R is for Rural and Residency in TRRE

Are you familiar with these rural facts?

• Nearly forty percent of New Hampshire’s population is considered rural (Economic Research Service, 2018).
• On average, rural students have lower achievement outcomes and graduation rates than their suburban counterparts (Institute of Education Sciences, 2013).

(TRRE Partner Schools)

In 2016, the University of New Hampshire, Department of Education, received one of the few rural Teacher Quality Partnership awards in the United States establishing the Teacher Residency for Rural Education (TRRE) program. TRRE graduates commit to work in a rural partner school for three years and receive induction support the first two years of their career after successful completion of the M.Ed. and NH teacher certification requirements. TRRE is preparing high-quality teachers to teach in rural NH engaging the partner communities in the future of education in the process.

Renewed interest in teacher preparation in the context of rural education has allowed the University of New Hampshire, through TRRE, to develop and implement a rural education-university-community collaboration in teacher education. The goals of the TRRE program are to reduce teacher shortages in rural high-need partnership schools and improve student learning in math and science through high-quality teacher education in cooperation with community partners.

Built on a NH tradition of civic engagement, TRRE was designed in collaboration with rural community partners. TRRE acknowledges the explicit needs and interests of rural community partners to effectively address rural teacher preparation, recruitment and retention. Combined with a full-year teaching residency in a rural context and commitment to community engagement, TRRE’s place-based education values of rural settings expands the idea of field experience to prepare teachers not just in specific partner schools and districts but out in the community.

TRRE partners with districts and communities that cover a mountainous region over 1,800 square miles, of which 90% is covered by waterways or forests. Faculty of TRRE work with multiple school districts and school partners spread across a vast geographic range while still supporting teacher residents in a highly personalized manner. TRRE coursework takes place in the communities where teaching residents live, learn, volunteer and co-teach emphasizing the value of local resources in education. TRRE essentially extends the reach of UNH to distant regions of the state that lack access to higher education and new highly-qualified teacher candidates in a critical shortage area.

"Our aim is not only to prepare our teaching residents to be successful teachers in the classroom but also individuals who desire to build intentional and sustainable relationships within the local community," notes TRRE’s Director of Pedagogy and Clinical Experience Dr. Tom Schram.

What is rural about the residency?

The presence of TRRE or “embeddedness” in rural partner communities is an essential component of the program. Community and family competence emphasizes teaching residents learning rural way of learning, and incorporation of rural values in educational objectives. Community-based internships, community-based design projects, and sociocultural perspectives in coursework enable teaching residents to leverage rural knowledge and connect their learning with increased student engagement. Teaching residents train as group facilitators with a TRRE partner, North Country Listens, to work directly with communities in problem solving around local issues. Empowering teacher effectiveness within a rural context through family and community competence improves the likelihood of long-term teacher retention for rural NH communities.

We are proud that TRRE is one of the few rural teaching residency programs in the United States.

Teacher Residency for Rural Education, is funded by the US Department of Education Office of Innovation and Improvement Teacher Quality Partnership Grant # U336S160019.