Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s Get on the Bus Tour hits another rural school district today, reports John White, deputy secretary for rural outreach. White is in New Hampshire with the tour spending time in the Milton School District, near the Maine border.
The rural district includes three schools: Nute High School, enrollment 199; Nute Middle, enrollment 169, and Milton Elementary, enrollment 375. It is moving aggressively to turn around struggling schools, White told the Rural Education blog. He’ll get feedback on teacher preparation, recruitment and retention in rural schools, and ask teachers’ thoughts on elevating the profession and getting the best and the brightest into teaching and into high-need rural schools.
The tour turns northeast this week after a kick-off Aug. 25 that took it through the South. Last week the Rural Education blog reported on its first stop at rural schools in Hamburg, Ark. The administration wanted a firsthand look at how the schools recruit and develop rural teachers.
Here’s a short Education Department video and a blog post about that stop from White. He offers his observations about the time he spent at a pre-K learning center on that tour.
Here’s an excerpt:
Small rural communities, like Hamburg, are showing how partnerships and an investment in their community can empower parents and career-changers, and set an example for students to follow. They are meeting their immediate need for quality early-learning programs and planting the seed for students to follow into a career in teaching, where they will have the power to positively influence the lives of children."
Read the rest of the Rural Education blog coverage of the Arkansas stop here and here.