Resources
The documents posted on this server contain links and pointers to information created and maintained by other public and private organizations. These links and pointers are provided for the user's convenience. The U.S. Department of Education does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of this outside information. Further, the inclusion of links and pointers is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse any views expressed or products/services offered on these outside sites or the organizations sponsoring the sites.
The Rural Education Resource Center disseminates information about research and practice related to a range of topics of particular importance to schools and communities in rural America and brings renewed attention to the problems and issues of students in rural schools.
NCES’s Education Demographic and Geographic Estimates (EDGE) program designs and develops informational resources to help understand the social and spatial context of education in the United States. It uses data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey to create custom indicators of social, economic, and housing conditions for school-age children and their parents. It also uses spatial data collected by NCES and the Census Bureau to create geographic locale indicators, school point locations, school district boundaries, and other types of data to support spatial analysis.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) provides an essential measurement of student achievement in the United States. In mathematics, reading, science, and writing, NAEP reports academic achievement for selected urban districts in the Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA). TUDA selection criteria are based on district size, percentages of African American or Hispanic students, and percentages of students eligible for the free or reduced-price lunch program.
The National Education Research and Development Centers (R&D Centers)—funded through the National Center for Education Research (NCER)—contribute to the production and dissemination of rigorous evidence and products that provide practical solutions to important education problems in the United States. There have been R&D Centers on rural education, such as The National Center for Rural Education Research Networks (NCRERN) and The National Center for Rural School Mental Health (NCRSMH).
Rural schools face unique challenges—in part because of their geographic isolation—but also have distinct strengths. By partnering with rural educators and leaders, the Regional Educational Laboratories (RELs) understand and work to solve rural priorities through rigorous research, technical assistance, and dissemination.
Recent REL publications include the following:
- Encouraging Families to Visit a Literacy Website: A Randomized Study of the Impact of Email and Text Message Communications
- Student Group Differences In Arkansas’ Indicators of Postsecondary Readiness and Success
- Early Progress and Outcomes of a Grow Your Own Grant Program for High School Students and Paraprofessionals in Texas
Part B of Title V of the reauthorized Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) contains Rural Education Achievement Program (REAP) initiatives that are designed to help rural districts that may lack the personnel and resources to compete effectively for federal grants and that often receive grant allocations in amounts that are too small to be effective in meeting their intended purposes.
- Career and Technical Education Coursetaking in 2013, by Locale (2019)
- Study of the Title I, Part A Grant Program Mathematical Formulas (2019)
- NCES Blog – The Digital Divide: Differences in Home Internet Access (2018)
- NCES Blog – Student homelessness in urban, suburban, town, and rural districts (2017)
