Report indicates rural education needs to be prioritized in North Carolina

With more than one in three students in North Carolina attending school in a rural district, rural education must be a priority in the state.

That was one of the messages of the Rural Education Summer Learning Exchange held at East Carolina University this month.

More than 135 educators attended the three-day event, hosted by the Rural Education Institute. Researcher and College of Education Professor Jerry Johnson told representatives from rural districts that more students in the United States attend rural schools than attend the 100 largest U.S. school districts combined. North Carolina’s enrollment of nearly half a million rural students is five times the national median.

Johnson, who serves as the Phoebe Moore Dail Distinguished Professor in Rural Education, presented findings of “Why Rural Matters 2023,” a report that examines the needs and inequities of students attending public schools in rural areas. The report, which Johnson co-authored, indicates that North Carolina is one of 10 states that educate half of the nation’s rural students.

“We’re trying to make the case on a national level that rural schools are worthy of our attention,” Johnson said. “They’re worthy of our effort and our energy.

“The quality of an education the quality of life that a person experiences should not be dictated by where they live.”

The report, subtitled “Centering Equity and Opportunity,” examines five gauges to describe the condition of rural education in each state. Among indicators for North Carolina, which is rated in the top 10 highest priority states in rural education:

• The percent of rural students in N.C. is 34.5%, compared to 15.7% nationally.

• Rural students in North Carolina are more likely to attend a racially diverse school than their counterparts in other states.

• More than 1 in 10 of all rural multilingual students in the U.S. (33,523 students) attend the state’s public schools.“That’s the third largest total enrollment of rural multilingual learners in the United States after Texas and California,” Johnson said.

• Compared to their rural peers in other states, N.C. students are more likely to live in poverty and move residences more often.

• The state lags behind others in the percent of rural enrollment in public preschool, 27.5%.

• The state’s average rural instructional expenditure per pupil is $6,099, compared to $7,174 nationally.

• While rural students across the nation tend graduate at a higher rate than their peers, rural students in N.C. graduate at a lower rate.

Johnson said that while a national rural education agenda is impractical because of differing needs among states, the report identified several key needs that exist across the board. They are:

• Many rural households lack adequate internet access.

• Students in rural schools need more access to psychologists and school counselors. Rural school districts averaged 310 students served by one school counselor or psychologist compared to a 295-to-1 ratio in non-rural districts.

• More gifted and talented program access is needed for black and Hispanic students in rural districts.

Directed by Kristen Cuthrell, REI is part of ECU’s College of Education. It aims to serve communities through teacher pathway programs and local and regional development, advocating for the important of rural schools and communities and research into what does and does not work in rural education.

Representatives of several rural school counties in eastern North Carolina, including Pitt, Greene, Lenoir, Pasquotank, Perquimans and Tyrell, attended the annual exchange, which is designed to foster collaboration between ECU and local school districts as well as enhance educational practices and outcomes for rural students. Participants in the Educator Pipeline in Rural Action for Teaching Equity (edPIRATE) program and the Collaborative Action in Rural Education (CARE) Corps also took part in the event.