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They also strengthen rural families and youth through partnerships that connect student success with community well-being.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"What advantages can rural leaders gain from being integrated into community life?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"Their embedded role can help them build and sustain relationships with community organizations. Informal conversations and local standing can enable practical connections such as employment links and emergency housing referrals.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"What challenges do rural leaders face when implementing equity work?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"Equity efforts are influenced by local and unofficial power holders and can be constrained by compliance expectations from state and federal mandates. Leaders may also be resistant to change when they are selected to reflect dominant community interests.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},585808,1792070120,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,101,106,110,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":97,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":102,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":103,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":105},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":111,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":97,"language":139,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144,"preview_page_count":4},1099523885074,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_9964176cb1d06d4a9deccf72a44ae3dc","For a text version of this document please visit: [https://maec.org/resource/equity-and-expectations/](https://maec.org/resource/equity-and-expectations/)  \nRural Equity Series  \nEquity and Expectations: Leading Rural Communities through Unprecedented Pressures  \nErin McHenry-Sorber and Daniella Hall Sutherland September 2020  \nRural schools are often considered to be the heart of the community, serving as social centers and often, a major source of local employment (Schlafft, 2016). They provide spaces for local organizations, community fundraising events, community gardens or farms, family education centers, and other sources of civic engagement. Community members gather at rural schools for sporting events and student performances.  \nBeyond their walls, rural schools are also integrated into the life of the community, partnering in formal and informal ways with parents, grandparents, churches, nonprofit organizations, and local businesses to promote community development while strengthening rural families and youth. These collaborations aid in promoting student success by focusing on the wellness of the whole child, family, and community as entities inextricably connected to student success.  \nRural educational leaders are central to their communities. They may attend local church services, shop at community businesses, or serve as members of local organizations (Lamkin, 2006) . Not all rural school leaders live close to school, but almost all are highly visible in the surrounding communities. Some scholars describe this phenomenon as operating in a fishbowl of attention (Burdge, 2006) . One rural school principal shared how the high visibility affected him and his family. He said,“Anytime I’m in public, my wife, she’ll say,‘You’re too serious when we go out,’ and I’ll say,‘Baby, I have to be. Somebody’s watching us.’ She thinks I’m paranoid, but every place we go somebody says,‘Hey Mr.[Knight]!’ So…when I’m out in public, I’m always a little guarded. When I go home I can be more myself than I can anywhere else. Home is inside my house. When I hit that driveway, I can breathe a little bit.”  \n5272 River Road, Suite 340, Bethesda, [MD 20816 | 301-657-7741 | maec.org](MD 20816 | 301-657-7741 | maec.org) 1  \nThis additional scrutiny of rural educational leaders creates simultaneous advantagesand disadvantages for equity work. Rural leaders’ integration into community life can aid them in creating and sustaining collaborative relationships with community organizations to support equity practices. For example, some rural school leaders partner with local religious organizations for a range of volunteer activities, including “backpack programs”—feeding programs designed to ensure students have access to three meals each daywhen they are not in school. Rural school leaders can also facilitate essential connections between community members. One Vermont principal leveraged his role as a community leader; his regular informal conversations with local families provided him with significant understanding of the dynamics of the community. He used this information to connect unemployed residents with local businesses who were hiring, and families in need of emergency housing with local landlords.  \nThe visibility and centrality of rural leaders creates challenges for equity work, however. Rural administrators, like most educational leaders, are beholden to local, elected boards of education, who, theoretically, represent the most powerful interests of the local community. Rural school leaders are also influenced by those without formal positions, who have power due to their positions, such as local business owners, or members of prominent local families. Both official and unofficial community leaders can wield significant power in schools, influencing curriculum, resource allocation, and administrator tenure, and are unlikely to give up some of that power in the name of increased equity (Hall, 2016) . Further, rural leaders themselves c","cbCaicb1im2dr9ne","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaicb1im2dr9ne","pdf",226014,"English","# Rural schools as community anchors\n## Equity work shaped by leadership visibility\n# Partnerships and student success mechanisms\n## Collaboration across families and organizations\n# Power structures and compliance constraints\n## Resistance to change in rural settings\n# Case illustration: Spanish-speaking students and displacement\n## Meeting needs within minimum mandates\n# Study purpose and early findings","[{\"question\":\"How do rural schools contribute to community life and equity efforts?\",\"answer\":\"Rural schools act as social centers supporting local employment, civic engagement, and community events. They also strengthen rural families and youth through partnerships that connect student success with community well-being.\"},{\"question\":\"What advantages can rural leaders gain from being integrated into community life?\",\"answer\":\"Their embedded role can help them build and sustain relationships with community organizations. Informal conversations and local standing can enable practical connections such as employment links and emergency housing referrals.\"},{\"question\":\"What challenges do rural leaders face when implementing equity work?\",\"answer\":\"Equity efforts are influenced by local and unofficial power holders and can be constrained by compliance expectations from state and federal mandates. Leaders may also be resistant to change when they are selected to reflect dominant community interests.\"}]","Equity and Expectations - Leading Rural Communities through Unprecedented Pressures | PDF",1792055983,13]