Mountains to Climb - A Union-Led Partnership to Revitalize Education in McDowell County, West Virginia

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Stanley

A Union-Led Partnership to Revitalize Education in McDowell County, West Virginia follows Rebecca Hicks, an 18-year-old high school senior, as she navigates limited opportunities shaped by economic decline in Appalachia. It details Reconnecting McDowell’s support system—connecting the county to partners, funding mentoring trips, improving transportation access, and building community schools with health services. The article links these efforts to measurable outcomes such as reduced absences and improved learning readiness.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages7

Reading Time18 min

AccessFree to download

Reconnecting McDowell: A Partnership Model

The McDowell County Context and Challenges

Building Connections: Partners, Resources, and Transport

Broader Horizons Mentoring and Enrichment Trips

Community Schools and Integrated Student Supports

Mountains to Climb A Union-Led Partnership to Revitalize Education in McDowell County, West Virginia ILLUSTRAT IONS BY KEN McMILLAN By Jennifer Dubin F or Rebecca Hicks, the past two years have been the most promising of her young life. The high school senior participated in job shadowing activities with lawyers and business executives, met with lawmakers in her state capital, toured monuments and museums in our nation’s capital, visited top colleges and universities, and flew on an airplane for the first time. While such experiences are quite common for middle-class students, they had been unimaginable to Hicks, not for a lack of motivation (she earns straight As) or a limited curiosity about the world (she reads constantly), but because she hails from a place where the aspirations are many yet the opportunities are few: McDowell County, West Virginia. Jennifer Dubin is the managing editor of American Educator. Previously, she was a journalist with the Chronicle of Higher Education. To read more of her work, visit American Educator’s authors [index at www.aft.org/ae/](index at www.aft.org/ae/)[ ](index at www.aft.org/ae/)[author-index.](author-index.) The Mountain State’s southernmost county, which sits in the heart of Appalachia, has endured hard times. The once-booming coal industry that enabled many residents to provide for their families is no longer booming. A confluence offactors, such as competition from foreign markets and a shift to natural gas and other forms of energy, has contributed to the decline. As the jobs disappeared, a mass exodus of residents ensued. In the 1960s, when “coal was king,” roughly 125,000 people lived in McDowell; today the population hovers around 20,000 . Those who remain now face innumerable challenges, poverty chief among them. The current median household income in McDowell is $23,607, well below the state median income of $41,576 and less than half of the national median income of $53,657. Nearly 35 percent of the county’s residents live in poverty. In McDowell County Schools, all students receive free breakfast and lunch because such a high percentage of students in each school qualify for them. Hicks, who is 18, has experienced some of the challenges behind those statistics firsthand. By the time she was 13, both of 4 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SUMMER 2016 her parents had died. She lives with her maternal grandparents. Tall and poised, with long brown hair and glasses, she speaks candidly about her background. She says that she, her grandfather, a retired coal miner, and her grandmother, a homemaker, live on $17,000 a year. Given her financial situation, Hicks knew better than to askher grandparents to pay for the educational and travel opportunities she wanted to pursue. But through a public-private partnership led by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) called Reconnecting McDowell, she doesn’thave to. Getting to McDowell County has always been difficult. The mountains are as treacherous as they are majestic, and drivers must navigate steep and curvy two-lane roads. Ultimately, the lack of viable transportation has contributed to the sense of isolation in McDowell, which Hicks describes as “very closed off from the outside world.” However, Reconnecting McDowell is changing that by bringing much-needed resources and services to the county and providing opportunities for Hicks and her peers to connect with the outside world. Reconnecting McDowell has managed to connect the county to 125 partners (at the latest count), who have given more than $17 million in goods and services. These include digging waterlines by the West Virginia AFL-CIO for new home developments, laying fiber optics for Internet access by Shentel Communications, donations of musical instruments from VH1 Save the Music, and donations of books for students from Voya Financial, Verizon, and First Book,* just to name a few. Among Reconnecting McDowell’s many projects, one called Broader H

FAQs

Who is Rebecca Hicks and what is her background?

Rebecca Hicks is an 18-year-old high school senior from McDowell County, West Virginia. After both parents died when she was 13, she lives with her maternal grandparents and shares how limited opportunities affected her plans.

What is Reconnecting McDowell and what does it do?

Reconnecting McDowell is a public-private partnership led by the American Federation of Teachers. It brings resources and services to the county, connecting it with numerous partners and supporting students through targeted programs.

What is the Broader Horizons program?

Broader Horizons is a mentoring program that pairs high school juniors with mentors and funds academic enrichment trips. It is supported by a three-year grant from AT&T and includes travel to Charleston and Washington, D.C.

How do community schools support students and families?

Community schools coordinate with youth organizations, social service agencies, food banks, higher education institutions, health clinics, and businesses to address both academic and nonacademic needs. This allows teachers to teach and helps students be ready to learn.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Stanley