Alabama: F.S. Ervine, where reading scores exceed the state average, is one of the top 10 rural elementary schools in Alabama. The state agriculture department’s Center for Rural Alabama is taking note (and study). They hope to achieve the same success in other rural schools by examining such things as community involvement, academic expectations, and school leadership and instruction, including personality assessments of 10 teachers at each school studied. Among the strategies cited by school official Richard Bryant is that, “We don’t look upon our school as a rural school,” as well as large active roles played by parents.

North Carolina: Bertie County is the state’s poorest school system by local funding, serving 3,300 students with a free and reduced lunch rate of 89 percent. A chronic teacher shortage prompted Superintendent Chip Zullinger and the local school board to institute the Teacher Cadet Program.

The program helps recent Bertie graduates to become teachers in critical subject areas by covering college tuition, books, and hiring participants as full-time employees of the school district while they attend college with the program’s institutional partner Shaw University. The program is entirely funded through local tax revenues.

Louisiana: The U.S. Census Bureau reports that nearly the entire northeastern region of the state (14 of 15 parishes) continues to see a declining population. Of the 52 municipalities, only six experienced any gain at all. David Creed, executive director of the North Delta Regional Planning and Development District in Monroe, told The News-Star (Monroe, LA) that though this has been a trend the last 40 years, the decline could be expedited with the current economic climate.

Contact: Casey Francis, caseyf@cfra.org for more information.