Prevalence of Strategies for Preparing Rural Teachers
Findings from a multi-site case study.
Zoe A. Barley, PhD & Nancy Brigham, July 2008
This Institute of Education Sciences (IES) report describes how nine teacher preparation programs in the Central Region prepare their graduates for teaching positions in rural settings. In the introduction, Barley and Brigham discuss some to the unique challenges faced by rural school districts in ensuring a highly qualified faculty.
In rural schools teachers are more likely to teach multiple subjects, making it less likely that they are highly qualified in some of the subjects they teach. Rural schools tend to have fewer teaching positions than urban or suburban schools, so reassigning classes from noncertified to certified teachers, as many schools have done, may not be possible. Finally, rural schools have difficulty recruiting and retaining new teachers, not just as a result of the highly qualified teacher requirements, but also because of teaching conditions unique to rural schools (Monk 2007).
Through a review of selected literature the researchers identified five program components intended to help rural schools recruit and retain a highly qualified workforce.
- Options for obtaining multiple-subject certification.
- Access to teacher preparation for prospective rural teachers.
- Recruitment of prospective teachers in rural areas.
- Practice-teaching placement in rural schools.
- Courses focused on rural issues.
The researchers then identified nine educational institutions that used at least three of the five components. In-depth interviews were conducted at each of the identified institutions to obtain detailed descriptions of how each institution implemented the five approaches. The main findings related to each component of the study are discussed in detail.
Potential Implications for Policy and/or Practice:
Barley and Brigham identified practice-teaching placement in rural schools as one approach to recruitment and retention in rural schools. Rural school districts may benefit from proactively contacting institutes of higher education (IHE) to serve as practicum/student teaching sites. Actively pursuing partnerships with IHEs provide opportunities to expose student-teachers to rural teaching experiences.
The full-text version of Prevalence of Strategies for Preparing Rural Teachers is available online.