Summary
Teacher turnover and vacancies disrupt instruction, strain budgets, and compromise improvement efforts. These challenges are especially pronounced in rural districts. Rural schools often face persistent staffing shortages, geographic isolation, limited access to professional learning, and fewer local resources. Rural teachers are more likely than their nonrural peers to cite dissatisfaction with working conditions as a primary reason for leaving, pointing to factors within a district’s control as key levers for retention.
Through the Alaska Improving Teacher Retention and Recruitment in Rural Schools partnership, REL Northwest worked with the Lower Kuskokwim School District to identify practical, research-informed ways to strengthen working conditions in rural districts. These efforts build on Alaska’s statewide recruitment and retention action plan and playbook, which calls for concrete steps districts can take to improve retention.
In January 2026, REL Northwest shared a preview of this work with district leaders at an Alaska Education Retention and Recruitment Center convening. Here we share an upcoming retention and recruitment toolkit designed to help more schools identify and improve working conditions.
The work
Research identifies eight working conditions that may influence whether teachers stay
To ground this partnership in evidence, REL Northwest reviewed existing research on teacher working conditions and retention. From that review, we identified eight categories that may influence whether teachers stay or leave:
- Engaging with families and communities
- School leadership
- Managing student conduct
- Teacher leadership
- School facilities and resources
- Instructional practices and support
- Use of time
- Professional development
Our handout, Addressing Working Conditions to Improve Teacher Retention: An Exploration of the Research, summarizes these categories and provides examples drawn from the research base.
Using data to prioritize and monitor working conditions
With this information comes a practical question: Where should we start?
Working conditions vary across districts and schools, especially in rural settings. Rather than launching new initiatives immediately, the first step is to examine what issues are most central for a particular site. Exit interviews, stay interviews, staffing patterns, survey results, and other local data can help district teams identify which working conditions may be contributing to teachers staying or leaving. Reviewing research alongside local data allows teams to identify priorities that are both pressing and within the district’s control.
Because districts cannot address everything at once, teams should identify a small number of priority areas and establish a clear plan for monitoring progress. Teams should define what success looks like and determine how data will be collected over time.
Ongoing data collection using brief surveys, existing district data, or other agreed-upon measures helps teams assess whether strategies are being implemented as intended and whether working conditions are improving. Regularly reviewing and responding to this data allows districts to refine their efforts and strengthen teacher retention over time.
Evidence-based strategies align to rural working conditions
Once districts identify priorities, the next step is action. District and school leaders create and execute practical, teacher-centered strategies in each working condition area.
Engaging with families and communities
Rural teachers may feel isolated or underprepared to integrate into close-knit communities. District and school leaders can:
- Build community orientation into induction to help new teachers learn local culture, norms, and expectations.
- Support place-based learning to connect teachers’ instruction to local context.
School leadership
In rural schools where leaders often manage multiple responsibilities and teachers may feel isolated, intentional, relationship-centered leadership is critical. Districts can:
- Support principals in building genuine relationships with teachers through regular check-ins and proactive outreach, especially for new teachers.
- Provide mentoring or leadership networks focused on strengthening principals’ capacity to support and build relationships with teachers.
Managing student conduct
When rural teachers lack consistent behavior systems and access to training or student supports, classroom management becomes more stressful and time-consuming. Districts and schools can:
- Establish and implement consistent student conduct policies to help teachers manage behavior with clarity and shared expectations.
- Provide professional development focused on behavior management and supportive, relationship-centered practices to help teachers feel confident and supported to address behavior challenges.
Teacher leadership
Opportunities for leadership and professional growth are especially important in rural schools, where teachers, often shouldering especially broad responsibilities, need to feel clearly valued and recognized as professionals. Districts can:
- Distribute leadership roles to position teachers as experts, providing time and compensation so teachers are supported to take on these roles.
- Actively use teacher input in decision-making to ensure teachers are heard and influential in school decisions.
School facilities and resources
Limited resources and infrastructure can make it harder for rural teachers to feel effective in their roles. Districts can:
- Partner with universities and community or regional organizations to expand access to resources and professional learning.
- Leverage technology for cross-district or outside of district collaboration to connect teachers in role alike positions.
Instructional practices and support
Rural teachers often teach multiple subjects or grade levels and may lack access to relevant instructional support. Districts can:
- Provide mentoring and coaching including distance or cross-district mentoring when local capacity is limited.
- Create aligned, schoolwide instructional practices that reflect the local rural context, helping teachers feel confident in their work and connected to a shared approach.
Professional development
Geographic isolation and travel barriers can limit rural teachers’ access to relevant professional learning. Districts can:
- Use online platforms to expand access, reduce travel burden, and increase collaboration.
- Leverage mentors and partnerships to supplement local capacity.
Use of time
Rural staffing shortages often result in multiple preparations and added responsibilities for teachers. Districts can:
- Adapt schedules to protect time for collaboration, planning, and peer learning.
- Provide mentoring and professional development that supports teachers managing multiple subjects or grade levels.
District teams can select strategies that align with their context, test them, and refine them based on data.
Example in action
Lower Kuskokwim School District identified an opportunity to strengthen how teachers engage with families and their community. At the start of the 2024/25 school year, the district introduced community walks for new teachers. During these walks, a school administrator introduced the teachers to local residents and leaders and provided context about the area’s history and culture.
These early introductions appear to be helping teachers better integrate into the places they serve. According to a beginning-of-year monitoring survey, 38 percent of new teachers reported participating. Among those who participated and filled out the survey, 85 percent reported that the experience helped them understand the residents and culture to a moderate or great extent. One new teacher reflected in an open-ended survey response, “Connections with the community helped me feel I belong.”
Strong recruitment and retention start with the conditions districts create
In rural districts, where staffing shortages can be persistent and each vacancy has an outsized impact, strong working conditions play a critical role in teacher retention. Improving these conditions can increase school stability, preserve local expertise, and help ensure students experience consistent instruction. Focused, evidence-informed changes to the eight working conditions outlined above can encourage teachers to stay.
A practical toolkit will support districts through this process
To help districts move from research to action, REL Northwest is developing a rural teacher recruitment and retention toolkit to support teams in assessing and addressing working conditions. The toolkit will include facilitation materials, worksheets, research summaries, and resources such as a survey item bank.
This resource will be available in late summer or early fall, providing structured support for rural district teams ready to develop and implement evidence-based strategies to strengthen working conditions. In the meantime, view the handout, begin a conversation in your district, and stay tuned for the full toolkit coming soon.
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