Educator expertise in course offerings can be limited in rural districts. For example, a rural teacher may be instructing English, science and band, requiring more preparation work and also resulting in lower specialization. This would compare to an educator in an extremely urban area, who would teach geometry each hour every day, Taylor said.

Students in rural districts also may not have opportunities to take higher level courses such as trigonometry. Some rural districts may offer the class only every other year because of limited resources. However, distance learning has helped greatly in this area, Taylor said.

Larry Abplanalp, assistant superintendent at Duchesne School District in northeastern Utah, says it is challenging for rural districts that NCLB is requiring highly qualified teachers. "We are really under the gun," Abplanalp said.

He also points to the fact rural districts generally have a difficult time recruiting specialists for special needs children.

Taylor said other rural district challenges include difficulty getting substitute teachers and a higher turnover of teachers, he said.

Abplanalp says Duchesne district does have a hard time getting teachers to live and work in the area.

"Some like the rural life. They like to hunt and fish. And we do have excellent teachers," he said. "We just don't have the malls and social life that are the lure to the urban areas."

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E-mail: astewart@desnews.com