This volume looks at both the macro-factors affecting rural schools as well as the specific steps rural schools have taken and can take to improve.

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Michael Q. McShane and Andy Smarick
Chapter 1: Rural Poverty and the Federal Safety Net: Implications for Rural Educators
Angela Rachidi
Chapter 2: African-American Education in Rural Communities in the Deep South: "Making the Impossible Possible"
Sheneka M. Williams
Chapter 3: From Basketball to Overdose Capital: The Story of Rural America, Schools, and the Opioid Crisis
Clayton Hale and Sally Satel
Chapter 4: The Power of Place: Rural Identity and the Politics of Rural School Reform
Sara Dahill-Brown and Ashley Jochim
Chapter 5: A Statistical Portrait of Rural Education in America
Nat Malkus
Chapter 6: School Finance in Rural America
James V. Shuls
Chapter 7: Staffing America's Rural Schools
Daniel Player and Aliza Husain
Chapter 8: Right Place, Right Time: The Potential of Rural Charter Schools
Juliet Squire
Conclusion
Michael Q. McShane and Andy Smarick
About the Editors
About the Contributors

Michael Q. McShane is director of national research at EdChoice. He is also an adjunct scholar in education policy at the American Enterprise Institute and a senior fellow at the Show-Me Institute.
Andy Smarick is director of the civil society, education and work program at the R Street Institute.