Identifying and Allocating Resources for Learning Improvement

Abstract

<jats:p>This article investigates efforts by rural superintendents and rural principals to identify and leverage the local resources available to them to support learning improvement agendas within their schools. This study investigates practices within a diverse range of rural schools located in Washington State to understand how resources can be identified and allocated to best support student learning. In addition, this article explores the importance of family and community engagement in administrators' school improvement agendas. The conceptual framework for this study is informed by literature investigating resource allocation for educational improvement. This study was designed to better understand how rural education leaders identify, leverage, and allocate supports and resources, particularly those available within their immediate communities, to meet the needs of their staff and students. The rural schools represented in this study demonstrate trends in student achievement gains, despite challenges facing rural schools, such as increasing economic stratification in rural communities and diseconomies of scale in operating small schools and districts. Administrators meet these challenges by (a) maximizing teacher's instructional time through assuming duties often performed by nonadministrative personnel in other settings, thereby reaffirming the particularly multifaceted nature of rural school leadership; (b) forging formal and informal partnerships within the immediate community and geographic region to support student learning; and (c) leveraging the interconnected nature of rural communities in ways that increase community engagement in schools. Thoughtful community engagement strategies help manage the external politics of resource distribution within schools and ultimately materialize support for student learning.</jats:p>

Flipping Narratives in New Spaces:

“…In our forthcoming mapping review of rural education research, my colleagues and I discovered what we call rural research deserts, where there is a great need for more rural-related research activity. Specifically, we found that portions of the West, Upper Midwest, and the Northeast United States consisted of rural education research deserts, where few or no rural studies have been reported (Their et al, 2019). Henry's (2019) article in this issue is drawn from one such research desert: the West.…”

“…Specifically, we found that portions of the West, Upper Midwest, and the Northeast United States consisted of rural education research deserts, where few or no rural studies have been reported (Their et al, 2019). Henry's (2019) article in this issue is drawn from one such research desert: the West. Though other regions, such as the Southeast and Appalachia, produce more rural research than the previously mentioned regions, more studies are still needed; the peer-reviewed research base in rural education studies at the primary, secondary, and postsecondary levels in the United States consists of only around 500 studies (Their et al, 2019).…”

“…This article also taps into the perspective of bilingual rural teachers, an underrepresented perspective (Burton et al, 2013). This issue shifts from teachers to administrators in the fourth article (Henry, 2019). In this article, Henry examined the experiences of rural superintendents and rural principals and how they leverage local resources to meet the unique needs of schools in the state of Washington.…”

Professional Development for Secondary School Teachers and Educational Professionals in STEM Fields

“…in recruiting and hiring specialized content teachers (Hardré, 2011;Monk, 2007). Consequently, rural school teachers may be highly taxed when dealing with classroom situations that require them to teach outside of their content area (Fortney et al, 1999;Hammer et al, 2005;Henry, 2019;Jimmerson, 2004). In addition to geographic isolation, administrators in rural school districts are faced with economic challenges associated with loss of economic bases, lower school district budget revenue, and lack of political capital, leaving school districts with scarce resources to deal with the difficulties of recruiting, hiring, and retaining highly skilled professionals in the areas of mathematics and science (Hammer et al, 2005;Johnson & Zoellner, 2016;McHenry-Sorber, 2019;Monk, 2007;Williams & Grooms, 2016).…”

Innovative and Encouraging Research and Application of Co-teaching in Rural Settings: An Introduction to Volume 9, Issue 2 of TPRE

“…Rural education leaders are forced to consider creative and innovative ways to allocate and leverage the limited resources to meet teaching and student learning needs. The reorganization of staff with differentiated roles is one example of how leaders can leverage their resources for greater impact (Henry, 2019;Miles & Ferris, 2015). The articles in this issue demonstrate powerful instances of how co-teaching can and is being used to improve teaching and learning in rural schools.…”