Education Week - November 12, 2014 - 28

COMMENtaRY
What About Helping Rural Schools?
Simply Finding Enough Teachers Can Be Tough
By April Bo Wang
A
"
There is little awareness that
there are failing schools and
children in need spread across
miles of farmland, mountains,
and deserts."
Steve Braden for Education Week
| INSIDE | 21 RANDI WEINGARTEN:
COLLABORATION
TAKES TWO
21 OVERLOOKED AND IN NEED:
BLACK FEMALE STUDENTS
28 | EDUCATION WEEK | November 12, 2014 | www.edweek.org/go/commentary
few years ago, I knew a
17-year-old boy I'll call
Raymond. Raymond
lived in the sparsely
populated Arkansas
Delta and went to high
school in a town some
miles from his home. On
stifling-hot days, he had a 10-minute walk
down a rutted dirt path to the main road,
where he caught the school bus. On days
when the rain poured down, the ruts in the
dirt path converged into an insurmountable
river. Even if Raymond could have forded
the river, odds were good the bus wouldn't
make it down the main road anyway. Raymond
couldn't ask his grandparents for a
ride; they didn't have a car.
Raymond's struggle for access to schooling
was physical-sometimes he actually could
not get to school-but across rural America,
students struggle for access to high-quality,
well-resourced public education. Sadly, their
challenges are often absent from the public
conversation on education, which is informed
by television shows like "The Wire,"
mainstream journalists, and the rhetoric of
politicians who reference schools in big cities
like Chicago and Washington.
Good teaching is good teaching, point
blank. But context matters. In communities
where access to resources goes beyond
monetary solutions, and school culture is
dominated by a social context remarkably
unique to the community, the national discussions
and policies around improving
public education often seem irrelevant.
Consider, for one, debates about online education.
I am a traditionalist who believes
that a good teacher in the flesh is better
than a good digital-learning program. But
for Raymond, when it rained, the choice
wasn't between a teacher and a digital program.
It was between a digital program and
a missed day of learning. Of course, the assumption
is also that Raymond had access
to a computer and the Internet at home.
Unfortunately, he didn't.
Now, take school discipline. Last year, the
Los Angeles school district ended suspensions
for "willful defiance," a practice that
had allowed for potentially arbitrary suspensions.
In rural districts
where students
are allowed to choose
between an oldfashioned
paddling
and suspension,
the discussion of
ethics takes on a
different tenor.
Or, take the recurring
debates
over teacher evaluation
and teacher
tenure. In this year's
much-talked-about
Vergara v. California
decision, a state court
judge ruled that California's teacher-tenure
and -dismissal laws placed an unconstitutional
burden on poor students, often saddling
them with bad teachers who should
have been fired. In urban districts, the logical
outcome is straightforward. If kids in
a class are not learning, then replace that
teacher with one who helps them learn. But
rural districts often face a lack of teachers,
period. That means employing an effective
teacher workforce is a whole different
ballgame.
For example, almost one-third
of districts in Mississippi suffer
"critical shortages" of teachers. At
least 10 percent to 15 percent of
those districts' teachers are not
licensed in the subjects they
teach-subjects that include
math, science, and foreign
languages, as well as special
education. In addition, under
Mississippi law, teachers
have job protections
after two years regardless
of how they are doing in the classroom.
But who wants to fire a bad certified
teacher when there is nobody to replace
him?
So how does one create a rural teacher
pipeline, overcoming the disincentives of a
two-hour drive to Starbucks and a low salary?
First,
funnel more resources into
rural districts so that they can offer
higher teacher salaries. For example,
in Alaska, where 65 percent of districts are
rural, teachers receive higher salaries if
they teach in remote schools. Alaska Pacific
University created a program specifically
aimed at preparing teachers for rural placements;
the program also prepares teachers
to navigate cultural differences.
Second, offer higher-education loan
forgiveness for teachers who take positions
at rural schools. Or, provide access
to certification to those already living
in rural communities. East Carolina University
offers a distance learning program
in which aspiring teachers already living in
rural communities can earn scholarships
to attain a teaching degree without leaving
home.
Third, offer housing as part of the
compensation package, a tactic that a
few districts have already adopted-
with good reason. Upon my move to the
Delta, my first real-estate tour included a
curious dichotomy of semi-renovated historical
buildings: a former parish house and a
one-time bordello.
As for problems of access, leverage the
opportunities of a digital age. Equip rural
schools with technology so that students
can connect to resources beyond the school
walls, such as Khan Academy. Train teachers
and students to use those resources.
Lend iPads to students to take home.
Now, let's talk about Teach For America
and its role in rural schools. The typical
objections to this program surround hiring
unprepared teachers who are less effective
than traditional-route teachers and who
stay in schools for only two years before
moving to greener pastures. In the Delta,
which has seen tfa teachers come and go
for two decades, some folks have accepted
this ebb and flow of new blood as critical to
PAGE 24 >
APRIL BO WANG is a doctoral candidate in education
leadership at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
She taught 11th grade in Phillips County, Ark., from
2009 to 2011, as a member of Teach For America. She
recently started an organization through the Harvard
Innovation Lab called This Land Speaks, which aims to
use media education to empower rural students.
22 GRADING STANDARDS
CAN ELEVATE TEACHING
23 LETTERS TO
THE EDITOR
http://www.edweek.org/go/commentary
Education Week - November 12, 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Education Week - November 12, 2014
