Giving Compass' Take:

• A recent report titled, "Why Rural Matters," describes the need for high-quality education in rural communities. 

• What are some ways that funders can get involved to aid rural education systems?

• Learn why rural schools struggle to retain leaders. 

Mississippi may have shown the most improvement in this year’s National Assessment of Educational Progress, but in the state’s rural areas, one in four students lives in poverty, the graduation rate is below the national average, and few students enter college with Advanced Placement credit.

That’s why it ranks as the top “high-priority” state in “Why Rural Matters,” a report released Thursday by the Rural School and Community Trust, the College Board and AASA/The School Superintendents Association.

North Carolina and Alabama are tied for second in terms of having the greatest needs among students in rural areas, followed by Oklahoma, South Dakota, West Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana and Florida. The population of students attending rural schools in many of these states, including Georgia and West Virginia, has increased in recent years.

“While some rural schools and places thrive, others continue to face nothing less than an emergency in the education and well-being of children,” the authors of the report write.

Nearly one in five students in the U.S. — about 9.3 million — attend a rural school, and many districts have high rates of poverty and student mobility. States in the West — Nevada, Arizona, Washington, Colorado and Idaho — have the highest student mobility rates in rural areas.

Overall, the report is intended to draw policymakers’ attention to issues facing rural districts. “Many rural students are largely invisible to state policymakers because they live in states where education policy is dominated by highly visible urban problems,” the authors write.

Read the full article about rural education emergency by Linda Jacobson at Education Dive.