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Developing Rural Teachers and Leaders
Training, recruiting and retaining great people for the most important job
Teaching basic skills and life survival skills, showing how the world works, fostering involvement in and appreciation for the arts, building personal traits such as curiosity, self-confidence, independence, and self-esteem, and simultaneously moving the student beyond self into a caring relationship with humanity and the environment and a sense of the interdependence of all life -- a big job indeed ... the job of everyone from whom young people gain knowledge. It is for this reason that the best teachers, realizing the limitations on their time and energy, make sure that all the projects and lessons that take place in their classes serve double and triple functions; and they constantly strive to find activities that are so compelling and so rich that they go even beyond that. They are, in short, activities that serve nearly all the goals simultaneously, with no real increase in the time and energy required.... Suddenly rather than being narrow and pinched, they see things whole.
--Eliot Wigginton, Sometimes a Shining Moment
The Rural Trust recognizes the crucial role of teachers in any school improvement effort. In some rural communities teacher shortages are causing tramatic problems. Even where supply is not an issue, quality always is. The Rural Trust is working to develop model approaches to teacher training tailored for rural areas with an emphasis on technology literacy and place-based learning. In the policy realm we are investigating key questions around issues of teacher recruitment and retention.
Rural school leadership plays an important role in improving education in rural and small schools. Listening to the voices of rural leaders is vital to fostering change through place-based education and related initiatives in order to connect communities and classrooms and improve learning.
New Paradigm Partners
Rural Education Advancement Program (REAP)
RESEARCH
Dec 04 - Teachers and Teaching Conditions in Rural New Mexico
Jul 03 - The Missouri Education Renewal Zones
Jul 03 - The Teacher Shortage and its Implications for Recruitment Policy (Murphy & DeArmond, CRPE)
Mar 03 - Rural Teachers Earn Significantly Less Than Urban, Suburban Counterparts
Oct 02 - Rural School Leadership in the Deep South
Sep 01 - Teacher Recruitment and Retention: What works in the Midwest
Jun 01 - Teacher salary survey finds South Dakota at the bottom
Oct 00 - Teachers and technology
LINKS
National Rural Education Association
National Community Education Association
National Education Association
Public Education Network (PEN)
Oct 03 - Tennessee Rural Teachers Get Pay Raises
Oct 03 - After High School ... Then What?
Aug 03 - Tennessee K-12 Education Budget Avoids Cuts; Rural Teachers Get Pay Raises
Aug 03 - Alabama Parents Will Not Be Notified If Teacher Is "Highly Qualified"
Jun 03 - New Law May Leave Many Rural Teachers Behind (NY Times 6/23/03)
May 03 - Study Finds Cost of Teacher Turnover Underestimated
Apr 03 - Some Teachers Don't Think Like Business People
Apr 03 - Highly Qualified Teachers: A Primer on No Child Left Behind
Jan 03 - Highly Qualified Teachers
Jan 03 - California Sued Over Hiring of Unqualified Teachers
Jan 03 - Report Says Poor Working Conditions and Teacher Exodus Are Cause of Teacher Shortage
Jan 03 - Quality Counts 2003: States Not Targeting Quality Teacher Recruitment and Retention
Jan 03 - New Study Will Examine Successful Rural Teacher Retention Strategies
Dec 02 - NEA Salary Survey Shows Stagnant Growth Over the Last Decade
Dec 02 - Rural School Leader "Diary" Column Debuts Online
Dec 02 - Challenges and Rewards of Rural School Leadership
Nov 02 - Rural Schools Score Major Victory in Arkansas Supreme Court
Nov 02 - Tennessee Supreme Court Strikes Down Rural School Funding Plan
Nov 02 - New Study Finds Number of Teachers Teaching Out-of-Field Unacceptably High
Oct 02 - New Publication: Rural School Leadership in the Deep South
Oct 02 - No Child Left Behind Act Increases Federal Role in Education, Puts Pressure on Rural Schools
Oct 02 - Rural Schools Participate in Youth Civic Engagement Initiative
Aug 02 - Field Reports: Community Collaboration for Place-Based Studies
Aug 02 - Connecting Communities and Classrooms
Apr 02 - A Firsthand Account of Teaching in a Small School
Feb 02 - A First Person Account of the Rural Trust's Education Renewal Zone Initiative in Missouri
Feb 02 - Missouri's North Nodaway School District's Professional Development Program Improves Teacher Effectiveness and Student Achievement
Dec 01 - A First Person Account of the Rural Trust Portfolio Design Process: A Light Shining on Learning That Happens Within the Context of Community
Nov 01 - Successful Strategies: Attracting Teachers with Child Care Incentives
Oct 01 - Classroom Resource Offers Lesson Plans on Community Heritage
Oct 01 - The Puzzle of Rural Teacher Shortages
Oct 01 - Echoes in the Hallway
Aug 01 - How to Make the Outdoors Your Classroom
Aug 01 - Zia Pueblo and Peacham, Vermont Student Exchange
Jun 01 - Art Blooms in the Desert: A First Person Account of the First Regional Getty Arts Meeting
Jun 01 - New England Students Challenged to "Take The Plunge -- Make A Difference!"
Apr 01 - Students Converge in Kearney, Nebraska for Student Extravaganza 2001
Feb 01 - Mississippi Partnership Will Improve Student Writing
Dec 00 - Making the Best Better: Developing a Portfolio-based Assessment System
Jan 00 - Alaska Standards for Culturally Responsive Schools
Dec 99 - Collective Action Leads to NCAA Changes
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© 2003 The Rural School and Community Trust
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The Rural Trust has started an online column, "Diary of a Rural School Leader," written by Jeanne Surface, assistant superintendent at Meeteetse Public Schools in Wyoming. The first installment of the column