Rural Matters

In an earlier post , we asked a question about how rural schools have addressed housing needs as a way to recruit and retain teachers. Here’s the original question:

Our school has teacher retention problems due to many things, including lack of housing near the school. We are thinking about buying a house that we could rent out to new teachers and are wondering if this has been tried before and if it was successful.

We’ve received several examples of specific ideas that rural schools are using as well as additional ideas for addressing this vexing problem.

We thought these ideas deserved their own post, so we’ve listed them below (some are also in the comment section of the original post).

If you would like to contact the person who sent the idea, please email Rural Matters editor and we will help put you in contact with the person who submitted the idea.

Thanks to everyone who shared their knowledge. Please feel free to add to the discussion by adding a comment below.

SOLUTIONS TO RURAL TEACHER HOUSING DILEMMAS

NEW! September 4, 2007 FROM CALIFORNIA: There are schools that provide teacherages here in northern California. Kashia, a school of 14 students, has a teacherage. I believe the teacher pays a small amount of rent for it each month. There are other examples of this in isolated rural areas. In Zenia, CA there were two houses on the school property; one for the teacher and the other for the bus driver/maintenance person.

FROM MONTANA: In rural Eastern Montana small schools often have a “teacherage”, a small house near the school, or even on school property, that they offer as free housing in order to keep teachers. These rural schools are sometimes 50 miles from the nearest small town, so providing free housing is essential.

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FROM NEW MEXICO: In New Mexico, a rural school (Tatum Municipal Schools) established building construction classes for high school students, bought materials and had them build housing (for teachers, I think) owned by the district. They report good success with this.... Another New Mexico school who has been doing this for some time is Santa Fe High School...although not necessarily a rural school.

Continue reading "Solutions for Rural Teacher Housing Question" »

Posted by Robin Lambert at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Rural Matters is asking readers to share what they know about an inquiry the blog received from a school in rural South Carolina. Here's the question:

Our school has teacher retention problems due to many things, including lack of housing near the school. We are thinking about buying a house that we could rent out to new teachers and are wondering if this has been tried before and if it was successful.

If you have knowledge of innovative ways in which rural communities have tried to address housing shortages for new teachers, please share your information here on Rural Matters by clicking "Comment" below and following the instructions. Your information will be included in the comment section of this post.

If you prefer, you can send your information as an email directly to the editor and it will be passed along to the South Carolina school.

We'll keep this post and any comments on Rural Matters, of course, and will feature unusual or particularly interesting ideas on the main page of the blog.

For more background on the problem of housing for rural teachers and some solutions that schools have tried historically, continue reading...

Continue reading "Housing Shortages for New Teachers--A Question for Readers" »

Posted by Robin Lambert at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Four years and four months after No Child Left Behind became the most extensive and prescriptive education legislation in the country's history, we may finally learn this month what the sanctions are for states and districts that fail to get all their teachers "Highly Qualified." The deadline is the end of this school year.

NCLB lays out specific sanctions for schools and districts that do not meet its testing requirements. They face incrementally more severe consequences when too few students score at the proficient level on mandated tests. Not so with the highly qualified teacher rules.

The law itself has no specific sanctions related to HQT. It carries only the vague threat of the entire law that federal funds could be withheld from states or districts that fail to comply. Which federal funds is a matter of speculation, for the most part. And whether funds would be withheld from all districts or just Title I districts is also an open question.

Continue reading "Will We Finally Learn HQT Sanctions?" »

Posted by Robin Lambert at 08:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The Competitive Disadvantage - Teacher Compensation in Rural America. Rural teachers, on average earn less than their counterparts in urban and suburban districts. This paper presents the issue, examines some of the implications, and offers suggestions of what states can do to improve teacher salaries in rural districts.

Posted by Robin Lambert at 09:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)