Cultivating and Supporting Effective Rural School Leaders

The primary focus of the Cultivating and Supporting Effective Rural School Leaders Community of Practice (CoP) is to help participating states inventory and assess their rural principal leadership strategies, systems of support, and services in order to develop and/or refine a theory of action and coordinated plan to enhance rural principal effectiveness. In particular, the CoP will:

  • Improve rural leadership support strategies and services by conducting a state inventory of rural leadership development strategies, resources, and assets and sharing the inventory and related theory of action with other states
  • Improve quality and viability of rural principal pipeline (i.e., preparation, recruitment, selection, retention and development)
  • Better align their efforts to support rural principals as change agents within the context of implementing ESEA priorities
  • Improve capacity to support rural principals particularly in how they recruit and retain teachers (i.e., human capital management)