I have some first hand (as student) experience in gifted programs in rural and urban areas. Unfortunately, it's 30 years ago.
My somewhat shaky recollections. I lived in an urban area, then rural, then different rural. These were in three different states. Let's say populations of ~200K+, ~5K, and ~12K. All midwestern states. My experiences were I think usually referred to as TAG programs.
City and tiny rural had programs for students. It seems like we were taken out of class and worked on multidisciplinary projects as individuals or groups. I know that in the city, this program was a very early program where they were trying to work out how to identify and how to create curriculum. Apparently some students were in there because the parents thought they should be. One kid researched "Would ferrets make good pets." One of my projects involved researching robots (i.e. I read some books) and then designing, illustrating, and assembling a pop-up book that reported my "findings". This was about 2nd-3rd grade. I don't remember much about the tiny rural program, I was only there about 9 months (and not in a good mood). The small rural community didn't have any sort formal program that I recall, but I did spend a lot of time is special more advanced art projects (stained glass, computer animation, painting a mural).
My parents rejected grade skipping for social adjustment reasons.
So my experience is that there wasn't much difference between gifted education that could be attributed to rural vs. urban. It seemed to be a result of volunteer or teacher led initiative.
My current school corporation covers both rural and urban areas and appears to use the same identification and instruction options for both.
I'm afraid my experience might not be much use, because I think it is almost prehistory.
