Catharine Biddle, Ph.D. · University of Maine
Professor of Educational Leadership.
I'm a Libra Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Maine, where I study how rural schools and communities are responding to social and economic change. I direct both the Center for Applied Research on Education and Schools and the New England Rural Education Hub.
My recent projects have looked at trauma-responsive education in rural schools, how superintendents responded to school building closure during the COVID-19 pandemic, how schools interact with and support student caregivers in recovery, and how to support educator well-being throughout their careers.
My work has been funded by the American Educational Research Association, the Spencer Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Nellie Mae Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Education, and has appeared in the Review of Research in Education, the American Journal of Education, the Peabody Journal of Education, and others.
Position
Libra Professor of Educational Leadership, University of Maine
Focus
School–community relationships in rural places
Ph.D.
Educational Leadership, Pennsylvania State University
My research focuses on school–community relationships, particularly in rural places. These relationships are often close but ambivalent. I work to situate them within the social, economic, and political realities that shape rural places, and to understand how partnerships can be leveraged to serve both equitable student learning and community development — drawing on the leadership of administrators, parents, teachers, and youth.
Four stories we tell about rural schools and communities — a 25-minute talk for the Island Institute (2019) outlining key issues in rural education.
Current projects
with Gert Nesin (UMaine), Laura Bean (UMaine), Paul Austin (UMaine), Tim Surrette (UMaine Augusta) & Ezekiel Kimball (UMaine)
Rural THRIVE is a set of statewide communities of practice supporting Maine's rural public school educators at three key career stages: early career, teacher-leaders, and school and district leaders. Through ongoing professional development, mentorship, and other evidence-based supports, the project works to strengthen educator resilience and retention — and, in turn, improve outcomes for rural PK–12 students.
Funded by the U.S. Department of Education and the Nellie Mae Foundation.
with Karen Eppley (Kansas State University)
A qualitative study of how rural caregivers in recovery from substance use disorder experience their interactions with their children's schools and teachers. Rural and blue-collar workers are far more likely to be prescribed opioids, and substance use disorder deeply shapes the school experiences of the children whose caregivers are affected. Drawing on social-ecological and social-exclusion frameworks, the project centers caregivers' own voices to surface barriers to their involvement in their children's learning — informing school supports and policy responses for a perspective largely missing from existing research.
Funded by the Pennsylvania State University and the Kansas State University Center for Rural Education.
with Erin McHenry-Sorber (WVU), Sara Hartman (Ohio University), Sarah Schmitt-Wilson (Montana State University), Kessa Roberts (Clemson University) & Guan Saw (Claremont McKenna University)
Setting a shared national agenda for rural education research for 2022–2027 — identifying the field's most pressing questions and priorities to guide researchers, funders, and policymakers. [Replace or expand with your own 2–3 sentence description.]
Funded by the National Rural Education Association.
Selected past projects
with Lyn Brown & Mark Tappan (Colby College)
A long-term research–practice partnership between the Cobscook Institute's TREE program and the Rural Vitality Lab. TREE is a student-empowered, whole-child, trauma-informed approach to rural school redesign that begins by meeting basic needs and expanding mental-health supports. Through a coaching model, teachers and administrators learn the fundamentals of trauma-informed practice and instructional approaches that support the whole child.
with Janet Fairman (UMaine) & the Maine Education Policy Research Institute
Case studies of Maine schools using community-school approaches to whole-child support, prepared to inform the Education and Cultural Affairs committee of the Maine State Legislature.
with Maria Frankland (UMaine)
School-building closures during COVID-19 underscored the role U.S. schools play in meeting the basic needs of economically vulnerable families. Using a mixed-methods approach across two states with differing epidemiological risk (Maine and Pennsylvania), this study examines how district leaders adapted basic-needs provision under fiscal uncertainty and imperfect information — pairing a time-sensitive dataset of district practices with interviews of 54 superintendents.
Funded by a Spencer Foundation COVID-19 Rapid Response Grant.
with Mindy Crandall & Kathleen Bell (UMaine)
An interdisciplinary collaboration engaging undergraduate researchers across education, natural-resource management, and economics to understand the changing needs of rural communities — and how schools can better align education with local workforce needs as rural economies shift away from resource-based manufacturing.
with Amy Azano (Virginia Tech); Daniella Hall Sutherland (Clemson) & Erin McHenry-Sorber (WVU)
A critical review of 100 years of rural-education research on teacher training, recruitment, and retention — tracing how researchers' understanding of rurality and schooling shifted across the 20th century, and proposing amended considerations for what "counts" as rural education research.
with ASPIRE
Four years of collaborative evaluation with an organization elevating youth–adult partnership as a vehicle for student-centered school reform in New England — examining the opportunities and challenges for student voice, and the dynamics of long-term partnership with a community-based nonprofit.
Courses I've taught at the University of Maine, across our M.Ed./Ed.S. and Ph.D./Ed.D. programs.
Get in touch