Collaborating With the Community: Lessons From a Rural School District

Feature Articles

Collaborating With theCommunity: Lessons From a

Rural School District

ANNE WALKERUniversity of North Dakota

This article, based on case study research, highlights how a ruralschool district in the midwestern United States collaborated withlocal community organizations to meet the needs of Englishlanguage learners after the district and community experiencedrapid ethnic diversification. In particular, the district EL coordi-nator spearheaded the formation of a diversity committee com-posed of civic leaders and the heads of social service agencies;the diversity committee developed and supported collaborativeprojects aimed at meeting the social, academic, and health-related needs of immigrant youth and their families in a ruralcommunity with limited social service resources, and educatingcommunity residents about their new immigrant neighbors inorder to relieve racial tensions and more easily integrate immi-grant youth into the community. The article concludes withrecommendations for how schools can maximize outcomes forEnglish language learners through community collaboration.doi: 10.1002/tesj.25

The rural agricultural city of Winship,1 with a population of12,592 and located in a Great Plains state, had little exposure toethnic diversity prior to a turkey processing plant opening in 2006.However, as the plant began recruiting immigrant workers,Winship and its school district experienced rapid ethnicdiversification, defined as “the transition from populations that arepredominately or exclusively white and English-speaking to thosethat are multiethnic, multicultural and multilingual, all in thecourse of a few short years” (Grey, Devlin, & Goldsmith, 2009, p. 2).

1All names in this article are pseudonyms.

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This article chronicles how the Winship school district, incollaboration with community agencies and other keystakeholders, developed a range of partnerships aimed ataddressing many of the academic and social challenges created bythe sudden influx of immigrant youth into the school system andcommunity.

Between 2005 and 2009, the school district’s English languagelearner (ELL) population grew from 15 to more than 300, a 2,000%increase. By 2010 ELLs comprised approximately 15% of thedistrict’s 2,036 students. Two of the four elementary schools aswell as the middle school became eligible for Title I funding asthe district percentage of students who qualified for free orreduced lunches grew to 46%. The district dropout rate increasedfrom 4% in 2005 to 7% by 2008, and the graduation rate decreasedfrom 87% to 76%, largely because many male immigrant studentschoose to “work turkey” rather than complete high school. Theoverwhelmed school district found itself failing to make adequateyearly progress for the first time, a trend that continues today.The district repeatedly advertised job openings for certifiedEnglish as second language (ESL) teachers, but no one applied. Inaddition to the academic issues, the community lacked adequatehealth and social services for the immigrant children and theirparents.

In 2007 the Winship school district hired a new administrator,Laverne Channing, to serve as both the ESL program coordinatorand the vice principal of the middle school. Channing immediatelyrealized that a new strategy was needed. Implementing a growyour own approach, she recruited teachers already working in thedistrict to enroll in university courses to obtain their ESL teachingcredential. She helped the ESL program grow from a few itinerantESL teachers commuting between schools to provide pulloutservices to a full-service program that includes a newcomer center,sheltered English classes, collaboration with general educationteachers, Response to Intervention approaches, at least onequalified ESL teacher in each school, and an intensive summerschool program.

Together with Anita Lieberman, the district curriculum andassessment director, Channing made professional development a

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priority and emphasized that everyone in the district, from schoolprincipals down to bus drivers, needed to take on the sharedresponsibility of educating the immigrant children. She alsorealized that the district could not do it alone and needed tocollaborate with the community to optimize scarce resources. Withthe help of other committed individuals, Channing established aDiversity Committee that, through collaboration with communityagencies, developed and supported projects aimed at helping theimmigrant youth while also educating the community about thenew immigrants.

This case study of the Winship school district, althoughspecific to the context of a small rural city, is relevant to otherschool districts and communities facing similar demographicchanges. Winship’s experience depicts how a school system andcommunity successfully mobilized to better meet the holisticneeds of immigrant youth. As Price (2008) argues, communitycollaboration is crucial to educational reform because “schoolsand educators in the system cannot possibly succeed on theirown” (p. 91). Honigsfeld and Dove (2010) similarly state that,through community collaboration, schools are better able toaccess the information, resources, and services necessary to“support [ELL] children’s academic, social and emotionaldevelopment” (p. 56).

LITERATURE REVIEWIn contrast with previous decades, new patterns of mobility haveresulted in increasing migration of ELLs to rural areas, especiallyin the southeastern and midwestern United States (J. Johnson &Strange, 2009). Immigrants are attracted to rural communities fornumerous reasons: affordable housing, safe neighborhoods, goodschools, and employment opportunities, especially inagribusinesses such as meat processing plants. As Grey et al.(2009) bluntly summarize, “you don’t need to speak English orhave an advanced education or special job skills to cut up animals.You only need to be able-bodied and willing to do grueling workfor meager wages” (p. 13). Lambe (2008) reports that “the mostimmediate challenge associated with the arrival of immigrants [inrural communities] is that civic and social infrastructure can be

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quickly overwhelmed” (p. 3). Edmundson (2003) explains theeffect on schools:

Limited English proficiency, combined with a transient work-force, particularly in the Plains states, poses unique challengesfor the rural and small schools that serve meat processing work-ers’ children. Given already deteriorating infrastructure, teacherrecruitment, and resource issues that permeate many rural andsmall school districts, many schools are largely unprepared tohandle an influx of poor and/or minority students both in termsof personnel and resources. (p. 30)

In particular, attracting and retaining qualified teachers hasbeen a long-standing challenge for many rural communities due tolow salaries and geographic isolation. ESL teachers are among thehardest to recruit (Dadisman, Gravelle, Farmer, & Petrin, 2010), inpart because many states have ESL teacher shortages and ESLpositions are often readily available in suburban and urban areas.In a recent study in the predominantly rural state of Idaho, 72% ofthe school districts with ESL teacher vacancies reported they werehard or very hard to fill (Batt, 2008). Additionally, teachers in ruralschool districts frequently have limited experience with ELLstudents, making professional development paramount but oftenexpensive, because professional development opportunities aremuch more limited in rural areas than in urban centers.

These unprecedented and daunting educational challenges canalso fuel the development of racial tensions. Writing about theresettlement of large numbers of refugees in rural Nebraska,Pipher (2002) states:

The process of confronting and adjusting to change is a painfulone. In the face of rapid population shift, the entire character ofboth the community and the schools change. . . . Some teachersfeel angry. They feel cheated at not having the “good” studentsthey once had. . . . Principals, however, do not have easy solu-tions. Sometimes they, too, wish that the new children wouldsimply go away. (p. 31)

A growing number of overwhelmed rural towns and smallcities have made national headlines because of ethnic tensions andracial strife following rapid ethnic diversification, among themPostville, Iowa (Grey et al., 2009), and Lewiston, Maine (Labi,

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2002). National media accounts, however, seldom focus onsolutions that communities have developed to meet thesechallenges. One solution that has received little attention in bothmedia and research is school–community collaboration.

The importance of teacher collaboration in ELL education hasbeen better documented. Honigsfeld and Dove (2012) employthe metaphor of one teacher being a drop of water, and whenteachers collaborate, they “harness the energy of an ocean”(p. xvii). Bell and Walker (2012) emphasize the benefits ofcollaboration in ELL education but also contend that effectivecollaboration requires committed personnel and administrativesupport. Researchers posit that, for maximum impact, services forELLs should be integrated and comprehensive, and should focuson sociocultural integration as well as academics. This means thatcollaboration must occur within schools but should also “extendbeyond schools to networks of supports with families andcommunity agencies” (Scanlan, Frattura, Schneider, & Capper,2012, p. 11). The following cases describe two rural communitiesthat have relied on school–community collaboration, in particularthe formation of diversity committees, to resolve immigrant-related challenges.

The rural town of Pelican Rapids, in west central Minnesota,with a population of 2,400, became a hub for immigration in early2000 when two turkey processing plants began recruiting asuccession of Hispanic, Hmong, Bosnian, and Somali immigrantemployees. The school district experienced a number of challengesrelated to ethnic tensions and lack of resources. When Somalistudents congregated in public, the police received phone callsfrom community members erroneously reporting gang activity.Some parents began pulling their English-speaking children out ofthe school district because they felt the teachers were spending toomuch time with ELLs. With the leadership of the library, theschool district, Lutheran Social Services, and volunteers from thecommunity, the town mobilized to both educate communityresidents about the immigrant newcomers and brainstorm ways toprovide services such as adult ESL classes. Lambe (2008)researched how the town capitalized on the immigrant growth tobolster the town’s economic development:


Leaders in Pelican Rapids recognized that a number of socialservice groups could work collaboratively to help aid immigranttransition. . . . Rather than leaving these groups to work indepen-dently of each other, Pelican Rapids formed a multicultural com-mittee, which coordinated a web of social services and provideda lead agency for the community’s integration efforts. (pp. 3–4)

In particular, the school system partnered with themulticultural committee to bring in immigrant speakers living inPelican Rapids “to educate students about different cultures. Thecommittee also established a buddy system that paired newimmigrants with American students who helped them through theschool system” (Lambe, 2008, p. 2).

Barron, Wisconsin, is another rural town that has relied oncommunity collaboration and the formation of a diversitycommittee to help resolve challenges it faced when its ethnicminority population grew from under 3% in 2000 to more than12% in 2004. Somali secondary migrants moved to Barron from theMinneapolis area for employment in the local meat processingplant as well as for education; unable to pass the Minnesota highschool exit exam, immigrant youth could enroll in Barron’s highschool during their senior year and still graduate. Barron schoolsexperienced a spate of racial incidents, including fighting andname-calling, and racial tensions in the community flared.Community leaders formed a diversity council to improvecommunication and relationships between the various ethnicgroups (M. Johnson, 2004). The schools established a high schoolsoccer team and instituted events such as a Diversity Day.

METHODOLOGYThe research question undergirding this study was What solutionshave schools found to help rural school districts and communities adjustto rapid ethnic diversification? I selected Winship as a research sitebecause of its reputation among ESL professionals in the region forhaving solved many of its issues through collaboration. Eight keycommunity stakeholders were interviewed:

1. The district superintendent, who also served as the high school principal2. The district ESL director, who was also the vice principal of the middle school3. An elementary school ESL teacher

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4. The district curriculum and professional development coordinator5. The president of the Winship Chamber of Commerce6. The director of the Winship United Way7. The director of Winship’s adult education center8. The director of human resources at the turkey processing plant

The state Title III director was also interviewed. Interviewswere conducted on site, audiorecorded, and transcribed. The open-ended interview questions asked stakeholders to describe thechallenges in Winship and how the school district and communityhad worked to resolve those challenges. Interview participantswere then asked to elaborate on their involvement in thecollaborative activities as well as their perceptions regarding theeffectiveness of the collaborations. School and community agencydocuments were also collected and analyzed in researching thiscase study (Zin, 2009). What follows is a narrative chronicling thecollaboration based on the research findings; all personal quotesare from interview transcripts.

THE IMMIGRANT STUDENTS IN WINSHIPWhen the turkey processing plant in Winship first opened in 2006,it initially recruited workers from Mexico and Central and SouthAmerica. The school district began enrolling students from diverseHispanic cultures and countries, including Guatemala, PuertoRico, Colombia, Peru, and El Salvador. In 2007, the plant beganrecruiting Karen refugees, a Burmese Christian ethnic minority,who had fled to refugee camps in neighboring Thailand afterexperiencing civil war in their home country. The United Nationsbegan relocating Karen refugees to the United States in 2006. Thefirst Karen family that moved to Winship had 11 school-agedchildren. The father, a former leader of the Karen community inSt. Paul, Minnesota, began telling countrymates about Winship.Kim Fields, the Title III director for the state, explained:

The Karen population in Winship now are reaching back totheir friends and families that were maybe placed someplaceelse, and because they like the area they are contacting themand telling them there is work, a friendly environment, a safeplace for the kids, and now their families are moving there aswell.


Within a couple of years, the local Baptist church begansponsoring Karen refugees directly from Thai refugee camps. By2010, the number of refugees relocating to Winship had grown solarge that Lutheran Social Services, a refugee resettlement agencywith offices primarily in urban areas, opened a branch office inWinship.

Whereas many of the Hispanic children quickly becamebilingual and had few problems adjusting culturally, the Karenchildren posed new challenges for the Winship school district. Theolder children were literate in Karen, but spoke little English. Theyounger children had had no formal schooling. The district lackedboth Karen interpreters and Karen language materials, and it facedchallenges such as educating refugee children with posttraumaticstress disorder and other mental and physical health issues.

The Karen students posed social challenges as well. Havingexperienced civil war and been inured to violence and fighting,the male Karen students tended to be physically rough in theirplay. Several times community members witnessed boys play-wrestling so ferociously that they called the police. An ESL teacherexplained:

We have a group of little boys, bless their hearts, that watch thatSmack Down show. . . . They practice it sometimes, and theyare not in a fight, and they are not meaning to hurt anyone, butthey think that’s what people do in America, so they are goingto participate wholeheartedly in Smack Down.

The school district was concerned that if community membersviewed the refugee children as violent and a threat to thecommunity, the students’ integration into the school andcommunity would be adversely affected.

Other misconceptions also threatened to hinder the Karenrefugees’ acceptance into the community. Community membersinitially knew little about the Karen refugees and often referred tothem as “those Chinese” or “those Hmong people.” A rumorspread through the town that the Karen were stealing and eatingpet dogs. Community members had trouble understanding aspectsof the Karen culture, for instance, why they sat on the floor andowned little furniture. Channing and Diversity Committee

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members had to frequently explain that Karen parents sawthemselves as a “sacrificial generation.” Channing stated:

What the Karen consider to be a good life would be what someof us wouldn’t even accept. They’ve lived in huts. They havelived in danger. They look at the opportunities they have hereand to them it’s an opportunity . . . living in a rural city andearning a low wage at a poultry processing plant is OK forthem, if it means a better future for their children.

Once community members knew more about their newneighbors, the Karen were more readily accepted into thecommunity.

THE DIVERSITY COMMITTEEThe Diversity Committee was formed when Channing beganseeking help from community organizations. She said, “It startedout with me going to service agencies and talking, and I just laid iton the line.” Channing was able to bring together leaderscommitted to helping immigrant students and their families. TheWinship Chamber of Commerce director explained:

[Channing] has rallied a very strong supportive group. She’sbrought into place key players. . . . Channing is a very quiet “inthe background” person, but she is the foundation that has builtthis program into what it is, and she’s just a silent little rock.

School representation on the committee included the districtsuperintendent, the ESL program coordinator, a school boardmember, the district curriculum and assessment coordinator,several ESL teachers and paraprofessionals, and parents.Community representation included the human resources directorfrom the turkey processing plant, the education director of theadult education center, a county social worker, the director of thelocal United Way, the director of the Chamber of Commerce, anda representative from the community counseling center.

Jane Quinn, director of the adult education center, explainedthe importance of having diverse community leaders on thecommittee in terms of partnerships and sharing resources:

[Having partnerships] is the only way to build comprehensiveservices for English language learners in a small community


because we don’t have any programs right now in the commu-nity that can deal with the whole family. Nobody has theresources; the public school is stretched out to the limit of theirabilities. And so we’re constantly talking about what can we do,who’s got the space, who’s got the personnel, who’s got themoney, and how can we put it all together to make it all workfor everybody.

Diversity Committee members also relied on their personal andprofessional relationships to assist each other in their professionalroles. For instance, when a group of Karen boys began skippingschool, Channing called Tom Duvall, the human resources directorat the turkey processing plant, who in turn talked to the boys andtheir parents and explained the consequences of truancy. Duvallsimilarly called Channing or other committee members to helpresolve issues or secure services for the plant’s employees. AsQuinn said of the turkey plant, “They’ve been such good partnersas far as referring their employees to us if they don’t already knowabout our services and things like that.” She also explained that“we work really closely with the school district,” especially indetermining whether a new high school–aged immigrant shouldattend high school or enter the adult education program directly.

The Diversity Committee not only served the Karen refugeesbut also addressed issues facing Hispanic students andeconomically disadvantaged students. As the director of the localUnited Way explained, “Poverty doesn’t just befall the immigrantfamilies; it is all-encompassing. Almost half of the children in ourcommunity are at risk.”

Figure 1 provides an example of the committee’s activities andtopics of discussion. The committee frequently hosted guestspeakers and also educated itself about issues related to poverty,refugee concerns, and other relevant issues.

DIVERSITY COMMITTEE ACCOMPLISHMENTSThe Diversity Committee’s initial mission was to help everyone,immigrants and the community, adjust to the changes andchallenges that occurred as a result of rapid ethnic diversification.As the committee began its work, other community needs becameapparent.

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Educating the CommunityThe Diversity Committee’s first project was developing apresentation titled “Refugees in Our Classroom” to educate thecommunity about the Karen youth and to combat what Channingdescribed as negative community “attitudes based on ignorance.”Committee members delivered the presentation to church groups,schools, parent groups, and civic organizations such as the countyDemocrats. Channing explained:

We really talked about where these kids were coming from,what their life was like [in Burma and the refugee camps inThailand], what they need now from Winship, what we cangive them in Winship, and how we should value them becausethey value us. And so that helped open a lot of eyes in town.

During interviews about their roles as collaborators and thecommittee’s accomplishments, committee members repeatedlyspoke using the plural pronoun we. As the Chamber of Commercedirector said, “We are so excited because we’ve learned so muchas a community.”

Meeting Children’s Basic NeedsIn addition to educating community members about thenewcomers and reducing racial tensions, the Diversity Committeeworked to provide for the basic needs of the immigrants. Thecommittee soon realized, however, that many nonimmigrant

Figure 1. A sample Diversity Committee meeting agenda


children and families in Winship also were in need of support andservices. Between 2007 and 2010, the Diversity Committee fosterednumerous community partnerships that provided programs andservices for all children and families in Winship who qualifiedbased on income. For example, a joint sponsorship between theKiwanis Club and the United Way has brought “the dental bus,” afree mobile dental clinic for children who have never seen adentist, to Winship every year since 2008.

One of the Diversity Committee’s largest projects was theBackpack Program. When Charlene Sweet, the director of the localUnited Way, heard Winship teachers talking about families nothaving enough money to buy food, she brought the issue to theDiversity Committee and, with the school system andcommunity’s support, began a program in which students fromlow-income families received a backpack filled with food to takehome every weekend when they would not be in school to receivefederally subsidized meals.

The Backpack Program was run entirely by a collaborativenetwork of volunteers. With funding from the United Way, churchgroups, and other sponsors, the school district’s nutrition directorvolunteered her time to plan the meals and order the food througha local grocery store at cost. Local organizations such as theSalvation Army and the Girl Scouts volunteered to pack the meals.Sweet commented:

A great number of volunteers come from the high school, likethe student council, the Key Club, the German Club. And vol-unteers from RSVP, the retired seniors program. They come andpack, so we have a lot of cross-generational volunteerism goingon, which is wonderful. Two of our local hair salons did hair-cuts for one entire day, raised over $2,000 for the BackpackProgram, and these are all just volunteers.

The program was so popular in the community that it wasexpanded to provide food during the summer months and toprovide backpacks to preschoolers attending Head Start.

Helping Procure FundingThe Diversity Committee also helped procure funding for projectssuch as the preschool funding program. When kindergarten teachers

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began voicing concerns about immigrant children enteringkindergarten without any English or basic literacy skills, and thewaiting list for the local Head Start program, which couldaccommodate 68 preschoolers, grew to more than 50 children, theDiversity Committee formulated a multifaceted solution.Although there were a number of licensed preschools in thecommunity, many immigrant parents could not afford them.Sweet explained:

Preschool is expensive. And it’s not mandatory, it’s not arequirement, so as much as many of the families wanted theirchildren in, they knew if it came down to buying food or send-ing a 3-year-old or a 4-year-old to preschool, the basic needswere going to prevail.

First, Channing and Lieberman, the district curriculum andassessment director, in their search for educational fundingopportunities, secured a grant in 2008 to provide preschoolfunding for Hispanic and Karen families that could obtain migrantstatus (due to their agricultural-based employment). Then,according to Sweet, “We realized this was an important thing forour community,” so the United Way and the Winship YouthAdvisory Council provided funding for nonmigrant preschoolersfrom low-income families. Additionally, individuals in thecommunity came forth to sponsor preschool children. Beyondprocuring funding, members of the Diversity Committee helped inother capacities. Duvall, the human resources director at theturkey plant, for instance, helped identify immigrant families withpreschool-aged children. The social worker visited families andhelped them complete the required paperwork. Although theprogram funded mostly immigrant children, two white childrenwere also enabled to attend preschool.

The program has helped numerous stakeholders in thecommunity beyond just the children. Sweet, the United Waydirector, explained:

We met with all of the preschool providers in Winship, and everyone of them was completely on board. They were so excited to bea part of this program, to provide this opportunity for thechildren. And the kindergarten teachers were excited. . . . And


it’s just been a dynamic win-win for everyone because some ofour preschools have expanded, employed more workers, so goodthings are happening in that regard.

Diversity Committee members are proud that the program hasbenefited the entire community. Sweet elaborated:

What I love the most about it is all the different groups thathave come together to work. All our preschool providers, theschool district, and the Head Start program, and the socialworkers, and community counseling. I mean, everybody—oncethe word is out that we can put these children into a preschoolprogram. Names have just been coming in, and people havebeen calling me: “You know, that sounds like a good program,and I’d like to help out, and I’d like to sponsor a child.” Sowhen you rally the community, good things happen, and all forthe benefit of the youngest learners, which in turn will benefitall of us.

DISCUSSIONThe school district’s 2010 accreditation review, written by outsideevaluators, attests to the progress that the Winship school district,through the collaborative efforts of the Diversity Committee, madein helping the district and community adjust to rapid ethnicdiversification:

The community demographics have changed significantly in thelast five years, presenting many new challenges for the district.Indicative of a quality system, the district has converted thechallenges into opportunities, creating a positive, welcomingeducational environment for new students and their families.The district has become a community leader in cultural aware-ness, planning events such as an Embracing Diversity in-serviceand a Cultural Fair open to the public and attended by many.(Winship School District website)

The statement “converted the challenges into opportunities” isperhaps the hallmark of Winship’s success that extends far beyondschool walls. What began as an effort to better educate ELLs grewinto a community-transforming experience.

This would not have occurred if the collaboration hadremained solely within the school district. Through thecollaborative events and projects sponsored by the Diversity

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Committee, racial tensions were significantly alleviated andthousands of community members developed a deeper culturalawareness of the immigrant newcomers. The community alsobenefited from the development of social services that did notexist prior to the rapid influx of immigrants. Winship effectivelymodeled how a rural school district could collaborate both withinitself and with the community to convert the challenges of rapidethnic diversification into opportunities for school and communitydevelopment.

IMPLICATIONSRural and small school districts experiencing similar demographicchanges as Winship can actively work to solve the challenges ofrapid ethnic diversification through community collaboration. Thefollowing implications, based on the findings of this case study,should be taken into consideration when establishing a DiversityCommittee or other collaborative effort:

• One person can make a difference. The accomplishments in Winship beganwhen one committed ESL professional recognized that she alone could notaddress the scope of work that needed to be undertaken. Without a formu-lated plan or vision, Channing turned to individual community leaders toeducate them about the ELLs’ needs. Channing was eventually able to bringtogether key stakeholders who had the professional experience, theresources, and the personal commitment to helping both children and thecommunity. Additionally, as Channing demonstrated, a leader in ESLschool improvement does not have to be necessarily outspoken, charismatic,or a top-level administrator (although some administrative influence helps).Channing worked quietly to bring together stakeholders and to facilitate thecollaboration, with an emphasis on we and working together. Althoughsomewhat of a cliche, it is clear that one person can make a huge differencein the lives of ELLs through networking and collaboration.

• Support from the school administration is a crucial factor in collaborative efforts.One advantage that Channing had was the support of the school administra-tion. In her capacity as both the ESL program director and the middle schoolvice principal, she was in a unique position to understand both teachers’ andadministrators’ viewpoints. The superintendent supported her collaborativework with the Diversity Committee as well as with other administrators,teachers, and staff, including her extensive collaboration with Lieberman, thedistrict’s curriculum and assessment director. As other researchers have sta-ted (Bell & Walker, 2012), administrative support is a crucial component ofteacher collaboration and of community collaboration. This is another


challenge in replicating models of community collaboration; as Price (2008)states, “collaborating with community groups usually isn’t part of [an educa-tor’s] job description” (p. 95). Thus, it is important that ESL professionalsinterested in developing collaborative community partnerships seek outschool administrators who they believe will most likely support them in theirwork.

• Collaborative efforts should focus on benefitting the entire community. The Win-ship Diversity Committee was successful in part because everyone in thecommunity benefited: immigrant youth and youth with economic needs,their families, the school system, social service organizations, the turkeyprocessing plant, businesses, and community organizations. For example,the school district initially proposed opening a district preschool to pro-vide early childhood education for the immigrant children. However, inconversations with Sweet, the United Way director, the district realizedthat it would be far more beneficial to the community if the district estab-lished collaborative partnerships with existing community preschools.There were ample ways for everyone to get involved. The collaborationgalvanized many in the community to work together, through which newrelationships and friendships were forged and problems solved in a waythat benefited the entire community. As a result, although the projects andevents were spearheaded by the school district and the Diversity Commit-tee, the community as a whole could take pride in the collaborative accom-plishments.

• Collaborative efforts should include a focus on rich cultural experiences. Hondo,Gardiner, and Sapien (2008) note that efforts to educate communities aboutdiversity must go beyond the superficial aspects of culture: “Generalizedappeals to ‘respect diversity’ or experience ethnic dances or foods at anannual multiethnic event are not a substitute for education on more difficultaspects of war, refugee status, family structures, customs, language, andreligious beliefs” (p. 137). For example, Diversity Committee members weredissatisfied with the ultimate impact of the first annual Cultural Fair theyorganized, which highlighted ethnic dances and food. However, the com-mittee was enthusiastic about the number of community organizationsrequesting the delivery of the “Refugees in Our Classroom” presentation totheir membership. Going beyond superficial multicultural awareness wasan important factor in Winship’s success in changing community attitudes.

• School and community collaboration is highly context dependent. In this casestudy, the school–community collaboration involved investment and hardwork from a large number of people over a long period of time. Key factorswere in place, such as a supportive school administration and communitymembers who shared a similar vision. The rural location of Winship alsocontributed to the collaborative success, because the school and communityknew that they had to solve the issues on their own and create serviceswhere they didn’t exist—there was no neighboring town or nearby city tohelp with resources.

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Thus, although not easily replicable, Winship can serve as aninspiration for teachers, school administrators, and communityleaders looking to improve ESL education.

CONCLUSIONThe story of the Winship school district is not necessarily one ofhappily ever after, but of continuing progress. When interviewedin 2011, Channing felt the district had adjusted to the point atwhich “there are no more shocks.” Teacher and communityattitudes had improved, although individual “hold-outs withentrenched views” remained. The school district hired a home–school liaison in 2009 and, funded through a collaborative grantwith Lutheran Social Services, hired a family academic coach in2010 to work primarily with immigrant parents, explainingacademic issues such as how to help prepare children for college.The biggest hurdle for the district was in improving instruction forlong-term ELLs and those students no longer classified as ELLsbut who continue to lag behind in academic achievement. Schoolofficials lamented that the district’s difficulties with makingadequate yearly progress detracted from the tremendous advancesthe district had made in educating and integrating the immigrantyouth into the community. As the school superintendent stated, “IfI have to choose, I will choose acceptance of every child overstatistical analysis of what our school looks like.”

THE AUTHORAnne Walker is an associate professor at the University of NorthDakota, where she specializes in TESOL and literacy education.Her research centers on sociocultural aspects of Englishlanguage education both in the United States and ininternational contexts.

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Documents

Collaborating With the Community: Lessons From a Rural School District