Setting Boundaries: Exploring Policy Implications of Rural Locale Classifications and School District Borders

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Rural education scholars have long emphasized the mismatch between federal and state policies and the operational realities of rural districts. However, little existing research explicitly probes the mechanisms through which rural districts differentially experience and respond to education policy. In this session, we each begin our analysis from an understanding of rurality as a socially constructed category and the physical bounding of rural districts as an ongoing political process, each with concrete implications for students. Collectively, we ask:
How do existing divisions of rural space influence the conditions for education policy design and implementation differentially across districts?
Pairing descriptive analyses of rural districts nationally with state-level examples, we aim to foster conversation on the intersection of spatial equity and policy.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Rural Education

Chair

• Sara White, Vanderbilt University

Papers

• Describing the Size of Rural-Serving Public School Districts in the US: Common Forms and Heterogeneity - Sara White, Vanderbilt University

• Redistricting Rural Students: A Simulation of Reorganizing Pennsylvania Students to Understand Racial, Ethnic, and Economic Segregation - Joshua S. Almes, Brown University

• Public v. Public: Examining How Inter-District Transfer Policies Shape Superintendent Navigation of Rural District Boundaries - Kristie LeBeau, Harvard University

Discussant

• Hope G. Casto, Skidmore College