The Middle of Somewhere Rural Education Partnerships and Innovation

Highlights innovative partnership practices that help create educational opportunities for students in rural schools across the United States.

As editors Sara L. Hartman and Bob Klein acknowledge, rural places have long experienced systemic inequities that decrease rural students' access to education, yet many rural schools and communities have found creative means to make up for the dearth of outside resources. The Middle of Somewhere brings to light a wide variety of partnerships that have been forged between K–12 schools, communities, and postsecondary institutions to improve educational access. 

The book showcases collaborations that address three different areas of need: partnerships that prepare and support teacher candidates and educators who work in rural areas; partnerships that extend the work of rural education networks; and partnerships that promote equity, justice, and inclusion within rural populations. Using case studies of rural educational partnerships from communities across the United States, the book's contributors share their experiences of how strong partnerships have formed both organically and through thoughtful and intentional planning, and they recommend supportive strategies for their development and sustainment. 

The contributors also explore the many ways in which university–school–community partnerships incubate solutions to challenges common to rural education systems, such as access to STEM education and higher education. The programs featured here may serve as replicable models for practitioners, researchers, and policy makers who want to enrich the experiences of children in their schools and communities. 

Sara L. Hartman is an associate professor in the Department of Teacher Education in the Gladys W. and David H. Patton College of Education at Ohio University. Her research focuses on school-community-university partnerships, particularly in examining how partnerships impact access and opportunity in rural educational settings. Bob Klein has worked in inclusive mathematics education for two decades, specializing in rural and Indigenous education. He is co-director of the Alliance of Indigenous Math Circles and professor of mathematics and former dean at Ohio University.