Eighteen percent of the country鈥檚 lowest-performing schools that will receive federal funds to help them improve are rural, according to analysis from , a Washington think tank.
Although that鈥檚 not equal to the country鈥檚 overall percentage of rural schools鈥�31 percent鈥攖he Education Sector analysis said these grant awards signal a shift in prioritizing high-poverty rural schools.
Rural schools can compete for School Improvement Grant funds, versus the typical formula-based distribution of federal money such as Title I. That formula often puts rural schools at a disadvantage, giving more federal funding to low-income students in larger, more-affluent districts than for similar students in smaller, poorer districts.
鈥淲hile urban schools have greater access to programs like private foundation grants and urban-specific programs, rural schools, often located in the poorest school districts, lack the capacity and resources to tackle expensive large-scale school reform,鈥� according to the Education Sector report.
The analysis originally was published in April and was republished this summer in .
States were allowed to set federally-approved criteria to define their worst schools, and those schools then were sorted into tiers. All must either be receiving or eligible to receive Title I funds.
The analysis goes on to say that most of the School Improvement Grant recipients look similar to schools that typically receive federal dollars鈥攍arge, low-performing schools in urban areas鈥攂ut the report notes there is diversity of geography and enrollment among those schools.
If you鈥檙e interested in learning more about School Improvement Grants, Education Sector has designed to help the public follow the progress and money school by school.