BUFFALO, Mo. — Suzanne Feldman realizes she’s an anomaly: a soon-to-be college graduate who wants to return to the languid rhythms of rural life rather than flee. The aspiring high school math teacher is a member of the inaugural class of the Ozarks Teacher Corps, a group of southwest Missouri teachers in training who receive $4,000 annual scholarships in exchange for a three-year commitment to work in rural school districts after graduation. Having grown up in a town with fewer than 3,000 residents, a place where your homeroom instructor is just as likely to be sitting in the same church pew come Sunday, the 21-year-old newlywed knows that small-town teachers are not just educators but also neighbors and role models. “The community’s expectations are higher,” said Feldman, a senior at Drury University in Springfield, Mo. “When it’s a small community, everybody knows everybody — and expects a whole lot more.” Faced with chronic teacher shortages and unable to compete with the higher salaries and greater social opportunities found in big cities and suburban districts, a growing number of rural school systems are turning to familiar faces to teach their students. They know teachers with rural backgrounds are more likely to stick around and not leave after a year or two. They can be pretty sure that the absence of late-night clubs or art-house movie theaters won’t drive away otherwise idealistic young teachers. And they can count on those teachers being more in touch with their students’ home lives, whether their parents are Indiana farmers, Mississippi factory workers or Northern California grape pickers. “Small, rural communities are grounded in tradition and have deep roots,” said Catherine Kearney, president of the California Teacher Corps. “Someone who understands those traditions makes a huge difference.” The California effort consists of more than 70 programs aimed at luring professionals with non-teaching experience into the classroom. Last year, the teacher corps shifted its emphasis to rural school districts in a state with 300,000 students from rural areas. Half of those students are minorities, and 25% come from homes where English is not the native language. That makes for a different approach to teacher recruitment than programs based in other parts of the country. Esther Soto, 43, started out two decades ago as parent volunteer in the rural Mendocino County town of Boonville, located 120 miles north of San Francisco. She spent 18 years as a teacher’s assistant before returning to school for her teacher’s certification. Soto now teaches kindergarten in the Anderson Valley school district. When the high school found itself in need of a Spanish teacher, the native of Mexico took on that role as well. “I know the families,” she said. “I’m more likely to make a connection. I’ve seen some of these kids since kindergarten. They can’t escape from me.” Roughly 10.5 million students in this country — nearly 20% of the school-age population — attend rural schools, according to the Rural School and Community Trust, a nonprofit advocacy group based in northern Virginia. The group’s research shows that the 900 poorest rural school districts have higher poverty rates than school systems in Baltimore, Chicago, Philadelphia and other urban areas typically considered as the toughest places to teach, and learn. It’s those sort of eye-opening comparisons that rural education advocates say demands a new, national approach to closing the gap. The Rural School and Community Trust found that 12 states graduate fewer than 60% of students from their poorest rural districts: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota and South Dakota. “As a society, we focus our attention on inner-city kids, and blighted urban school districts,” said Randy Shaver, schools superintendent in Tupelo, Miss. Shaver was one of nine rural superintendents from across the country who met with Education Secretary Arne Duncan late last year to discuss reform proposals. His idea: a national rural teaching corps that would build upon the regional efforts found in places such as Missouri, California and Indiana, where Purdue and two other universities are training math and science professionals to return to the classroom. “We need something that’s far more intensive and far broader,” Shaver said. Many of the newer efforts to foster homegrown teaching talent aim to train not just capable educators but to also inspire those rural teachers to become community leaders. Gary Funk, president of the Community Foundation of the Ozarks, which parlayed a $1.7 million private donation to create the Missouri program, hopes that Feldman and her contemporaries develop into “rural activists.” To that end, Ozarks Teacher Corps participants immerse themselves in the study of rural economies, local history and other matters beyond their chosen specialties. They meet regularly for feedback and support and are assigned mentors to guide them through the early years in the classroom, when challenges and frustration can be at their highest. “In traditional teacher training, we don’t focus so much on the context of community,” Funk said. Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

CHESTER, S.D. — Homecoming brought joy to Betsy Daniel this fall, when classmates chose her as homecoming queen. A similar scene played out this month in New Mexico, where students erupted in cheers when a classmate with special needs was named homecoming king. In Lawrence, Kan., a boy with Down syndrome is on the homecoming court after classmates went to administrators and demanded his name be on the ballot. The king and queen at that school, Free State High, will be crowned Friday . “It’s really amazing to see because there was a time when they were never even invited to go to prom, so to be the king or queen is just phenomenal,” says Kirsten Seckler, a spokesperson for the Special Olympics . Under federal law, students with special needs have the right to be in the same classes as the rest of the students, to the maximum extent possible, says Frances Duff, a teacher at Cibola High School in Albuquerque. As that has happened, and students with special needs become more integrated into the school culture, “they’re no longer seen as different,” Duff says. “There’s a climate of acceptance and enjoying each other,” says Duff, who has seen this first-hand at Cibola, where students with special needs have been chosen homecoming king twice in the past couple of years. A student with autism, Luke Sachs, was named Cibola High homecoming king in 2008, Duff says. Then, James Keefner, who has Down syndrome, was named homecoming king this fall. “I thought the gym was going to implode because of all the cheering and the stomping of the feet,” Duff recalls. “It was really joyous. It was quite a celebration.” Seckler says activities such as sports have led to more friendships. Special-needs students “start to feel accepted and included in their society and in schools, and their confidence grows and they excel,” she says. In the South Dakota prairie town of Chester, Daniel walked the high school hallways with a sparkling tiara and a grin from ear to ear during homecoming festivities earlier this month. Classmates say her smile and outgoing attitude earned her this year’s title because Daniel, who has Down syndrome, is everything a homecoming queen should be. It punctuated a homecoming week that has brought unity to the community, joy to the queen and her parents, and hope to the families that know Daniel through Special Olympics. “The tears of happiness just keep coming,” says her mother, Connie Daniel. “I’m overwhelmed that the community and the school would do that for her.” At Free State High in Lawrence, some friends of Owen Phariss were telling their classmates to vote for him. When the ballots were distributed, they noticed that Phariss — who has Down syndrome — was left off, says his mother, Nancy Holmes. So they began a petition, and collected 800 signatures to get his name on the ballot, she says. School administrators decided to hold a second vote — this time with Phariss’ name on the ballot — and he was elected to the homecoming court. Holmes says many students have gotten to know her son because she’s always tried to keep him in regular classes with everyone else. “I’ve done that since he was born,” she says. “Even in preschool, I just fought for it and I got it.” Now, he could be named homecoming king Friday. “He’s so pumped,” Holmes says. “And it won’t surprise me if he does win.”

ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — Determined to energize dispirited Democrats, President Barack Obama told New Mexico voters on Tuesday that Republicans would reverse the progress he’s made on education reform and student aid. Addressing a small group in an Albuquerque family’s front yard, Obama shifted from his recent focus on the economy, which has run headlong into the grim reality of continued high unemployment. Instead, five weeks ahead of midterm elections that could turn into a Democratic bloodletting, the president told voters to think about education when they head to the polls. “Who’s going to prioritize our young people to make sure they’ve got the skills they need to succeed?” the president said. “Nothing’s going to be more important in terms of our long-term success.” Obama argued that Republicans would cut education spending to pay for tax cuts for the rich. Later in the day, Obama was heading to a big rally at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where he hopes to replicate the raucous, youthful, big-stage events for which he became famous in the 2008 presidential campaign. Democrats will host hundreds of watch parties nationwide, and Obama will hold other campus rallies before Nov. 2 to warn young voters that the “hope and change” they embraced two years ago is at risk if Republicans sweep the midterm elections. The president is aiming to close the enthusiasm gap that pollsters say separates discouraged liberal voters from energized conservatives who might lift Republicans to huge gains in congressional and gubernatorial races. But Obama got a quick reminder from his audience of about 40 in Albuquerque that education might not be at the top of the agenda for recession-weary voters. “If we don’t have homes to go to, what good is education?” one man asked. A high school principal read a letter that he said was from a class in his school. “What assurance will we have that we will be rewarded for good work?” the students asked. “There seems to be less money that banks lend our families, and most of all no jobs.” The president acknowledged the anxiety of the younger generation. “They’re growing up in the shadow of a financial crisis that we hadn’t seen in our lifetime,” he said, arguing his administration has sought to save jobs for teachers and others by closing tax loopholes, and is working to making it easier for kids to attend college. Republican leaders, Obama said, “fought us tooth and nail … That’s the choice that we’ve got in this election.” The event at the stucco home of Andy and Etta Cavalier in a small farming community south of Albuquerque comes as Obama tests out a relatively new format of backyard visits that give him time to explain his policies in cozy, unhurried settings. He’s coupling those with college campus rallies in four states Tuesday and Wednesday, trying to tackle Democrats’ two biggest needs: to pump enthusiasm into young supporters who may stay at home this fall, and to persuade undecided voters that Republican alternatives are unacceptable. In a magazine interview, Obama admonished Democratic voters, saying it would be “inexcusable” and “irresponsible” for unenthusiastic Democrats to sit out the elections because the consequences could be a squandered agenda for years. “People need to shake off this lethargy. People need to buck up,” Obama told Rolling Stone magazine in an interview being published Friday. Making change happen is hard, he said, and “if people now want to take their ball and go home, that tells me folks weren’t serious in the first place.” Obama wants Democratic loyalists to be less apologetic and more forceful in asserting that he and the Democratic-controlled Congress are trying to move the country forward and Republicans would return to the policies of former President George W. Bush . Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

WASHINGTON — Nearly 1 million homeless students attended public schools in 2008-09, a 41% increase over the previous two years and another sign of how broadly the economic recession has struck America. The numbers, based on federal data, were released Tuesday by groups advocating for more federal aid for struggling families. South Dakota saw its number rise from 1,038 in 2006-07 to 1,794 in 2008-09 — a 73% increase. The 22,000-student school district in Sioux Falls has seen the number of homeless kids jump 44% over the past five years. Today, more than 1,000 pupils — about one child per classroom — don’t live in permanent homes. “We have homeless students identified in every school in the district,” said Gail Swenson, supervisor of the district’s Office of Homeless Education. “Some would like to believe one part of town would not have a homeless child and another part would. It’s across the board.” The report said there were nearly 680,000 homeless students, classified as those without permanent housing, in the 2006-07 school year. By 2008-09, that number had climbed to almost 957,000 due to increasing bankruptcies, home foreclosures and unemployment. Forty-three states saw their rolls increase, including five states with more than double the national growth rate: Texas (139%), Iowa (136%), New Mexico (91%), Kansas (88%), and New Jersey (84%). Advocates are asking Congress to provide at least $140 million for homeless students next year, the same amount Congress allocated this year to help with medical care, school supplies and transportation. But about half of that was economic stimulus money that may not be available in 2011. More funding could be a long shot with lawmakers increasingly looking for way to cut federal spending and corral the federal debt. “Schools are uniquely positioned to provide safety, structure and services for homeless children,” said Bruce Lesley, president of First Focus , which released the report with the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth. Swenson said it’s critical that homeless students not miss extended periods of school because of their transient situation. “With every move that a child makes, they can lose from three to six months of academic gain,” she said. “A child who virtually misses third grade loses out on multiplication and cursive writing and that affects the rest of their life.” Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

FORT VALLEY, Ga. — During the school year, Mondays in this rural Georgia community are for video games, trips to grandma’s house and hanging out at the neighborhood community center. Don’t bother showing up for school. The doors are locked and the lights are off. Peach County is one of more than 120 school districts across the country where students attend school just four days a week, a cost-saving tactic gaining popularity among cash-strapped districts struggling to make ends meet. The 4,000-student district started shaving a day off its weekly school calendar last year to help fill a $1 million budget shortfall. It was that or lay off 39 teachers the week before school started, said Superintendent Susan Clark. “We’re treading water,” Clark said as she stood outside the headquarters of her seven-school district. “There was nothing else for us to do.” The results? Test scores went up. So did attendance — for both students and teachers. The district is spending one-third of what it once did on substitute teachers, Clark said. And the graduation rate likely will be more than 80% for the first time in years, Clark said. The four days that students are in school are slightly longer and more crowded with classes and activities. After school, students can get tutoring in subjects where they’re struggling. On their off day, students who don’t have other options attend “Monday care” at area churches and the local Boys & Girls Club, where tutors are also available to help with homework. The programs generally cost a few dollars a day per student. Experts say research is scant on the effect of a four-day school week on student performance. In fact, there is mostly just anecdotal evidence in reports on the trend with little scientific data to back up what many districts say, said University of Southern Maine researcher Christine Donis-Keller. “The broadest conclusion you can draw is that it doesn’t hurt academics,” said Donis-Keller, who is with the university’s Center for Education Policy, Applied Research and Evaluation. Many districts that have the shortened schedule say they’ve seen students who are less tired and more focused, which has helped raise test scores and attendance. But others say that not only did they not save a substantial amount of money by being off an extra day, they also saw students struggle because they weren’t in class enough and didn’t have enough contact with teachers. The school district in Marlow, Okla., is switching back to a five-day week after administrators decided students were not being served well by attending school only four days. The 440-student district tried the shorter week the spring semester this year to save $25,000 in operation costs. “It was harder on the teachers. We were asking the kids to move at a quicker pace,” said district Superintendent Bennie Newton. “We’re hoping the four-day week won’t come into play next year.” The move by Peach County in Georgia gets mixed reviews. Parents like Heather Bradshaw worry that their children are getting shortchanged on time with teachers. “I don’t feel like they’re having the necessary time in the classroom,” said Bradshaw, a single mother with a fourth-grade son at one of the county’s three elementary schools. “The schedule has slowed him down.” Other parents prefer the shorter schedule and don’t mind the hassle of finding a babysitter one day a week. “It makes the children’s weekend a little better, so they get more rest,” said LaKeisha Johnson, who sends her fourth-grade daughter to the Boys & Girls Club on Mondays. The trend of four-day school weeks started in New Mexico during the oil crisis of the 1970s and has been popular in rural states where students have to commute a long way. Other districts have used it as a way to try to fix schools with a long history of poor student performance by shaking up the schedule and giving children more time to study outside of school. Georgia, Oklahoma and Maine have changed their laws in the last couple of years to allow districts to count their school year by hours rather than days, allowing for a four-day week if needed. Hawaii schools were off every other Friday this year for schools to save money, giving them the state with the shortest school year in the country. From California to Minnesota to New York, districts — mostly small, rural ones with less than 5,000 students — are following the trend, hoping to rescue their bleeding budgets. For Peach County, the four-day week was enough of a success that the school district is trying it again next year, Clark said. The move saves $400,000 annually and is popular among teachers and students because they get extra rest, she said “Teachers tell me they are much more focused because they’ve had time to prepare. They don’t have kids sleeping in class on Tuesday,” she said. “Everything has taken on a laser-light focus.” Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.