationships between high engineering self-efficacy and various aspects of life for rural students, such as academic performance, extracurricular activities, and implicit gender beliefs, thus offering critical insights for educational improvements and future research directives. The analysis of survey data from students undertaking engineering electives in a rural Ohio school district led to the identification of key factors for curriculum development, including the need for project optimization to create a balance between challenge and success, the provision of targeted support and feedback, ensuring content relevance for a diverse student population, and establishing a robust foundation of technology skills. Notably, the study unearthed a significant relationship between adolescent girls showcasing high engineering self-efficacy and their readiness to engage in rigorous efforts to attain their goals. Conclusively, the findings suggest that rural educators need to be cognizant of their curriculum and interactions to nurture students’ self-efficacy, with a call for more research into the association between perseverance and high engineering self-efficacy among adolescent girls in rural contexts.
The article reports on the challenges that rural education has been facing in La Araucanía, Chile, from the perspective of Mapuche parents. The study’s methodology was qualitative and involved Mapuche families who sent their children to rural, single-teacher schools located in an Indigenous context. The findings indicate that Mapuche mothers perceive the education that their children receive in rural schools to be of lower academic quality. Furthermore, they acknowledge that rural education receives less economic support than education in urban settings, which creates a disadvantage for Indigenous and peasant children. This disparity limits their ability to acquire the same resources as non-Indigenous children, thereby hindering their potential to compete on an equal footing in contemporary society. While participants recognize the economic and academic shortcomings of rural schools, they value the affective and humanizing aspects provided in these schools, as opposed to the individualism and school violence seen in urban contexts. Based on these findings, we discuss the urgency of rethinking rural school education in Mapuche territory, to implement actions to reverse social inequalities and educational gaps that consciously or unconsciously are built into Indigenous territories.
First appearing in “Why Rural Matters 2025: People, Place, and Possibility,” this essay explains how changes to U.S. Census Bureau definitions of “urban” after the 2020 census have significantly reshaped which school districts and schools are classified as rural. These updates—such as raising population thresholds and redefining density—have led to many districts shifting classifications, with far more becoming newly rural than leaving that category. As a result, rural student counts have increased substantially, although this increase mostly reflects reclassification rather than demographic change. These shifts have important implications for funding, research, and policy decisions related to rural education.
This article integrates research with lived experiences to explore the educational and career transitions of Latina rural college students and the unique challenges they encounter in navigating higher education and the workforce. Drawing on the phenomenological study “Voces Rurales: Examining Latina Rural College Student Experiences in Navigating Transitions from College to Career or Post-Baccalaureate Studies,” which coupled semi-structured interviews and photo elicitation methodology, this article highlights the critical intersection of rurality, gender, and ethnicity in higher education. The study focused on Latina undergraduate students in a rural border county with two institutions of higher education: a community college and a 4-year extension campus of a larger nonrural California State University (CSU). It provides valuable insights into how institutional policies and practices can better serve historically underserved populations. Notably, 75% of the participants were community college transfer students who successfully navigated the transition to a 4-year degree program, emphasizing the pivotal role of community colleges in expanding educational pathways for Latina students in rural regions. Through qualitative phenomenological research grounded in Yosso’s community cultural wealth framework, the study examined the lived experiences of 16 Latina undergraduate students, uncovering four key themes: navigating dual identities and cultural challenges, access to opportunities, community networks, and stressors. The findings reveal challenges and disparities these students face while also emphasizing the cultural wealth, resilience, and social capital they bring to their educational journeys.
This article highlights a career exploration curriculum that was developed to support the vocational guidance needs of school counselors working in six rural, high-need communities in North Dakota and South Dakota. Based on social cognitive career theory, Careers in a Box was created to bridge existing gaps in career exploration curricula for rural middle school youth. This grab-and-go curriculum introduces participants to specific careers across the spectrum of food, agriculture, natural resources, and human sciences and provides them with hands-on activities associated with these careers. While program evaluation is ongoing, preliminary results indicate an associated increase in personal resilience in relation to teamwork and job skills among youth in the identified counties. In this article we describe our approach as well as implications for rural vocational guidance programming.
First appearing in “Why Rural Matters 2025: People, Place, and Possibility,” this article examines the policy landscape shaping teacher preparation for rural schools. Drawing on troubling policies being implemented across the United States, it identifies key trends that are contributing to teacher shortages and reduced teacher quality. The analysis highlights how these trends are experienced differently depending on the rural context and emphasizes the importance of innovative, place-based approaches. The article explores the consequences of policy decisions that do not account for rural realities and advocates for investments in strong, research-based teacher preparation programs. It cautions that the ongoing questioning of teachers’ professional expertise is contributing to disparities in teacher quality and argues that teachers should be treated as professionals who are capable of making informed decisions for their students and classrooms.
In response to a gap in the literature, this study examined barriers and solutions to effective school-based mental health services and supports in schools. Using a Delphi methodology with a panel of 30 rural educators (i.e., school counselors, teachers, and administrators), the study identified 126 consensus statements across multiple domains. Findings highlight systemic challenges such as workforce shortages, stigma, limited access to services, and structural inequities. Participants also proposed actionable strategies, including expanding school-based mental health staffing, fostering community partnerships, and integrating social-emotional learning into classroom practices. These results offer practical, research-informed guidance for strengthening mental health infrastructure in rural schools.
The special education teacher shortage is felt across the US. To address this challenge, 50 states and Washington, DC, currently have some type of grow-your-own (GYO) program. These programs often are an alternate route to licensure, preparing candidates who do not have an undergraduate degree in education to become teachers. The goal of GYO programs is to prepare teachers from the community for the community, with a focus on addressing the teacher shortage and increasing the diversity of the teacher workforce. The rural institution of higher education described in this article has implemented a GYO program for seven years. Through that time, lessons have been learned to improve the program and candidate success.
Many states are facing dropping enrollments, budget shortfalls, and pandemic-era learning loss, and, looking to maximize efficiency and strengthen academics, they are considering district consolidation and school closure. Yet school closure is a highly contested issue, and research suggests that closure can harm students and communities. This study used discrete time survival analysis to investigate the demographic and institutional factors associated with access-restricting closures of rural schools in Arkansas from the 2003–2004 school year to the 2022–2023 school year. We looked at these closures—nearly all of them preceded by district consolidation due to under-enrollment or academic or fiscal sanction—to explore potential racial and class disproportionality. We found that the racial makeup of the student body seems to contribute to the likelihood of closure, in that schools with more Black students have a greater probability of experiencing closure, especially as part of forced consolidation.
The lack of a consistent definition of “rural” in education research and policy limits equitable decision making and resource allocation for rural schools. This exploratory study used a Policy Delphi approach to elicit expert and practitioner perspectives on how rural can be conceptualized through the rural cultural wealth framework. Twenty participants across 13 states identified and refined factors shaping educational decision making in rural contexts. Results revealed strong agreement that socioeconomic status, rural culture, and community engagement are central to defining rurality. Participants’ preferred definitions emphasized familial, social, and aspirational capital, highlighting how community cohesion and resilience shape educational opportunities. These findings challenge deficit narratives by reframing rural as a site of cultural wealth and adaptive capacity. The study offers a foundational framework to guide future research and inform policies that better reflect the lived realities and strengths of rural communities.
Iowa’s 2023 Senate File 496 prohibits schools from administering mental health surveys without parent permission, requires schools to secure parent permission for student nicknames, bans from schools discussion of gender identity and sexual orientation before grade 7, and bans from schools books that describe sexual activity. This exploratory interview study investigated how 30 educators and school board members across the state perceived Senate File 496’s influence on school micro systems, as outlined by Marraccini et al.’s framework for school-related influences on suicide-related thoughts and behaviors for LGBTQ+ students. The study also explored participants’ impressions of how the legislation influenced LGBTQ+ students. This study offers a unique view of experiences across a predominantly rural state. The findings show how policies like Senate File 496 can make schools less safe and less inclusive for all students.
This focus group study examined the participant motivation for and potential impact of the Research Experience for Teachers (RET) program on rural STEM educators. Due to geographic isolation and low wages in rural areas, STEM teachers often engage in summer work, which provides practical, real-world applications of STEM principles and enhances instructional methods during the school year. By fostering university partnerships and providing summer research opportunities, RET aligns with the National Rural Research Agenda’s (NREA) priorities of enhancing community relationships and bolstering teacher preparation, recruitment, and retention. Findings indicate that participation in RET boosts teachers’ curricular skills, professional networks, and motivation for STEM instruction, addressing key challenges identified by the NREA to support and retain qualified STEM educators in rural schools.
