Bowling Green, Ky. - As the native of a poor town in the Appalachian Mountains of eastern Kentucky, Jessica Martin understands the value of improving the quality of education in rural areas.

"I have seen what most policymakers just talk and read about," said Martin, a Western Kentucky University senior from Bulan in Perry County.

As one of five Undergraduate Rural Poverty Fellows for 2004-05 selected by the Rural Policy Research Institute's Rural Poverty Research Center, Martin has been working on an education policy analysis comparison for Kentucky and Mississippi.

"This fellowship allows me to test my skills in making policy recommendations and helps me learn how to research the topic and work with others in the field," said Martin, a sociology and public relations major. "This is the kind of work I want to do for the rest of my life, particularly when it comes to finding ways to improve rural education."

Education is the key to improving the quality of life for residents in rural areas, Martin said. "States suffer from brain drain because there are no jobs," she said. "You bring businesses to the state when the companies see there are educated, talented people to work for them. Rural areas continue to be poor because, although strides in education have been made, they are still struggling and largely overlooked."

Martin said edweek.org ranked Kentucky in the top 10 on education reform with an A in standards and accountability, a B+ on efforts to improve teacher quality and C's on school climate and resource equity.

"One would assume that the rural schools played a part in this average grade. They would be correct," Martin said. "In a study by Elizabeth Beeson and Marty Strange of the Rural School and Community Trust, Kentucky ranked third among states that needed to make rural education a priority. Mississippi was first."

Martin, who will graduate from Western in May, will present her research May 3-4 at a regional conference at Penn State University.

More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you'd like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.

For information, contact Douglas Smith, sociology associate professor, at (270) 745-2152.