Education Week - February 5, 2014 - 25

for teaching and pedagogy; create learning opportunities for students;
use data to inform and improve instruction and learning;
design instruction that supports individual student learning;
and build capacity to work collaboratively with colleagues to
improve education for all students. Fellows meet regularly with
each other and experts in science and mathematics education
and use online spaces to support one another, share elements of
their practice, and provide critical feedback.
Through the online network, fellows collaborate with, learn
from, and support peers in their own districts and across the
country to support and mentor novice teachers and provide leadership
opportunities for more-experienced ones. Fellows work
with nationally known researchers to develop new pedagogical
skills grounded in the realities of the classroom and then help
train and support the next generation of novice STEM teachers.
By contributing to the building of STEM capacity nationwide,
our work over the last five years has led us to believe that this
approach can address many of the issues that educators and
policymakers have sought to resolve, including:
* Providing extended opportunities for teachers to work together
to learn, implement, and evaluate content-specific pedagogy.
Our program provides experiences and supports for fellows
around content-specific pedagogy, as well as a way to share the
work in their schools and across districts.
* Acknowledging the differences in curriculum and policy
within states and across districts by focusing on what works instructionally,
allowing the shared knowledge of the network to
be leveraged everywhere. For example, KSTF senior fellows have
formed an engineering task force that will develop models to
integrate engineering into all science classes to satisfy the aspirations
and requirements of the Next Generation Science
Standards.
* Addressing teacher retention and differentiation of roles
by keeping teachers engaged through leadership and research
PAGE 26 >
NICOLE GILLESPIE is the executive director of the Knowles Science
Teaching Foundation, which is based in Moorestown, N.J.
"
What is needed
today isn't just an
influx of new
STEM teachers,
but more teachers
with deep
expertise in these
fields and a
commitment to
staying in the
profession."
Why We're Studying
Rural Schools
By Paul T. Hill
W
sessment schedule on the other)?
It's time for action. Principals need direct and
systematic support in building their instructional-leadership
skills. This support includes
specific guidance and best practices on defining
an instructional vision, in identifying what good
and poor instruction looks like, in effectively
using data for decisionmaking, and in engaging
families and the community in the studentachievement
process.
While this is crucially important for new prin-
cipals, it is equally important that experienced
principals have a chance for ongoing support.
For inspiration, let's look to formal, successbased
teacher-induction models and implement
equivalent programs for principals, consisting
of professional learning covering key principles,
in-person or virtual coaching, and collaboration
with peers in a confidential setting.
Second, let's get radical with how we think
about principal preparation and ongoing support,
moving away from the compliance-driven
approach of the past 50 years, with its checklists
of coursework and federal requirements.
Let's shift to a more pragmatic approach that
includes not just rethinking what initial principal
training looks like-more hands-on, more
performance-based-but also rigorous ongoing
support and coaching from someone who has
walked a mile in their shoes. And let's look at
other professional fields, like medicine and law,
for extensive examples to draw on.
Third, principals need specific guidance in
how to make connections across the many mandates
being implemented in their schools. Districts
should work to create links, for example,
between common-core rollouts and the implementation
of new teacher-evaluation protocols.
Additionally, districts should provide a model for
how to communicate these initiatives to teachers
as vital interconnected pieces of reform, not
disconnected parts. Importantly, principals and
teachers should be involved in this process and
feel ownership of the results.
Fourth, districts should evaluate their policies
around decentralization to ensure that
their model is supported by the experience level
of their principals. Already, hybrid models are
emerging that give more power to local schools,
while maintaining a set of district-level initiatives
on the most critical, complicated issues.
Finally, central offices should evaluate the
fundamental role they play for school leaders
and shift from a model of oversight to a model
of support. Too often, "central office" is seen by
principals as equating to "compliance office,"
where the primary role is to communicate the
mandates downward and collect the corresponding
reports upward. Shifting district offices to
a model of principal-centered support in which
challenges are systematically identified and barriers
removed can make a huge difference.
Implementing these best practices can meaningfully
improve the quality of support provided
to principals and increase their chances of success.
And while they might still feel the pain,
there will be a much greater likelihood that a
gain goes along with it. n
DUNCAN YOUNG is a senior vice president at
Scholastic Education, in New York City. He leads
Scholastic Achievement Partners, the educator
support, professional learning, and school improvement
arm of the company. SUSAN SZACHOWICZ is a senior
fellow with the International Center for Leadership in
Education, based in Rexford, N.Y. The center is part of
Scholastic Achievement Partners. She is also a former
principal of Brockton High School in Massachusetts.
hen Americans fret about the performance of public
education, we typically focus on big-city schools.
This makes sense-millions of children are at risk
there-but we habitually overlook the problems of
schools in rural areas.
Most readers would be surprised to learn, as I
was, that more children-nearly 6.5 million-attend
schools in remote rural areas and small towns than
in the 20 largest urban school districts combined. But while some rural students
score a little better on tests than their counterparts in big-city schools, they are less
likely than urban students to enroll in college or stay long enough to get any sort
of degree.
Once upon a time, students from America's
rural communities and small towns were
often the ones who became inventors,
captains of industry, and national
leaders. That's much less often
the case now. Too often, we
don't make the most of the
talents of rural kids, and
that can hurt us in a competitive
world economy.
Why have we neglected
these areas? Well, we
don't really know. Rural
education has been a
back-burner issue for
presidents and Congress,
most state governments,
and foundations that sponsor
research and policy innovation.
A group of solid minds has set
Rural education has
been a back-burner issue for
"
presidents and Congress, most
state governments, and
foundations that sponsor
research and policy
innovation."
out to change this. The nonpartisan
J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Foundation
in Idaho is sponsoring a serious examination of
rural education, the challenges facing rural schools, and the reasons so many rural
students don't reach their full potential. Thanks to this charge, the Rural Opportunities
Consortium of Idaho, or ROCI-an interdisciplinary task force of educators,
policy experts, economists, and experts in technology, which I lead-is taking a fresh
look at rural schools, the overall well-being of rural communities, and the ways
elected officials and philanthropies can make a difference. Bellwether Education
Partners, a nonprofit organization with experience in disadvantaged communities,
is supporting the work and producing analyses and recommendations for policymakers.

Though our efforts have just begun, some things are already clear. Many rural
communities have stable or growing populations. Decades from now, just like today,
millions of bright students will rely on rural schools. Some, though not all, rural
economies are evolving, so young people who want to return home after college-
especially in engineering, health, and analytical disciplines-may find good jobs
waiting. But, as always, there will be even more opportunities for well-prepared
rural students in dynamic big-city economies.
Elementary and secondary education in rural areas needs to innovate to broaden
children's horizons and options. This innovation will strengthen rural communities
and expand the nation's talent pool.
Imaginative rural educators face many challenges, including declining funding
because of local taxpayer resistance, sentimentality about the old ways of doing
things, reluctance to meet the needs of language-minority students, difficulty attracting
able new educators as older ones retire, and problematic state and local
policies. For example, rural superintendents often also serve as school principals
and bus drivers, while at the same time managing as many state and federal programs
and filling out the required reports as do the thousand-person staffs of urban
districts. This added load wastes valuable energy and causes many qualified leaders
to avoid or leave rural leadership jobs.
Americans can do much better for rural students and educators. The state and
federal governments need to recognize the difference between megadistricts and
tiny, remote ones. Technical innovators need to develop more options for rural
schools, and philanthropies need to pay attention. Universities need to prepare
educators for the challenges of rural leadership and teaching.
Our goal is for ROCI to put these issues on the national agenda. But resolving
them will require a great deal of work by elected officials, scholars, private funders,
and educational innovators. We can get the ball rolling, but others will have to keep
it moving. n
PAUL T. HILL is a research professor at the University of Washington, Bothell; the founder
of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, in Seattle; and the chairman of the Rural
Opportunities Consortium of Idaho, in Boise.
EDUCATION WEEK | February 5, 2014 | www.edweek.org/go/commentary | 25

http://www.edweek.org/go/commentary

Education Week - February 5, 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Education Week - February 5, 2014