This blog post provides information about a community of practice that brings together people from across the REL Appalachia's four-state region with different roles in education—especially roles serving rural schools—to collaborate on solutions for strengthening the rural educator workforce
REL Appalachia Launches a Community of Practice to Identify Strategies for Strengthening the Rural Educator Workforce
REL Appalachia recently launched a new community of practice (CoP) that brings together people from across the REL’s four-state region with different roles in education—especially roles serving rural schools—to collaborate on solutions for strengthening the rural educator workforce. The CoP is designed to connect people with shared challenges and complementary expertise, providing a space to exchange ideas, surface promising strategies, and learn from one another. REL Appalachia works with CoP members to identify evidence-based strategies to support the rural educator workforce, as well as to determine what supports state and local education leaders and education preparation providers need to implement these strategies and generate new knowledge in their contexts.
A focus on rural educator workforce issues
Leading up to the 2024/25 school year, there were six teacher vacancies for every U.S. public school, and 20 percent of these vacancies remained unfilled by the time classes started.1 Rural schools—especially high-poverty rural schools—have a particularly difficult time filling teacher vacancies.2 Yet existing research on effective teacher recruitment, development, and retention strategies tends to be conducted in urban areas, where findings may not generalize to rural communities.3
In rural areas, effective teacher staffing strategies must account for the unique challenges and assets present in rural schools. For example, rural schools may be located far away from educator preparation providers and large pools of available staff, and they may face challenges with teacher recruitment, development, and retention due to lower salaries, lack of community amenities, and professional isolation.4 At the same time, rural schools may have a deep sense of community, long-standing relationships between their educators and students' families, and a shared pride in local identity.5
With these unique contextual factors, education leaders in rural areas need solutions that draw on existing research and practitioner expertise to anchor evidence-based strategies on supporting a strong educator workforce in the reality of rural districts. To help bridge the gap between research and real-world practice, REL Appalachia is bringing together school and district leaders, state education agency representatives, educator preparation providers, and researchers to exchange insights and collaborate on rural-specific solutions.
A community of practice that bridges research and practice
Through the Rural Educator Workforce CoP, REL Appalachia and education leaders from Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia are working together to identify challenges in effectively staffing rural schools, as well as strategies to support the rural educator workforce. For example, some CoP members are exploring teacher apprenticeship and rural student teaching models as potential remedies for rural teacher shortages in their areas. In response, REL Appalachia is sharing current research related to these strategies, which CoP members contextualize through discussion of implementation challenges and possible adaptations needed for the rural context.
The CoP also conducts needs-sensing activities to identify gaps in our understanding of the effectiveness of various strategies, as well as areas where states, localities, and education preparation providers need implementation support. Additionally, REL Appalachia supports CoP members to generate new insights into their own contexts. These efforts may include individualized collaboration, as well as co-development of resources to guide data collection, analysis, and monitoring of not only strategies to support the rural educator workforce but also the outcomes that will show whether the strategies are effective.
Connect with us to learn more
REL Appalachia is deeply committed to building and sustaining a strong rural educator workforce in the region and across the country. To learn more about the Rural Educator Workforce CoP or explore opportunities to participate, please reach out to REL AP via email.
To receive future updates about the CoP as well as about other partnership work and resources from around the region, please subscribe to our newsletter if you’re not already on our distribution list.
1 National Center for Education Statistics. (2024, October 21). School pulse panel: Surveying high-priority, education-related topics. https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/spp/results.asp?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsflash
2 Ingersoll, R. M., & Tran, H. (2023). Teacher shortages and turnover in rural schools in the US: An organizational analysis. Educational Administration Quarterly, 9(2), 396–431. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0013161X231159922
3 Glazerman, S., Isenberg, E., Dolfin, S., Bleeker, M., Johnson, A., Grider, M., & Jacobus, M. (2010). Impacts of comprehensive teacher induction: Final results from a randomized controlled study (NCEE 2010-4027). U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED565837
4 Price Azano, A., Downey, J., & Brenner, D. (2019). Preparing pre-service teachers for rural schools. Oxford Research Encyclopedias. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.274
5 Fikes, A. (2018). Leveraging the rural context to build family engagement. Institute for Education Sciences, Regional Educational Laboratory Program. https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/rel/Products/Region/appalachia/Blog/-89758
