The U.S. Department of Education recently released a report, Raise the Bar: Supporting Rural Communities — Boldly Improve Learning Conditions, Eliminate Educator Shortages, highlighting ways to better support educator workforce preparation for rural communities.
“Eliminating the educator shortage is especially urgent for rural schools, which struggle with persistent staffing shortages in both teaching and non-teaching roles,” the report states. “This problem is especially acute in rural schools serving low-income students and students of color, which experience disproportionately high teacher turnover. Rural communities face unique challenges as they work to attract and retain educators but also possess unique qualities that can set them up for success.”
The Education Department said that building pathways into the profession and improving compensation and working conditions is especially crucial when it comes to helping rural schools attract and retain teachers. Other important factors include supporting effective induction strategies for new teachers, ongoing professional learning throughout educators’ careers, promoting teacher leadership and career advancement, and increasing diversity.
Pathways to the classroom
Researchers found that many rural schools must recruit from outside the local community when trying to expand and diversify their applicant pool. While this method can help short term, many have found that teachers hired from outside of rural communities tend to “face a steep learning curve in adjusting to rural ways of life and putting down roots in a new community.”
As a result, more effort has been put into building pathways for local students and those already in the community to go into teaching.
“States have worked to support pathways for rural teachers through Registered Teacher Apprenticeships, Grow Your Own programs, Rural Teacher Corps-style programs, and strengthening educator preparation program placements in rural schools,” the report states. From 2020 to 2024, Registered Teacher Apprenticeships have grown from zero to 45 states.
Department programs such as Title I, Part A; Title II, Part A; Teacher Quality Partnership grants; the Rural Education Achievement Program (REAP); State Personnel Development grants; Higher Education Personnel Development grants; Career and Technical Education State grants; and the Augustus F. Hawkins Center of Excellence Program can be used to support state, district and educator preparation program efforts.
The department also supports rural and geographically isolated communities serving high proportions of Native students through the Indian Education Professional Development Grant, the Native Hawaiian Education Program, the Alaska Native Education Program, the Native American Career and Technical Education Program, the Native Hawaiian Career and Technical Education Program, and the Tribally Controlled Postsecondary Career and Technical Institutions Program — all of which support relevant activities to develop educators.
Compensation and conditions
The department has called for districts to increase teacher pay, and convened states to provide additional incentives to teach in rural communities as a potential strategy to help rural school retain their educators.
In addition to supporting teacher pathways programs, Title I, Part A; Title II, Part A; and REAP can also be used to support teacher compensation incentives (consistent with specific program requirements), according to the report.
“Raising compensation is critical to the health of the rural teacher workforce. However, research suggests that working conditions are an even larger driver of rural teacher turnover,” the report states. “A safe, healthy school environment designed to support teaching and learning impacts teachers and students alike. Many rural communities currently struggle to fund much-needed school facilities upgrades, and these conditions may impact teachers’ physical health, job satisfaction, and intention to stay in their current jobs.”
Schools can utilize a range of federal funding to improve teacher working conditions, including Title II, Part A, as well as discretionary grant programs such as the Native American Teacher Retention Initiative grants and School Climate Transformation grants, and school infrastructure programs.
Resources to support this work can be found in the report.
