21CSLA Research-Practice Brief: Equity-Driven Leadership in Rural Education

In the United States, over 9.5 million students, or more than one in five students, attend rural schools. Despite their large presence, rural education and schools are often neglected when it comes to policy-making and academic scholarship. In a leadership context, the shortage of qualified principals and superintendents due to difficulties attracting candidates and frequent turnover remains a key issue. This is partly because rural leaders are often forced to wear many hats simultaneously without sufficient professional development and resources to aid them. Additionally, due to inaccurate narratives of rurality as homogenous and the widespread use of deficit perspectives such as parochialism or the lack of human capital, rural schools continue to face inequitable conditions.