August 21, 2025
By Bejanae Kareem, Ebony Jason-Spivey, Rose Owens-West, and Kevin Perks
For several years, Selma Middle School in North Carolina faced challenges that are persistent among rural schools nationwide: high principal turnover, stagnant student performance, and a school culture that wasn’t reaching its fullest potential.
This reality began to shift in 2018, when Johnston County Schools, which oversees Selma, completed a thorough needs assessment of the school, catalyzing decisive action toward positive change. The work is paying off. In the past 2 school years, Selma has met or exceeded its academic growth targets, and the school has been identified as a “School to Watch” by the North Carolina Association for Middle Level Education.
While still unfolding, Selma’s story demonstrates that schools like it––small and rural with complex challenges built over generations––can turn the tide with a commitment to improvement and support from expert partners like WestEd. This blog post provides administrators and educators with insights for implementing sustainable initiatives that address common challenges in rural schools.
Understanding the Selma Middle School Context
Selma is a Title I rural public school that serves 350 students in grades 6–8; nearly 100 percent of these students are classified as economically disadvantaged. Between 2014 and 2019, Selma was led by a succession of four principals, which hindered long-term strategic planning and a consistent school culture. Until the 2019/20 school year, Selma had consistently fallen short of its schoolwide academic growth targets as determined by state assessments. As a Comprehensive Support and Improvement-identified school, Selma was eligible to receive additional resources, including technical assistance and regular monitoring visits. Selma was also at one point named one of the lowest performing public schools in the state. Selma’s reality wasn’t a reflection of low effort, will, or desire to improve school conditions. It was a signal that it needed a new approach in reaching its goals.
Establishing a Commitment to Improvement
In 2021, the school applied for and received funding through the state’s Innovative Partnership Grant (IPG) program. The grant provided additional support for the school’s improvement strategy, which had been launched in 2018 following the comprehensive needs assessment. Selma’s improvement strategy comprised factors at three levels:
- school-level factors, such as crafting a procedure manual to streamline operations and reduce the need for crisis management
- teacher-level factors, including enhancing its professional learning communities (PLCs) to promote professional development and improve classroom management and instruction
- student-level factors, such as facilitating student choice and voice through clubs, student government, and goal setting
The schools’ improvement plan also included maintaining a dynamic multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) and increasing family involvement. Recognizing that sustainable improvement required a fresh, research-based approach guided by experienced experts, Selma sought an external partner to support its turnaround efforts after years of challenges with leadership stability, student performance, and school culture.
Collaborating With WestEd in Three Key Areas
In 2021, the same year it received the IPG grant, Selma engaged WestEd’s Quality Schools and Districts team as coaches and trainers to improve working conditions and student outcomes. Underpinning WestEd’s approach to its partnership with Selma was an ethos of nonjudgment. As one staff member put it, “I would never listen if I felt like I was being judged, but I have felt compassion and empathy from WestEd. They’re not strangers on campus; they’re partners who are in it with us.” Over the course of the partnership, WestEd has collaborated with Selma in three key areas
1. Identifying Needed Improvements with the Four Domains CALL Survey
WestEd’s Four Domains CALL Survey is a tool that assesses and enhances school and district improvement by focusing on leadership, culture, talent development, and instructional practices. WestEd administered the CALL survey at Selma to evaluate the school leadership’s ability to champion improvement and the staff’s collaboration efforts. The survey identified specific strengths and areas for growth across leadership, instructional practices, and collaboration, helping Selma tailor professional learning and monitor progress over time.
2. Understanding and Strengthening PLCs with VITAL Collaboration
Through the VITAL collaboration survey and framework, WestEd was able to gauge the state of staff collaboration schoolwide and then work closely with staff to build a robust professional learning network within the school. The collaboration was designed to complement and strengthen existing strategies, with an ongoing commitment to developing and refining educational practices. With this new framework, Selma amplified collaborative practices that enhanced staff engagement; fostered shared ownership of improvement work; and promoted more consistent, student-centered instruction throughout the school.
3. Increasing Family Engagement with Academic Parent–Teacher Teams
In addition to enhancing partnerships within and across staff, Selma leadership took steps to involve families and parents in supporting student learning. The school organized academic-focused family events using WestEd’s Academic Parent–Teacher Teams, a data-driven model connecting family engagement to student success. Using the model resulted in student-led parent–teacher conferences and new practices, such as students regularly sharing with their parents the progress made toward academic goals that they set for themselves. The model also served to strengthen parent relationships with one another, helping build a more tightly knit schoolwide community.
Progress and Improvement
Selma Middle School has made significant strides toward improvement. During the 2020/21 school year, around the time Selma first partnered with WestEd, just 17 percent of students were meeting math proficiency benchmarks and 19 percent were meeting reading proficiency benchmarks. Today, assessment performance is on the rise. In the 2023/24 school year, the most recent academic year for which data are available, 39 percent of students demonstrated proficiency in math and 34 percent in reading.
The collaborative efforts undertaken during the first 2 academic years of partnership with WestEd—2021/22 and 2022/23—were both comprehensive and rigorous. According to the principal, the school has implemented structures and procedures that are likely to yield positive outcomes in the years ahead through a dedicated focus on enhancing the quality of teaching and student learning.
Key Takeaways from Selma Middle School’s Transformation
The experience at Selma not only reaffirms much of what educational research suggests about effective school practices but also provides a practical model for implementing these strategies.
Key takeaways from Selma’s journey include the following:
Student Empowerment: Encouraging students to take charge of their learning leads to their increased responsibility and ownership of their own educational journeys.
Data-Driven Decisions: Using data to guide actions, assess implementation and effectiveness, and make necessary adjustments is crucial for school improvement.
A Supportive Environment for Teachers: Just as students thrive under high expectations, support, and recognition, teachers also benefit from a similar environment that fosters their professional growth.
Teacher Autonomy: Building teacher capacity is linked to granting educators greater control and responsibility over their instructional methods.
Reflective Practice: Teachers need the opportunity to experiment with new strategies and engage in discussions about their professional experiences and practices.
A Culture of Learning: By shifting the focus of adult conversations toward student-centered instruction, the entire school culture can evolve into one centered on learning.
Consistency in Teaching: Shared instructional methods create a more cohesive and supportive learning experience for both teachers and students.
Let’s Build Together
For any of the roughly 25,188 rural schools nationwide that can identify with the challenges and composition of Selma, this story is a testament to what can be achieved when struggling rural schools are met with partnership instead of judgment. As Selma continues to improve, it also continues to demonstrate that with the right support even the most persistent challenges can become the foundation for lasting progress. If your school or district is navigating similar obstacles, we invite you to connect with us to explore how a collaborative, research-driven approach can help you take the next step forward.
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