Rural School Achievement

Many of the schools around the globe are in rural areas. These small cities and farmlands have homes, businesses, and children like any other, and those students also need the same opportunities to succeed. Some of these schools are practically cut off from society.

Others are close to larger cities but still in a smaller area. Regardless of the location and city of your school, as a school in a rural area you have unique opportunities available to you that you can use to improve the education of your children.

There are certainly disadvantages to being in a small, rural area. The isolation can make it a bit harder to expose children to a broader range of ideas. Often there is a homogeny of culture within these areas as well which could make it harder to prepare these children for schools outside of the community.

But in other ways there are advantages to being this type of school. Consider the following tips for maximizing your success as a rural school. Model Your Educational Techniques Well Some rural areas have a passion for education, and are extremely supportive of learning.

Others are not. When you're in a small area, there tends to be trends that you need to account for and adjust for. The more you recognize the culture of the area and manage your education techniques to maximize learning in that population, the better.

Take Advantage of the City The rural nature of the area can provide you with great tools to use to the student's advantage. When in such a small area you have the potential to use the community, coming up with fun learning ideas that keep the children more interested in their studies, and possibly get parents more interested as well. Small towns mean that getting the entire city more interested in various ideas and programs should conceivably be easier, and there are often plenty of interesting and fun things to do in and around your area to make that possible.

Keep in Touch with Parents Make sure that parents stay as involved in their child's schooling as possible. Survey them to learn more about their thoughts and concerns, and also to make sure that they're playing a role in their child's education from the beginning. The more these parents affect the education of their children, the more likely they'll show support to your ideas and keep their kids in the books and learning.

Take Advantage of Easier Data Collection Smaller schools and smaller cities mean potentially easier data collection (provided the right technology is available). With a smaller population, you have the opportunity to get a more representative sample from what few people you have. It's rare to be able to so easily find out the pulse of an entire community.

At larger schools in larger areas, the size and diversity makes polling everyone more difficult. In a rural community, you can collect data on everyone in the city with greater ease and be certain that the results of that research and the metrics you create are applicable. Learn From Non-Rural Schools Larger schools can learn a lot from rural schools, which tends to have fairly high success rates given their demographics.

But smaller schools can learn from larger schools as well – especially with regards to materials and programs that may help these students at any school they may attend in the future – in or out of the rural area. While not every child is going to get their Ph.D., you always want to make sure that you're laying the groundwork that will allow these children to choose any path they want in their education, and that means understanding what other schools teach as well and making sure these students are as prepared as possible.

Even the smallest schools can have a major role in the life of a child. As a rural school, you have the opportunity to really make a difference in how these children learn, their interest in education, and who they become as they move up the educational latter. Using research, smart decision making, and the community to your advantage, you can create an environment that will raise some of the brightest young minds in the country.