Summary

Rural schools in America face a significant challenge in attracting and retaining highly qualified teachers, leading to educational inequality compared to urban areas.

Abstract

The article highlights a critical issue in American education: the difficulty rural schools face in recruiting and retaining qualified teachers. This shortage disproportionately affects rural communities, where schools often have to hire individuals with inadequate qualifications or from afar, sometimes even unlicensed teachers. The lack of qualified educators in these areas contributes to an educational divide, as teacher quality is a strong predictor of student success. Rural students are thus at a disadvantage, missing out on the benefits of experienced and well-qualified teachers, which include individualized attention, positive learning environments, and high educational standards. The article suggests that potential solutions involve financial incentives to attract qualified teachers to rural areas and initiatives to encourage local students to pursue teaching careers.

Opinions

The disparity in teacher quality between rural and urban schools exacerbates educational inequality.
Rural schools often resort to hiring underqualified teachers or those working under special waivers due to the teacher shortage.
Teacher quality is crucial for student success, influencing factors such as classroom management and pedagogical effectiveness.
Financial incentives, such as higher salaries and better benefits, could help attract qualified teachers to rural areas.
Encouraging local students to become teachers through programs like the Rural Teacher Corps can help address the teacher shortage in rural communities.
The federal government could play a role in solving this issue by allocating funds specifically for rural teacher salaries through programs like Title II.
The article emphasizes that education is meant to be a societal equalizer, but this ideal is undermined when not all students have access to high-quality teachers.

Students in Rural Areas Often Have Less Qualified Teachers

Schools in rural areas have trouble attracting teaching candidates

Having a good teacher is one of the best predictors of student success. However, not all students have access to good teachers. This creates inequality in education, especially in rural vs. urban communities.

In some small school districts across America, the Superintendent is also the bus driver and the High School football coach. People are spread thin working in multiple roles to make sure that all students are being served. School buildings may be dated and in need of repair. Books may be out of date as well.

But, the biggest crisis facing our rural schools is a lack of highly qualified teachers. What students learn in school — or don’t learn — is a direct result of how good their teacher is at teaching. When students have inexperienced or unqualified teachers, this can lead to a lack of learning for those students.

According to The Hechinger Report,

Long before the coronavirus made the situation bad enough to break a record, rural — and especially tribal — schools had trouble finding and keeping qualified teachers. Principals in small towns across the West regularly import teachers from afar, even from abroad. They hire unlicensed teachers and stop offering specific courses. Elementary, fine arts and special education teachers are especially hard to find, according to a Hechinger Report analysis of state education data.

Recruiting and retaining teachers is difficult for rural schools. Often, the communities don’t have individuals available with the qualifications needed. This means, they have to hire from outside the community, which can prove difficult.

Teachers receive higher pay in more urban schools, and many don’t want to move into a small community. There is a teacher shortage nationwide, so teachers can have their pick of where they want to work in many cases. So, this leaves rural communities out in the dust.

According to the Rural Schools Collaborative,

While some areas (think more affluent and suburban) may have an adequate supply or even an abundance of teaching candidates, many communities, urban and rural, struggle to staff classrooms with qualified teachers. Case in point, Philadelphia, where I live now, needs to add 1,000 teachers, principals, and support personnel before next year! This is certainly a national problem, but like so many other things, it seems to spare the affluent. Rural areas, particularly regions with historically underserved populations, are among the most impacted. It is not surprising that Annenberg’s researchers identified rural regions in the Southeast, Appalachia, and some Mountain states as areas of great concern.

Getting more qualified teachers into rural schools needs to happen — and soon! Many classrooms are being taught by teachers under special waivers, which means, they don’t have the proper qualifications to be a teacher. When unqualified teachers are in the classroom, students suffer. But in some cases, this is the only way to get teachers at all.

Teacher quality matters

As I said before, having a quality teacher is one of the best predictors of student success. That is why it is important for every student to have a good teacher. This way, they can get the best education possible.

Education is supposed to be the great equalizer in society. Yet, when every student doesn’t have an equally good teacher, this can’t happen.

According to Lakshya International School, here are the top reasons that every student needs a high quality teacher:

1. Knowledge and expertise

2. Able to cater to individual needs

3. Creates a positive learning environment

4. Builds positive relationships

5. Sets high expectations

6. Has excellent communication skills

7. Is patient and caring

8. Is well organized

9. Is enthusiastic

10. Has a passion for education

When teachers possess these qualities, and have a good educational background, they are more able to make sure that all students will get a good education in their classroom.

If a teacher doesn’t have the right background, they may have poor classroom management and not be able to manage difficult students. Or, they might not have the right pedagogical knowledge that enables them to teach students in a way that they will retain the knowledge properly.

What can be done?

The solution to the rural teacher shortage needs to come in at least two parts:

Incentivizing highly qualified teachers to move to rural areas through higher salaries and better benefits
Encouraging people living in rural areas to become teachers after graduation

The first is a funding question, and could be solved through use of Federal funding for teacher salaries through programs such as Title II.

The second part of the solution to the rural teacher shortage has to do with finding ways to encourage students in high school to pursue teaching degrees in college.

The Rural Schools Collaborative has a program now which helps to address the second concern:

Our rural teacher corps project promotes a Grow Your Own model that is thoughtfully developed through regional collaboration. RSC was fortunate to develop partnerships with successful early adopters such as the Community Foundation of the Ozarks’ Ozarks Teacher Corps, California State University-Chico’s CLASS program, and The University of West Alabama’s Black Belt Teacher Corps. These partners provided a strong and credible foundation as we began to build out our Rural Teacher Corps network, an effort that now includes 19 programs from 15 different states across the country.

Bringing national focus to teacher qualifications in rural areas can help to address this critical issue, to ensure that all students are receiving a good education regardless of where they live. When students in rural areas receive a better education, it sets them up for success in college and beyond.