Episode Details

This week I’m sharing another episode from the road as I have been traveling across my state, Oklahoma, visiting principals at schools or in regional meetings.

Recently, I visited Texhoma, Oklahoma, with High School Principal Connie Miller. After touring her school that serves students grades 5-12, she drove me one mile across the community to see the elementary school, which sits on the Texas side of town.

Although both school buildings serve the same community of students, the funding these schools receive is based on the allocations provided by their respective states. In fact, in Oklahoma’s Panhandle schools, competition for high quality teachers is intense. From Guymon, Oklahoma, for instance, you can drive thirty minutes in any direction and find yourself in Kansas, New Mexico, Colorado, or Texas.

As I’ve spent time with rural principals, in particular, I’ve been reflecting on some of their unique challenges:

Challenges Rural Principals Face:

1. Many rural schools still face teacher shortages in specialized classes or advanced coursework. Across the nation, and especially in rural areas, principals are finding it difficult to fill specialized positions like art, music, foreign language, and advanced mathematics or  sciences. Teachers with these specialized areas are heavily recruited into other career options.
2. Many rural schools often have limited resources for students seeking career technology, concurrent or Advanced Placement coursework. Although Oklahoma has more opportunies than many other states for career technology courses, some rural schools in western Oklahoma, for instance, have no technology center classes. Offering Advanced Placement courses also requires teachers who have been trained in AP coursework, and these classes tend to be offered less often in rural settings.
3. Some rural principals have increased student populations of second language speakers. Agriculture and oil and gas industries tend to attract immigrant families for work, and their children need additional supports as English language learners. For instance, Guymon High School, a school with 800 students in the western Panhandle of Oklahoma, currently has more than 30 languages spoken by English language learners at the school.

Advantages for some Rural Schools:

At the same time, many of these rural schools have strengths that give them advantages in serving students:

1. Strong culture and shared values. Connie Miller, Principal of Texhoma High School, shared with me how her teachers and staff focus on shared values that they teach throughout the school year so they are focusing on academic and character growth with students. These shared values build a positive environment for learning.
2. Positive student behavior and safe learning environments. One of the advantages of a smaller school is the ability to manage student behavior with high expectations on safety and participation. Principal Miller, for instance, shared that she remembers only one long term suspension situation in her school in the past four years.
3. Innovation and blended learning opportunities. Technology does provide opportunities to connect with resources and information. And many school are introducing Chromebooks or other devices that provide student