Chapter 1: The Role of School Leaders Managing Social Capital Within Urban and Rural School Settings

How best to educate students within urban and rural settings is of international concern. Students attending schools in both rural and urban settings can suffer from the effects of poverty, underfunded school systems, and limited access to resources (McFarland et al., 2017). Forty-eight percent of rural students and 59% of urban students in the United States lived at the poverty level based on data from the 2014–15 school term (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2017). International perspectives report unequal access to opportunities based on student residence within urban and rural settings (Qian & Smyth, 2008; Sayed, 2010; Stelmach, 2011; Ye, 2010; Young, 1998). For example, the disparities evidenced by the widening achievement gap in urban and rural schools throughout East Asia supports the existence of a universal challenge faced by school leaders in urban and rural settings (Liu, 2009; Othman & Muijs, 2013; Zhang & Pang, 2016; Zhao et al., 2012). This universal challenge regarding how to secure and steward resources to eliminate or minimize barriers to success for disadvantaged students faces all school leaders. School leaders must assume responsibility for leveraging internal and external resources and human and fiscal resources to ensure equity in education and access to academic and social supports for every child. Of particular interest are the social and institutional resources, or “social capital” needed by school administrators to educate students served by urban and rural school systems.