MEMORANDUM

To:                DEF Board of Directors

From:             Donald Harting, Executive Director

                      Sharon Clark, Assistant Director for Rural Education

                      Research and Policy

Subject:         “Symposium on Rural Education Research and Policy Issues” Results and Proceedings

Date:             August 13, 2003

Enclosed herewith are the proceedings from the “Symposium on Rural Education: Research and Policy Issues” that DEF held on June 25, 2003 . We received some good direction from our recent symposium and summarize here the participants' advice as to further activities of DEF that would be helpful to our community.

1.) As to whether or not it is possible (meaningful) to approach problems from the regional vantage point that we have suggested, the answer was, “Probably. Pick something and let's see how it works.”

2.) The remarks of Nancy Jennings from Bowdoin College in Maine regarding “place-based” education sparked a lot of discussion. It would be helpful and appreciated if we could make available to our education community more information about “place-based” education.

3.) Robert Gibbs (USDA) emphasized that the best predictor of education attainment for the student is the attainment of the parents, and we have many parents with minimal education, particularly in our minority and immigrant populations. The perception was that a lack of understanding of the value of education is not limited to our minority and immigrant parents. We were advised that anything that we could do to help sell the value of education generally to our people is greatly needed.

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