Pacific Northwest

Through the rural-focused programming at Eastern Oregon University's College of Education, our Pacific Northwest partners are helping to inspire the next generation of rural educators in Oregon and Washington. Dave Dallas, a senior instructor at the College of Education, serves as the hub contact for the region.

Established as a normal school and long esteemed as a source of teacher instruction east of the Cascades, Eastern Oregon University (EOU) recently partnered with Rural Schools Collaborative to bolster their ongoing efforts of rural teacher preparation and community engagement. The Pacific Northwest Hub at EOU (based in La Grande, OR) will serve both Oregon and Washington. Not only does this institution pride itself on its historic and ongoing work in teacher education, but through a gubernatorial proclamation in 2018, EOU was officially designated as “Oregon’s Rural University.” Through this new honor, EOU instituted new programming to position itself as a site for rural leadership and innovation in the field of education and beyond.

“This partnership is such a natural fit for both organizations,” says Taylor McCabe-Juhnke, Rural Schools Collaborative Executive Director. “The Pacific Northwest has a long-standing history of place-based education, including several existing Teton Science Place Network schools, and education advocate groups like the Rural STEAM Leadership Network. Collaboration is what we’re all about, and we are thrilled to support and strengthen the existing good work in this region.”

Through a grant opportunity offered by the Educator Advancement Council of the Oregon Department of Education, Dallas and his team realized this vision by establishing Teach Rural Oregon (TRO). The multifaceted project focuses on recruiting, training, and supporting educators in Oregon’s rural and isolated districts, and is run in partnership with the local Wallowa Region 18 ESD. TRO engages each step of the teacher pipeline, Dallas reports, beginning with the Eastern Oregon Teacher Academy. This early outreach program engages high school students and paraprofessionals convene for “a four-day exposure to all the possibilities of teaching rural, to attend keynote addresses by teachers of the year, and to meet EOU faculty.”

Preservice teachers from EOU’s community college partners also have an opportunity to participate in the Junior Field Study Program at a rural school with housing, food, and a stipend all provided for by the university. Dallas says the “part of the impetus for the field program was to help students consider the possibilities of teaching in a rural district.” Teach Rural Oregon also offers the Cottonwood Crossing Teacher Institute, a week-long , place-based training camp showing students how to bring science, writing, and reading together in a curriculum responsive to local context.

Dallas and EOU are hopeful that the new relationship with RSC, and the collaboration with regional and national partners that brings, will spark ideas and provide tools to address this question and more. “Being able to get information to our rural districts” is one aspect Dallas looks forward to in the new hub partnership. He continues: “Other districts in Oregon can see that and go, ‘Hey, this is going on!’ I find that because of the distance and isolation it’s sometimes difficult for people to realize what others are doing–that is something we can adopt and adapt from efforts in other states.” As the hub grows, Dallas shares that he looks forward to elevating more stories about the good work of teachers and schools across the Pacific Northwest region.