Nearly one in five American students attend a rural school. Yet when policymakers debate the future of education, rural communities are often left out of the conversation.
That’s a disconnect Michigan State University researcher Sheneka Williams hopes to change.
In a new chapter published in the Live Handbook of Education Policy Research from the Association for Education Finance and Policy, Williams and graduate student Summer Hopper argue that many education policies fail to account for the realities, diversity and strengths of rural America.
“Rural schools educate a significant portion of our nation’s students, yet they are often not at the center of conversations about education policy,” said Williams, who is chairperson and a professor in the Department of Educational Administration at the MSU College of Education.