Challenges and Strategies Associated with Rural School Settings

Rural America is more ubiquitous and its residents more consequential than the caricatures often provided by the popular media (Brown, Swanson, & Barton, 2003; Johnson & Strange, 2005). Sixty million people live in rural communities throughout United States-communities that encompass 97 percent of the Unites States land mass (The University of Montana Rural Institute, 2005). Rural communities educate 8.8 million students, or nearly 21 percent of the school-aged population (NCES, 2003).