RSC Welcomes New West Virginia Hub
The new West Virginia University Center for Education Research and Practice in Appalachia joins RSC’s Regional Hub Network
West Virginia is a profoundly rural state. Over half of its schools are classified as rural, and it is the only state wholly situated in Appalachia, perhaps the United State’s most recognizably rural interstate region. And, of course, West Virginia's most iconic song, Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver, is as nostalgic a rural ballad as exists. It fits, then, that the state’s land-grant institution, West Virginia University, is deeply committed to supporting rural schools.
One recent codification of that longstanding support is the new Center for Education Research and Practice in Appalachia (CERPA), housed in the West Virginia University School of Education and Counseling. CERPA will anchor RSC’s new West Virginia Regional Hub, led by Erin McHenry-Sorber. Erin is the Alice Trotter Muffly Endowed Professor in the School of Education and Counseling, College of Applied Human Sciences at West Virginia University, and is part of the team leading CERPA.
Erin shares that “as the state’s land-grant institution, we have a long and deep commitment to serving the rural students, educators, schools, and communities in West Virginia. Fostering networks of collaboration and partnership with rural schools across the country is a key component of that support. The Rural Schools Collaborative Regional Hub Network provides the perfect platform to engage in this important work.”
The West Virginia School of Education and Counseling has a strong track record of supporting rural education throughout West Virginia. Through key programs that create flexible teacher pathways for pre-service teachers to return home for student teaching (aptly named Take Me Home), Grow-Your-Own and paraprofessional pathways, and collaborations with the West Virginia Department of Education and REL Appalachia to solve the teacher shortage, Erin and her colleagues are actively working to find solutions that fit the Mountain State.
Additionally, the West Virginia School of Education and Counseling supports rural schools across West Virginia through professional development and certification pathways to boost literacy instruction, locally-contextual social studies content, and serves as a statewide hub for math educators in collaborative, teacher-led spaces. All of this is with an eye to honoring rurality and uplifting rural education: “Like many institutions serving rural people and places, we strive to promote a positive narrative of our educators and schools; working in partnership around this shared goal is essential to disrupt deficit views of rural schooling and put forward both diverse and shared affirming stories of the innovative and essential teaching and learning that happens in our schools.”
With the new West Virginia Hub, Erin and her colleagues are particularly excited for the possibilities of new partnerships that come with engagement within RSC’s Hub Network, building on strong relationships and partnerships across West Virginia. “Partnering allows us the opportunity to learn from other institutions, organizations, and leaders across the U.S. and work collaboratively to respond to common problems of practice and better support rural students, educators, and places to envision possibility. For example, rural teacher staffing shortages and underresourcing are challenges collectively experienced across rural geographies.”
Launching the new Center for Education Research and Practice in Appalachia (CERPA) serves as both a unifying force to house the many successful rural initiatives and to act as an anchor for regional and national collaborations. Erin describes that “WVU’s School of Education and Counseling is deeply committed to responding to rural education problems of practice through active collaboration with our state department of education and local educators and leaders from across the state through programming efforts, research dissemination, and professional development. As part of that effort, we are proud to launch the Center for Education Research and Practice in Appalachia.”
“CERPA’s mission is to partner with Appalachian educators to respond to problems of practice in order to transform and strengthen schools and organizations that serve the educational needs of local communities. Through shared decision-making, we leverage community and university strengths and capacity to collaboratively establish and realize a vision for what is possible. This aim for collaborative responsiveness to problems of practice and support for sustainable schools and communities blends seamlessly with RSC’s mission and the work of the RSC Regional Hub Network.”
Taylor McCabe-Juhnke, RSC Executive Director, shares Erin’s excitement for the new West Virginia Hub: “RSC is thrilled to partner with the new Center for Education Research and Practice in Appalachia. The leadership and expertise of West Virginia University will be invaluable to supporting rural classrooms, educators, and communities both regionally, and across the nation." Please join the RSC team in welcoming West Virginia University to the Regional Hub Network!