Urging rural schools to rise to the challenges of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige on Sept. 25 hosted a virtual town hall meeting intended to showcase how technology is helping schools in four largely remote states comply with the law's demands.

The hour-long webcast, featuring presentations by lawmakers, education officials, local educators, and students, explored efforts under way in Montana, West Virginia, New Mexico, and Iowa to achieve better results and close the distance between students and educators in sparsely populated regions.

Presenters said technology can play a key role in toppling the impediments faced by rural schools in particular, from the need for more teachers who are highly qualified to higher-level instruction and more accurate assessment of student achievement.

"The internet is the eighth wonder of the world," Paige said in a statement following the event. "It brings unlimited information, entire libraries, courses, and instruction to anywhere you have a modem and a server. Now, technology even removes the distance of time and space and allows us to share valuable information. Rural schools are no longer isolated."

Expanding the reach of instructors

In Iowa, for instance, educators at Manning High School--a 170-student institution about two hours outside of Des Moines--have tapped the power of the Iowa Communications Network (ICN), a statewide computer infrastructure designed specifically for use by public agencies, to deliver foreign language and upper-level mathematics courses via videoconferencing to students in rural areas across the state.

Although Manning is fortunate enough, according to Principal Brian Wall, to have highly qualified teachers on staff--especially for more advanced disciplines such as calculus and foreign languages--many schools in rural Iowa lack the resources to provide such options to students. But with ICN, Manning teachers can work with understaffed schools by presenting virtual classes over the network.

As many as three other high schools have been connected to calculus classes at Manning using the network, Wall said. Though the school itself enrolled only three or four students in calculus classes this year, the instructor is responsible for teaching approximately a dozen students across the state.

"Teachers are hard to find, especially for rural schools," Wall explained. Given the recent spate of budget cuts, he suggested that delivering courses via video provides a highly attractive, economically feasible alternative to hiring a full-time teacher, particularly in rural areas where salaries are traditionally lower and highly skilled educators are in great demand.

Bringing lessons to life

In Montana, schools are employing the power of the internet to deliver highly engaging lessons that connect students to scientists and explorers in the field. The state has turned to the JASON Foundation for Education to offer real-life science and math curriculum to students in grades 4-9 and in all seven Native American Reservations across the state.