High schools are a cornerstone of America's rural communities. When they are strong, rural secondary schools provide twenty-first-century students with the high-level knowledge, skills, and technology they need to succeed in college, careers, and life. In too many rural communities, however, high schools are in trouble. In fact, more than one fifth of the nation's two thousand poorest-performing high schools are located in rural areas. Despite progress in overall rural educational attainment, rural high school dropout rates are still too high and college enrollment rates too low. Currently, one in four rural students fails to graduate from high school, and the rate is even lower for minority youth. In addition, only 17 percent of rural adults age twenty-five and older have a college degree--half the percentage of urban adults. With more than 3.4 million American students currently attending rural high schools, these troubling outcomes are more than a "local" problem. They are a national crisis. This report is intended to give federal policymakers a detailed understanding of the challenges facing rural high schools as well as the inherent assets that rural schools bring to the national education reform debate. The report notes that current federal education policies and research tend to favor urban and suburban high schools with the largest student populations and pay too little attention to the unique needs and circumstances of rural high schools. As a result, high schools--and high school students--in too many rural communities are in trouble. (Contains 191 endnotes.)