From the first discussions of No Child Left Behind, the president’s reform of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, rural states pointed out that the assumptions in the act made school districts all sound urban. NCLB assumed, for instance, an unlimited supply of qualified teachers and offered as a penalty that students could transfer to another nearby school if their current school didn’t meet standards.

Parents in rural districts asked, What nearby school would that be?

Since then, the federal Department of Education, with the prodding of Congress and a strong reaction from the states, has paid much closer attention to rural districts. A new study from the Government Accountability Office shows that some progress is being made – NCLB has become more flexible toward rural schools and those schools are using programs designed to help them meet the standards – but that there are more areas where rural states are at a disadvantage.

Some of the changes to the original act are that some rural districts get an additional three years to meet qualification requirements and that rural states can use a single test to determine whether teachers are qualified rather than a subject-specific test. The GAO, which visited Maine and four other states as part of its study, also commended the Education Department for providing added money to rural districts to meet their goals through the Rural Education Achievement Program, through legislation written by Sen. Susan Collins. That program allowed Maine last year to draw $3.6 million in federal grants.

The GAO noted challenges generally to rural schools that apply to Maine. Among those were an inability to free up teachers to attend courses, limited budgets to attract top teachers, limited technology and a lack of information on remedial services to help students.

Sens. Collins and Olympia Snowe have formed a task force of two dozen educators from around the state to provide further obstacles to meeting NCLB; it is expected to offer its conclusions sometime this winter.

The important results of NCLB won’t be known for a couple of years – that much time is needed to find patterns of substandard performance. But problems in carrying out the demands of the act can be spotted much sooner. The Education Department, to its credit, has been willing to make some changes to accommodate rural schools in its standards. The GAO points out that it could be helping even more.