Rural Education in America provides a comprehensive framework for understanding the diversity and complexity of rural communities in the United States and for helping rural educators implement and evaluate successful place-based programs tailored for students and their families. Written by educators who grew up in rural America and returned there to raise their children, the book illustrates how efficacy is determined by the degrees to which instruction, interventions, and programs address the needs and strengths of each unique rural community. Geoff and Sky Marietta weave research, compelling case studies, and personal experience to illustrate effective approaches along the P-16 pipeline. Emphasizing the value and vitality of these communities, the authors advocate for solutions that fit the sociocultural and historical reality of the community, rather than strategies that fundamentally support out-migration. They also provide tools that can be used to evaluate rural educational initiatives and implement place-based strategies that are aligned with the strengths of a particular community. Rural Education in America includes examples from a range of geographic locations, including Eastern Washington, Montana, Ohio, northern Minnesota, North Carolina, Mississippi, Kentucky, and the Navajo Nation. Core chapters focus on critical issues for advancing rural education including early literacy, STEM education, and college completion while highlighting successful programs and partnerships in these areas. This book presents a vision of what rural education can be and how it can attend to the well-being of the people, places, and regions that it serves.
Geoff Marietta is the entrepreneur-in-residence at the University of the Cumberlands, and the former executive director of Pine Mountain Settlement School. Sky Marietta is an assistant professor at the University of the Cumberlands, where she directs the Academic Resource Center.
"Rural Education in America presents a framework for understanding the complexity of the education system in rural America and the children it serves, promoting strategies that fit the sociological and historical reality of the rural community rather than merely encouraging outmigration." --Journal of Economic Literature "Rural Education in America is an advocacy text created to promote and improve education in rural America. The authors provide important insights into why rural students don't go to college, which includes the tendency of students to stay in their rural communities. This book is an important contribution to rural education and provides more current information relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic." --Teachers College Record "Geoff and Sky Marietta set out to correct common misunderstandings about rural communities, highlighting their assets and strengths, and offering some direction for rural schools, and they successfully achieve this goal. For scholars and laypeople alike who seek to better understand rural areas, and the role that schools play in these communities, Rural Education in America is a recommended and worthwhile read." --Journal School of Choice
