Rural Education in America
What Works for Our Students, Teachers, and Communities
Geoff Marietta and Sky Marietta
paper, 224 Pages
Pub. Date: December 2020
ISBN-13: 978-1-68253-560-8
Price: $32.00
Add to Cart
cloth, 224 Pages
Pub. Date: December 2020
ISBN-13: 978-1-68253-561-5
Price: $60.00
Add to Cart
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.
Praise
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
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About the Authors
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.