University-district partnerships have the potential to disrupt inequities in rural special education programs, build community engagement, and create new pathways for recruitment of qualified teachers. This chapter summarizes unique challenges experienced by rural school districts, describes various universities' approaches to field experiences based on firsthand interviews, and documents one university's multi-year collaborative partnership with special educators in rural school districts (including what has worked and suggested changes). Strategies that can aid in successful collaborations between university teacher education programs and rural school districts, perspectives of cooperating teachers and students who participated in the rural special education field experience semester, and recommendations for creating successful partnerships are shared.
TopDisparities In Rural Schools
A plethora of inequities face rural schools on any given day. Such disparities have been well-established in the literature for over a decade. Research reports that rural schools experience higher per pupil costs (Harmon, Gordanier, Henry, & George, 2007), educate large percentages of students from low socioeconomic statuses (Sutton, Bausmith, O’Connor, Pae, & Payne, 2014) and receive less funding (Mitchem, Kossar, & Ludlow, 2006). Furthermore, research shows such rural school districts also experience increased transportation costs, decreasing neighborhood populations and increasing rates of poverty (reducing the funding coming from property taxes) (Harmon, Gordanier, Henry, & George, 2007; Sutton, Bausmith, O’Connor, Pae, & Payne, 2014). Rural districts face challenges offering adequate professional development (Barton, 2012; Harmon, Gordanier, Henry, & George, 2007; Maheady, Magiera, & Simmons, 2016), as well. These realities further exacerbate the barriers rural schools have to overcome in order to provide the same quality education to their students as do their urban and suburban counterparts. Rural schools, however, are privy to specific programs and grants to offset costs (Schafft, 2016), which can help mitigate disparity with urban schools.
Literature on disparities that rural schools experience, specific to the teaching staff, documents the difficulties districts have when recruiting and retaining teachers (Dadisman, Gravelle, Farmer & Petrin, 2010; Fowler, Butler, Cowen, Streams, & Toma, 2014; Gagnon & Mattingly, 2012; Lamkin, 2006; Monk, 2007; Sutton, Bausmith, O’Connor, Pae, & Payne, 2014). Compared to suburban and urban schools, rural districts employ fewer highly qualified teachers (Sutton, Bausmith, O’Connor, Pae, & Payne, 2014) and more educators teaching under emergency licenses (Sutton, Bausmith, O’Connor, Pae, & Payne, 2014). Rural districts also have more teachers who provide instruction and services outside of their licensure areas (Barton, 2012; Harmon, Gordanier, Henry, & George, 2007). Furthermore, rural schools employ more inexperienced teachers (Fowler, Butler, Cowen, Streams, & Toma, 2014; Gagnon & Mattingly, 2012; Lamkin, 2006; Monk, 2007) and pay a lower salary to their teachers (Barton, 2012). On top of these inequities, they also have difficulty recruiting and retaining qualified teachers in high need areas (Fowles, Butler, Cowen, Streams, & Toma, 2014; Gagnon & Mattingly, 2012; Lamkin, 2006; Monk, 2007) such as special education (Brownell, Hirsch, & Seo, 2004; Dadisman, Gravelle, Farmer, & Petrin, 2010; Schafft, 2016; Sutton, Bausmith, O’Connor, Pae, & Payne, 2014). Conversely, the benefits of working in rural schools include higher job satisfaction and teaching students with less behavioral challenges (Provasnik, Kewal Ramani, Coleman, Gilbertson, Herring, & Zie, 2007).