If You Can’t Turn Around Poor-Performing Rural Schools… Revolutionize Them � The Quick and the Ed

If You Can’t Turn Around Poor-Performing Rural Schools… Revolutionize Them � The Quick and the Ed

If You Can’t Turn Around Poor-Performing Rural Schools… Revolutionize Them

by Forrest Hinton

A few days ago I described the depressing, dismal, distressing, dire state of K-12 education in Halifax County, NC—a rural county with nearly a quarter of its residents living below the poverty line. Just to refresh your memory, this is a school district where more than 4 out of 5 students qualify for free and reduced lunches, only 54.8% of kids graduate from high school, and a mere third of 8th grade students score at-or-above grade level on the state’s reading assessment. The chart below, from The Rural School and Community Trust, puts this school district’s penury in context with surrounding districts and with state and national rates for rural districts.

Unless you suffer from extreme delusions or incurable denial syndrome, you should agree that Halifax County’s

Quick Hits is a short compilation of question-raising news stories, blog posts, and video clips that Education Sector team members are reading and viewing each day. The content of these Hits is not necessarily endorsed by the organization or any particular team member.

• Why has Randi Weingarten’s heart turned pink? (Change.org Education)
• Should a federal education jobs bill be tied to reform? The experts debate. (National Journal Online)
• Andrew Gillen has cognitive dissonance. How should private colleges set compensation? (CCAP)
• A shrinking education bureaucracy in the state of NY? (Gotham Schools)
• Are some people trying to fill their pockets with public funds? Yes, says Jay Greene, and it’s not the DFER. (Jay P. Greene’s Blog)