The Relationship of School-Community Partnerships in Rural Reform Efforts

• In Event: Poster Session 6
  In Poster Session: Turning Around Underperforming Schools: Unpacking the Role of Teachers, Schools, and Communities

Abstract

This study investigates a school-community partnership and the role it plays in driving a county-wide rural school reform effort. Much has been written about place-based school-community partnerships and the create conditions for urban school reform (Valli, Stefanski, & Jacobson, 2016; Warren & Mapp, 2011), particularly in response to neoliberal school reform efforts that often overvalue technical change (Author, 2013; Trujillo & Renée, 2012). However, less attention has been given to rural reform efforts, despite the fact that rural schools serve 20% of all U.S. public school children (Author, 2016; Author, forthcoming; Budge, 2010; U.S. Census, 2016). In this paper, a rural school-community partnership is studied to examine the resources and commitments necessary to support systematic rural school reform.

Authors

• Ian Mette, University of Maine

• Catharine Biddle, University of Maine