How Size and Setting Impact Education in Rural Schools

Rural Educator, The, Spring 2004 by Bouck, Emily C

School variables, such as school size and school location, matter. School size and location impact many areas of education, including the characteristics of the school, curriculum, and post-school outcomes. Research reveals that students in rural schools face many personal and education hardships - from living in poverty to having less opportunity and sophistication in technology. Rural schools also have fewer course offerings. While rural schools are a unique, urban and rural schools may be more similar than expected, particularly as compared to more affluent suburban districts. Rural and urban schools have larger rates of poverty and more dire financial situations, which do impact the educational offerings, experiences, and outcomes of their students.

Ever since Coleman and his colleagues (1966) wrote Equality of Educational Opportunities, researchers have been trying to prove that school variables or factors matter from the size of schools, to their financial considerations, teacher quality, and their setting (Fowler, Jr. & Walberg, H. J., 1991; Hanushek, 1986, 1989; King. & MacPhail-Wilcox, 1994; Raywid, 1997/98; Wenglinsky, 1997). Rural schools and rural education cannot be neglected from this discussion. The country's eyes and concerns were brought to attention by Kozol (1992); yet, the focus on rural education has not been as strong. Rural education matters rural schools serve over 40% of the nation's students, but do not receive this much federal education funding (NEA, 2003). Rural education must be discussed - its characteristics teased out and its similarities and differences from other settings examined.

Urban versus Rural

And yet we stop to tell ourselves: These are Americans. Why do we reduce them to this beggary - and why, particularly, in public education? Why not spend on children here at least what we would be investing in their education if they lived within a wealthy district like Winnetka, Illinois, or Cherry Hill, New Jersey, or Manhasset, Rye, or Great Neck in New York? Wouldn't this be natural behavior in an affluent society that seems to value fairness in so many other areas of life? Is fairness less important to Americans today than in some earlier times? Is it viewed as slightly tiresome and incompatible with hardnosed values? What do Americans believe about equality?

This excerpt was written by Johathan Kozol (1992, p. 41) in his book Savage Inequalities, as he reflected upon his visit to schools in East St. Louis, a school district located in a town referred to as "an inner city without an outer city" (p. 20). It is a school system in which teachers run out of chalk and paper, where teachers pay checks arrive late, and schools get closed down because sewage floods the floors.

In Savage Inequalities, Kozol brought national attention to the fact that the setting of schools matters. He highlighted the vast differences in education that exist between schools in urban settings and in suburban settings. He not only illuminated the gap in funding that occurs between schools depending on their location, but also within the content of instruction. To illustrate the difference in funding, Kozol gave the average per pupil expenditures in New York City in 1987, which were approximately $5,500, while in the suburbs of New York, funding exceeded $11,000, with the greatest spending at $15,000. However, as Kozol pointed out, the funding gap is not just an issue between urban and suburban schools, but a more complicated one involving race and culture. As evidence, the average per pupil spending in a black suburban town in Illinois was $5,000, virtually the same as the expenditure in the urban schools in Chicago. This was about $3,000 less than what was spent in the highest spending predominantly white suburbs in Illinois.

And yet, while Kozol (1992) did an excellent job of bringing the plight of the urban schools to national attention and highlighting for the nation the vast inequalities that occur within our system of public education, he forgot something in his book, something so very important - the plight of the rural schools. Rural schools cannot be considered akin to suburban schools. They not only face their own challenges and hardships, but also share similarities with urban schools. The effect of education in rural schools cannot be dismissed from the debate regarding the equality, or rather inequality, of schooling and schools' location and status.

The location of a school, as in an urban, rural, or suburban setting, has been shown to effect various factors related to education. For example, the location of a school is often associated with the socioeconomic status level of the school, or in other words the poverty of the school, which is frequently measured by the number of students receiving free and reduced lunches. Schools in more urban settings are associated with high level of poverty and in consequence have a lower amount of money to spend per child on education (Anyon, 2003; Kozol, 1992).