In a district losing money, students from afar fill the gap

In a former mining county in Kentucky, a high school principal is leveraging partnerships and raising expectations to both encourage students to complete high school and pursue college classes and to stay to work in the county. The school now boasts a 99 percent graduation rate and new programs to attract high-quality teachers.

Raton's economy took a devastating blow when its coal mine shut down and hundreds of people lost their job. In recent years the town has made great strides in rebuilding by taking inventory of what the town needs, encouraging local businesses, seeking tourists and businesses, and trying to build a stronger work ethic in the residents and decrease the prevalence of drugs.

Evictions can have devastating effects on a student’s access to education, forcing some to drop out of school. In Delhi, a city in India, a school was built by students, community members, and volunteers using locally-sourced materials. The community had been forcibly removed from their homes, and the students were left without a school.

Some of California's rural counties with large Latinx populations are turning to early college models to improve high school graduation and college enrollment rates. Dual enrollment programs aim to help students earn a two-year college certificate or degree upon completion of high school.

As enrollments decline and finances increasingly pose problems, institutions of higher education are taking a number of creative approaches, chief among them, merging with other schools and accelerating degree program timelines.

In stark contrast to schools in the rest of the state, Tinmouth's elementary school population has increased by 30 percent in the past four years, helping to bring in and retain dedicated teachers. Tinmouth, which focuses on outdoor and project-based education and thoughtfully marketing its programs, offers lessons for other rural towns navigating population loss.

At St. Vrain, a public school in Boulder County, Colorado's district, students work on projects for IBM and about 100 other industry partners, sometimes earning money and college credits in the process. Educators from across the country are flocking to the school to understand how its STEM curriculum and innovative partnerships are increasing the Latino graduation rate and dramatically decreasing the number of suspensions districtwide.

Uganda has some of the most progressive refugee policies in the world, and as a result it is now home to the second largest refugee camp in the world. Bidibidi houses a quarter million people, many of whom come from the South Sudan, and as such is on its way to becoming a permanent city. While there is still progress to be made, especially economic, many residents of Bidibidi are optimistic settling into the daily routines and connections that make up a functioning city.

The Ugandan government is shifting tourist dollars to focus on rural education, dedicating 20% of money spent in safari tourism on developing schools in rural communities. While the country has been working for years to dedicate some tourism funding to rural communities, local officials have changed the focus to renew schools that are falling apart or don't have enough resources to adequately teach local children.

The new California Rural Ed Network is working to connect isolated teachers in small towns and rural communities with resources and education about social-emotional learning and trauma-informed approaches. The initiative, still in its nascent years, aims to "join forces to attract new resources" and "share expertise."