Democratic Schooling for Students in Rural America

• In Event: Democracy as the Aim of Education: Critical Issues of Leadership, Voice, Equity, and Schooling

Abstract

This paper will address how rural schools and districts might find cost effective ways to offer democratic schooling options to rural school students. In the past, rural education has received little attention in the research literature (Lichter & Parisi, 2008; Barrett, Reardon, & Webb, 2011). However as rural America garners more political and policy attention, it is important to focus on schooling options for rural students. To understand schooling for rural students, one must first understand the composition of rural America. Rural America consists of approximately 51 million nonmetropolitan residents, spanning from Native American communities in the West to small fishing villages in New England (Arnold, Newman, Gaddy, & Dean, 2005). Rural America also encompasses Midwestern farm towns with burgeoning Latino populations and stronghold African American communities in the Deep South (Tieken, 2014; Kandel, & Cromartie, 2004). Thus, rural America is vast, and diversity is increasing in the majority White spaces (Johnson & Strange, 2007). A 2017 report released by the American Association of Superintendents (AASA 2017) further tells us nearly 20% of the nation’s students attend a rural school, and 25% of rural students are children of color.
Although rural America is diversifying in terms of population, it is not necessarily diversifying in terms of wealth distribution (Tickamyer & Duncan, 1990). According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s annual report, Income and Poverty in the United States: 2013, the official poverty rate in rural areas (persons living outside of metropolitan areas), was 16.1 percent, more than 1.5 percentage points higher than the national level. The poverty rate is 30% greater in areas in which most Latino and African American populations reside, which sheds light on the income inequalities that affect all aspects of the lives of these student populations. Thus, low-skill and low-paying jobs in rural areas, combined with lower educational attainment levels, are substantial factors in the rural income divergence (ruralhome.org), and if left unaddressed, will widen opportunity gaps between students (Hartley, 2004).
Addressing the educational and wealth inequalities in rural settings will require multi-varied strategies, and more research is needed to better understand how schooling mechanisms might assist in redressing the social inequalities that leave educational and career advancement elusive to many students in rural communities. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to examine the literature and determine how best to redress challenges faced in rural schooling.

Author

• Sheneka M. Williams, Michigan State University