RURAL EDUCATION SCHOLARS PROGRAM: A PILOT PROGRAM SUPPORTING PRE-SERVICE TEACHING CANDIDATES - DR. CHERYL LAMBERT ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, AUSTIN PEAY ...
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RURAL EDUCATION SCHOLARS PROGRAM: A PILOT PROGRAM SUPPORTING PRE-SERVICE TEACHING CANDIDATES DR. CHERYL LAMBERT ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, AUSTIN PEAY STATE UNIVERSITY
SESSION GOALS This session will explore the Rural Education Scholars Program, a Pilot Program at the Center for Rural Education at Austin Peay State University. • funded by a TBR Student Engagement, Retention, and Success Grant; • intended to engage teaching candidates in targeted activities designed to strengthen their abilities to teach in rural areas, influence rural high school student enrollment in post- secondary education, and collaborate with in-service teachers from rural schools.
PRESENTER Cheryl Lambert, Ed.D. Assistant Professor Coordinator, Center for Rural Education Eriksson College of Education Austin Peay State University Clarksville, TN lambertc@apsu.edu
CENTER FOR RURAL EDUCATION
STUDENT ENGAGEMENT, RETENTION, SUCCESS
(SERS)
• Grant award ($25,000) and extension – Aug. 2019 – Dec. 2020
• The award supports the Rural Education Scholars in this work:
• Visiting rural schools;
• Promoting post-secondary education;
• Collaborating with mentor, rural teachers;
• Participating in APSU Rural Ed Conference;
• Developing educational materials to inform teaching candidates about rural teaching.
CHALLENGES • Rural schools face many challenges such as low per-capita income, higher per-pupil cost, higher poverty rates, population decline, hard-to-staff positions with high teacher turnover, single-parent homes, geographic isolation, mobility, and resistance to innovation (King, 2012; Semke & Sheridan, 2012). More than 20% of the nation’s 2,000 poorest performing high schools are located in rural areas (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2010). • “Child poverty is higher in rural districts. Forty-seven percent of urban counties have high rates of child poverty compared with 64% of rural counties” (Kominiak, 2018, para. 2).
UNDERREPRESENTED • “The unique needs of rural education are often obscured by their urban and suburban counterparts. One possible reason is that the majority of American students are educated in urban and suburban schools, which may lead policymakers to focus their attention and efforts on improving education where it will have the largest impact” (Center for Public Education, 2018, p. 1). • “We cannot prepare ourselves to be effective educators for all students if we refuse to understand their lived experiences” (Gorski, 2018, p. 29). • Responsive change for marginalized students can only occur when we acknowledge what happens outside of the classroom.
CONTEXT
• “Based on the 2010 Census, 93% of TN is rural. Some 70 of 95 counties had at least 50%
of their residents living in the 38,330 sq. miles of rural TN. Rural areas often have few
service providers and resources for jobs, health care, and community services.”
https://www.tn.gov/health/cedep/environmental/healthy-places/land-use/lu/rural-
areas.html#where
• These populations of rural students are often underrepresented and overlooked.
Currently 49% of school districts in TN are located in rural communities.
http://www.tnrea.org/RECRUITING SCHOLARS
RURAL EDUCATION SCHOLARS
RURAL EDUCATION SCHOLARS • Facilitated 2-day STEM Workshop for rural science teachers; • Attended and presented at the National Forum to Advance Rural Education in Louisville, KY, in October, 2019, Breaking Rural Barriers; • Prepared for the first-ever APSU Rural Education Conference; • Adapted to COVID-19 in Spring 2020 – conference cancelled; • Submitted/awarded a grant extension until December 2020; • Developed media presentations and surveys to gather data from teachers and students.
DEVELOPING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT • Openly discuss the challenges faced by rural schools. • Demonstrate a Needs Assessment from a visit with rural district leaders. • Explain the process of developing professional development based on the needs of rural teachers.
NEEDS ASSESSMENT
• Houston County (1313 student enrollment)
• Humphreys County (2860 student enrollment)
• Visited with district leaders
• Discussed needs of teachers and students based on school data
• Completed an analysis tool to frame the conversation
• SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats)PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT • University-school partnerships offer vital connections between professors, students, and teachers in rural communities. • These connections build infrastructures of support that identify, understand and activate a variety of support systems to benefit rural schools and communities. • Developing professional development activities for rural schools lightens the financial burden for rural school district leaders. • 2-Day STEM Workshop at APSU for 30 Science teachers from Houston and Humphreys Counties.
WORKSHOP DATA
• Quantitative:
Takeaways APSU Help Challenges
Resources
Hands on Lack of materials
8% activities to 4% or resources
11%
11% perform in Workshops or
classroom 26% 37% demonstrations in 15% Meeting standard
the classroom requirements
22% 59% Standard related None
information 74%
Other
33% OtherWORKSHOP DATA • Qualitative: • “The benefits of this course include realistic knowledge and implementing science and technology activities in school. Improvements would include outreach opportunities where educators are able to engage continuously in professional development such as this.” • “I found the workshop very beneficial. We were given ideas for projects that were inexpensive and could be implemented immediately.” • “Benefits – the other participants understood what we were talking about wen we said no supplies, etc.” • “Two days was not enough time for training.” • “We would love to have you come to our school.” • “Help talk to administration.”
CONTINUE THE WORK
• Projects planned for Fall 2020:
• Develop media presentations to encourage high school students to pursue post-secondary
education (education careers);
• Create videos of Rural Scholars reading children’s books to share with rural elementary
teachers;
• Gather and analyze data from surveys to support writing activities to publish in regional
journals;
• Present findings at a Spring 2020 Virtual Rural Education Conference, APSU.CONTACT INFORMATION Cheryl Lambert, Ed.D. Assistant Professor Coordinator, Center for Rural Education Eriksson College of Education Austin Peay State University Clarksville, TN lambertc@apsu.edu
RESOURCES Alliance for Excellent Education. (2010). Current challenges and opportunities in preparing rural high school students for success in college and career: What federal policymakers need to know. https://all4ed.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/RuralHSReportchallengesOpps.pdf Center for Public Education. (2018). Out of the loop. NSBA. https://education.wsu.edu/documents/2018/12/center-public-education-rural- schools-report.pdf/ Gorski, P. (2018). Reaching and teaching students in poverty: Strategies for erasing the opportunity gap. Teachers College Press. King, S. (2012). Increasing college-going rate, parent involvement, and community participation in rural communities. The Rural Educator, 33(2), 20-26. Kominiak, T. (2018). Rural schools face common challenges, but need unique solutions. TrustEd. http://www.k12insight.com/trusted/report-rural-schools/ Semke, C., & Sheridan, S. (2012). Family-school connections in rural educational settings: A systematic review of the empirical literature. School Community Journal, 22(1), 21-47.
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