Small rural teaching staffs forced PLCs across grades and subjects, and teachers in four schools felt isolated from same-subject colleagues¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · qualitative r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2014 · checked against its sources 2026-10-18 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? In five rural schools, PLCs had to be formed across multiple grades and subjects because there were not enough teachers of the same grade or subject, and teachers in four of these schools reported feeling isolated. → A Focused Look at Rural Schools Receiving School Improvement Grants 2014

Evidence¶

A Focused Look at Rural Schools Receiving School Improvement Grants 2014¶

A Focused Look at Rural Schools Receiving School Improvement Grants. (2014). NCEE Evaluation Brief, NCEE 2014-4013. https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20144013/

q2 · i? · qualitative · r2

Site visit findings on job-embedded professional development: eight of nine rural schools developed PLCs, and teachers at five schools described how small staffs forced cross-grade, cross-subject PLCs, with teachers in four schools reporting isolation from same-subject colleagues.

"They noted that their schools did not have enough teachers to form PLCs of teachers who taught the same grades or subjects. Instead, PLCs in those five schools had to be formed across multiple grades and subjects. Teachers from four of these schools indicated that they felt isolated because they did not have an opportunity to collaborate with others teaching the same subject."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Reported PLC outcomes frequently do not correspond with the stated object; complete object–outcome correspondence appeared in only three studies — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it
• Administrators in eight of nine rural SIG schools reported rural-setting factors, chiefly long teacher commutes (six schools) or isolated communities (four), that hampered teacher recruitment or retention — related
• Rural SIG schools perceived transportation access and home-school distance as location-related barriers to parent involvement — related
• Geographic distance and insufficient internet bandwidth can derail rural schools' plans for cross-school professional learning communities — related
• Limited human capital is one of the biggest challenges in rural school turnaround, making SIG staff-replacement requirements often neither possible nor desirable — related