Reimagining Rural Education

Discover how a New Mexico school district overcomes geographic isolation and poverty to create relevant career opportunities for students

In the vast expanse of New Mexico lies a school district that defies conventional educational models. Spanning 5,000 square miles or roughly the size of Connecticut, Gallup-McKinley County Schools serves students across seven distinct communities, many living over 100 miles from the central office. The district operates in one of the nation’s most economically disadvantaged regions, ranked 50th in poverty levels nationwide.

“We’re a very unique school district, not only in New Mexico but in the country,” says Mike Hyatt, Superintendent of Gallup-McKinley County Schools. “We’re the third largest geographically as far as how dispersed our students are. This area is culturally diverse with some very rural and some city center communities, which presents both challenges and opportunities to provide education for students from diverse backgrounds socially, culturally, and economically.”

The geographic isolation creates extraordinary logistical hurdles. Many communities lack basic infrastructure like no grocery stores within 40 miles, no gas stations, and limited internet connectivity. According to Deputy Superintendent Jvanna Hanks, “Some of our families live with no electricity, no water, and haul water. They utilize propane and other fuel sources to run their homes.” The district has responded by installing Starlink satellite internet in remote schools and providing internet access for students who need it.

Eighty percent of the district operates on tribal land, serving a predominantly Native American student population. This cultural richness adds depth to the district’s educational approach but requires sensitivity to traditional values while preparing students for modern careers. Rather than viewing these circumstances as insurmountable obstacles, district leadership has transformed them into catalysts for educational innovation, establishing Gallup-McKinley as a top-performing district in New Mexico.

Rethinking Rural Education

Gallup-McKinley County Schools has fundamentally reimagined rural education by developing a career pathways model that breaks from traditional college-centric approaches. The initiative responds directly to local business concerns about workforce readiness while addressing the unique needs of students in isolated communities.

“Our work originated many years ago when I heard from businesspeople in our community saying our students weren’t ready for work and lacked the skills needed to be successful,” Hyatt explains. “Coupled with experiences from different conferences and seeing schools doing things differently along the line of career pathways, that’s how it started.”

The district has constructed a comprehensive model providing multiple post-graduation pathways like skilled trades, military service, and four-year college tracks. “Education needs a revolution,” says Hanks. “We need to view education as a continuum in individuals’ lives. There is not one path that equals success. There are multiple paths, and students just need to find the ones that are theirs.”

This paradigm shift manifests through paid internships, dual college credit opportunities, and specialized career-track courses, even in the most remote schools. The district now funds student internships with local businesses, many of which couldn’t otherwise afford to host interns.

“We’ve figured out a way to pay those students so they’re getting real-world experience with direct skills as well as soft skills,” Hanks notes. “It gives them a way to feel how the real world works, including showing up and getting a paycheck, while getting experience without making it an economic burden on businesses.”

Integrating Academic Curriculum with Real-World Skills

What distinguishes Gallup-McKinley’s approach is its intentional integration of career skills with traditional academic subjects, a methodology known as “linked learning” in educational circles.

“We link the learning from career pathways with science, math, and English,” Hyatt says. “Students get that relevance throughout the curriculum, no matter what course they’re taking. We create a collaborative environment where teachers work together on how to best meet students’ needs through relevance or partnerships, doing projects together that build that relevance.”

The district organizes teachers into “school of”, collaborative teams where core subject instructors coordinate with career pathway teachers to create cross-curricular connections. Jack McFarland, Director of College Career and Civic Readiness, explains, “Our English, math, and science teachers are attached to our career classes to help bring relevancy from career classes into their teaching. The student hears the connections all day and can relate to them, seeing how career classes actually work with math, science, English, and history.”

The district has also implemented Project Lead the Way programs starting in elementary school, introducing health, engineering, and technology concepts early. They’ve secured funding from the New Mexico legislature to build STEM discovery centers in elementary school resource rooms, working with the Cal Ripken Jr. Foundation to outfit these spaces with interactive technology.

“There’s more than one way to teach,” Hanks notes. “There’s definitely a way to integrate engineering into math so lessons bring not only relevance but reinforce information for students in a real-world way. Just because students need to create technical writing doesn’t mean they can’t do it by writing a manual on how to create equipment or how to scope out using a 3D printer to print molds for mass production.”

Building a Continuous Educational Journey

Gallup-McKinley has constructed a sequential career development path that begins in elementary school and continues through graduation. This approach aligns with research showing that early career exposure significantly increases student engagement and helps children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds envision professional futures.

Elementary students explore careers through hands-on STEM activities and career exploration programs. “We’ve started building STEM centers in our resource centers in each elementary school where there are hands-on STEM activities students can participate in,” Hyatt explains. “We have a program called Xello available to all elementary schools. It is an interactive career exploration.”

By middle school, students begin taking dedicated employability skills courses—an uncommon opportunity for grades 6–8. “We offer employability skills classes from sixth through eighth grade,” says McFarland. “In addition, students can take Project Lead the Way courses that explore areas like medical detectives, engineering, and other subjects designed to spark and develop career interests.”

The district developed a “graduate profile” outlining desired characteristics for graduates: collaborative skills, critical thinking, lifelong learning capabilities, and communication abilities. High school juniors take a three-course sequence in their chosen pathway, preparing them for senior-year experiences outside traditional classrooms.

“We want all our seniors out of the building either in dual credit courses, internships, or CTE courses,” McFarland says. “All our health students across the District are in internships or dual credit courses, and next year we’ll focus on media students.”

The district tracks post-graduation outcomes through family follow-up calls. “We don’t want them to attend one semester of college and return,” Hanks notes. “We want them to be post-graduate success stories. We track our kids after they leave to see how well we’ve prepared them for their future.”

Creating Opportunities in Isolated Settings

Strategic partnerships form the backbone of Gallup-McKinley’s educational innovation, enabling the district to overcome geographic isolation and limited local industries. The district has developed relationships with national laboratories, universities, technical schools, and regional businesses to expand student opportunities beyond what the local economy offers.

“We partner with Navajo Technical University for our engineering students,” McFarland explains. “They provide engineering courses each semester and work with Crownpoint High, which is 50 miles away. We also collaborate with Sandia Labs and Los Alamos Labs throughout the year, plus a summer bridge program where both labs work with our students on specific projects.”

These laboratory partnerships offer exceptional opportunities rarely available in rural settings. Students receive scholarships for month-long lab internships, exposing them to cutting-edge research environments. The district also maintains a Business Community Steering Committee that guides school curriculum development.

“Our business community team helps guide our schools of,” says McFarland. “They provide ideas about what work looks like in the real world. Our students visit their businesses, we bring in speakers, and they help develop projects—like our business students working on food truck projects with local food truck operators.”

For college-bound students, the district partners with the University of New Mexico-Gallup for an early college program. “We transport students from across our district to Gallup where they get an opportunity to earn an associate’s degree before graduating high school,” Hyatt notes.

The district even builds community service into its pathways. “We partner with Gallup Solar for one school that’s 104 miles away,” McFarland says. “Seniors work with the community installing solar panels they’ve built during the year, donating them to elderly residents to power oxygen machines or refrigerators for medication. With Southwest Indian Foundation, our students learn to build complete homes that are donated to community members in need.”

Attracting and Retaining Quality Educators in Rural America

Rural education nationwide faces a persistent challenge: attracting and retaining qualified teachers. Gallup-McKinley has transformed its approach to this problem, reducing annual teacher turnover from nearly 50% to creating an environment where educators now stay an average of six to seven years.

“We have communities where we’re asking teachers to come that don’t have a grocery store within 40 miles or a gas station,” Hyatt explains. “They have to make sure they have enough gas from 40 miles away to travel back when it’s running out. It’s extremely rural, with limited amenities you would find in larger city centers.”

To overcome these challenges, the district implemented a comprehensive teacher support system. Since 80% of the district sits on sovereign tribal land where housing can’t be purchased or rented, the district built teacher housing. “We’ve had to build housing for our teachers,” says Hyatt. “We provide it free of charge, paying for their housing and utilities.”

Financial incentives form another critical component. The district offers relocation expenses up to $3,000, recruitment incentives up to $20,000 for two-year commitments, retention bonuses for staff who stay, and covers 90% of insurance premiums. These approaches align with research showing that rural teacher retention requires addressing both professional satisfaction and quality of life concerns.

The district’s innovative curriculum provides professional fulfillment that aids retention. “When you create a collaborative environment where teachers work together on building relevance for students, we’ve seen people get excited about that kind of work with their peers,” Hyatt notes. “That’s driven a lot of our retention efforts.”

Recognition, Sustainability, and Future Growth

What began as a response to local workforce needs has evolved into an educational model drawing attention across New Mexico and beyond. Gallup-McKinley now hosts educators from around the country seeking to implement similar approaches in their own rural districts.

“We’ve done about a dozen total site visits from different foundations and schools across the country coming to look at what we’re doing,” Hyatt says. “We’re not perfect, there are things we’re still refining, but we’re showcasing our approach especially for rural communities. Not a lot of this work happens in rural settings because of the challenges, so we’re sharing what we’ve figured out with other rural communities.”

The district has presented their model at multiple conferences, including EdUprising, NMACTE, and ACTE regional conferences, and was recently featured in ConnectED’s newsletter for experiential learning. Their systematic approach to curriculum development ensures sustainability beyond individual champions.

“We’ve created individual example lesson plans with fully integrated projects as resources for our educators,” Hanks explains. “They can pull down a standard and see an example with integrations for media or engineering. One of the issues we saw in other areas was pockets of success driven by individual people. Our goal is global success with a sustainable system so no matter who comes and goes, students will have access to quality resources.”

Current priorities include building a central career tech center to provide more specialized opportunities and refining their curriculum integration. “We’re now in the refining stage,” Hyatt notes. “We’ve figured out what works well for our students and are making sure it’s truly embedded in instruction. With turnover, we’re focused on how to create a model that sustains itself when staff changes, especially in rural schools where losing two teachers out of seven dramatically impacts programs.”

From the rugged landscapes of New Mexico, Gallup-McKinley County Schools has forged an educational approach that transcends traditional models, creating pathways to success for students in one of America’s most challenging educational environments. By reimagining education as a continuous journey from elementary school to employment, the district demonstrates how rural schools can overcome geographic isolation, economic constraints, and infrastructure limitations to prepare students for meaningful futures.

AT A GLANCE

Who: Gallup-McKinley County Schools

What: A rural school district implementing innovative career pathway programs and partnerships to prepare students for diverse post-graduation opportunities

Where: McKinley County, New Mexico

Website: www.gmcs.org