Community of Practice: Differentiated Systems of Support for Rural Agencies
CoP Summary: This Differentiated Systems of Support for Rural Agencies community of practice (CoP) helped participating state education agencies (SEAs) and local education agencies (LEAs) learn and share about promising practices for supporting rural school districts. During the seven-month timespan of this CoP, participating members from 10 states engaged with State Support Network subject matter experts in six learning cycles. The learning cycles consisted of a virtual meeting featuring content presentation and collaborative activities, bridged by asynchronous activities completed by members in the CoP's online space.
The resources below were used during learning cycle virtual meetings and asynchronous activities. They are organized in two sections. The first set of resources were provided to CoP members from subject matter experts (SMEs), and are comprised of resources those subject matter experts created for the work of the CoP and items curated from other technical assistance providers. The second set of resources were shared by participating member states.
Participating SEAs: Alaska, Colorado, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Tennessee.
CoP Duration: October 2017 through April 2018
CoP Subject Matter Expert Resources
- Framing the Conversation around Why Rural Matters—Understanding the Changing Landscape: This report provides a strong defense for the importance of understanding and addressing the challenges of rural education. Many children and their families in rural America need better and more equitable educational opportunities. This is the main theme of Why Rural Matters 2015-16: Understanding the Changing Landscape, the eighth biennial report by the Rural School and Community Trust and its partners on the condition of rural education in the 50 states.
- Supporting Effective Professional Development: This report identifies characteristics of effective professional development that supplemented the presentation from state CoP members about how to provide professional development in innovative ways to rural educators.
- Supporting Recruiting Educators to Rural Schools: Rural School Collaborative: This Collaborative supports public education through place-based engagement, rural philanthropy, and developing teacher leaders. The resources from this website offer suggestions for creating regional pipelines for the recruitment, preparation, and placement of rural teacher-leaders.
- Supporting Rural Schools through Next Generation Supports: A representative from The United States Department of Education Place Based Initiatives Team in the Office of Innovation and Improvement provided a set of resources about Promise Neighborhoods, Promise Zones, and Opportunity Zones that may support their work in rural school systems.
- Supporting Collaboration with Institutions of Higher Education: This resource was prepared by the Executive Director of Partners for Education (PFE) at Berea College. It presents information on how PFE collaborates with schools, families, and community partners to meet the educational needs of all Appalachian students.
- The Northwest Rural Innovation and Student Engagement (NW RISE) Network: This Network convenes teachers and leaders from some of the U.S. Northwest’s most isolated and remote communities to learn from each other, share strategies to meet their unique challenges, and spread best practices of the region’s rural schools.
- Eastern Shore of Maryland Educational Consortium (ESMEC): This Consortium supports and advances the common needs and challenges of rural school systems on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
- Generating Opportunity and Prosperity: The Promise of Rural Collaboratives: This article outlines how rural disticts and schools can work to generate greater educational opportunity and economic prosperity in a time of fiscal challenges.
Member SEA Resources
- Ohio Department of Education Profile: A state rural school improvement technical assistance program that includes a rural strategy focus group plan to gather and respond to feedback to ensure the development and delivery of meaningful state support.
- Montana Office of Public Instruction Profile: An online state professional learning platform (Teacher Learning Hub) that provides rural educators with meaningful professional development resources.
- Kentucky Department of Education Profile: The Kentucky Innovation Lab Network is a partnership between local school districts and the Kentucky Department of Education to provide a space for sharing innovative strategies and learning about ways to transform our education system.