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. The authors, who grew up in rural America and returned there to raise their children, weave research, compelling case studies, and personal experience to illustrate effective approaches along the P-16 pipeline. 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. "Students growing up in cities or affluent suburbs shouldn't have an edge over those raised in the Appalachian coal country or other sectors of rural America when it comes to receiving a top-notch education. Rural matters. Geoff and Sky Marietta take us to an often neglected slice of America that needs to be part of the narrative if our country is going to be successful. Young learners living in rural areas have as much right to an equitable educational opportunity as anyone else." --Daniel A. Domenech, executive director, AASA, The School Superintendents Association "Rural America is often misunderstood, which results in policies and practices misaligned to the needs of its schools. Geoff and Sky Marietta tap their experience as practitioners, researchers, and community members to develop a more complex and complete understanding of rural America. They take a strengths-based approach to creating a framework for action that provides inspiring, evidence-based solutions."
--Ryan Wise, dean, Drake University School of Education 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.