Each week, NREA and the I Am A Rural Teacher Campaign share how vast rural America is. Check out our 50 States highlight on Facebook: facebook.com/iaartcampaign

Are you an Oregon rural teacher? We'd love to hear from you, Oregon Small Schools Association! If you're from another state, your feature is coming soon, so submit today at http://bit.ly/iaartsubmit.

We are also asking rural communities to share how COVID-19 is impacting them and how teachers and teacher-leaders are adapting. You can share yours here: bit.ly/iaartcovid

Feel free to contact Hailey Winkleman, the NREA Advocacy Liaison for this campaign, at iaartcampaign@gmail.com with any questions about submitting your story.

GREENOUGH - Multi-colored cones lined the grass outside of Sunset School as the teachers recognized their students for finishing out the unexpected school year. Roughly 10 families gathered under summer dusk Friday, May 29 to watch.

"We are thankful that we are still able to come together to celebrate what you have learned and accomplished each school year," said teacher Toni Hatten.

A Mississippi State University research center is reaching out and providing resources to help small towns respond to the unprecedented challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Fred Carl Jr. Small Town Center is announcing its new website with a special COVID-19 resource page specifically to help small communities. These webpages are found at smalltowncenter.msstate.edu and smalltowncenter.msstate.edu/covid-19.

"Rural communities are often the most vulnerable to challenges," said Fred Carl Jr. Small Town Center Director Leah Kemp. "Often, what works in a large-scale city is not applicable to a smaller community. Yet, small towns have the advantage of being more nimble and responsive to crisis due to less regulation and more opportunity to creatively problem solve."

Last year, students across the country earned one million in scholarships through the College Board Opportunity Scholarships by taking steps to plan for college. Although the coronavirus affected this school year, rising seniors can stay on track and earn scholarships by taking action to plan for college.

The College Board Opportunity Scholarships provide a digital college planning guide to plan, prepare, and pay for college. Students who complete steps in the program are eligible for scholarships ranging from $500 to $40,000. The scholarships do not require an essay, application, minimum test score, or GPA. The more effort that students take, the more chances they have to earn scholarships. At least half of all the scholarships will be designated for students whose families earn less than $60,000 per year.

During this time, every rising senior can stay on track by taking these three actions:

1) Sign up for the College Board Opportunity Scholarships at cb.org/opportunity

2) Explore colleges and build a starter college list on BigFuture

3) Practice for six or more hours with Official SAT Practice on Khan Academy

We have developed new educator and student resources to help rising seniors stay on track with college planning while also earning scholarship opportunities from home. For more resources about College Board Opportunity Scholarships, visit this page.

This article describes the impact of a state funded project in the rural schools in Eastern, Appalachian Kentucky. The project involved a partnership between the Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative (KVEC) and the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE). Through the partnership, grants were made available region-wide to focus on three areas in special education: transition, micro-credential development and new and emerging teachers. The project was designed to provide practitioner-based opportunities to innovate transition experiences for students, teacher-driven micro-credential development and address the burgeoning need of new and emerging special education teachers, particularly those on alternate academic degree plans. The results of the study indicated that faculty and staff believed that RISE2 Deeper Learning had a positive impact on instructional effectiveness and ultimately student learning, student achievement, as well as overall teacher morale and satisfaction.

These days, homes have become more than a place of respite after a long day. For many of us, they are also where we work or “attend” school and spend nearly all of our leisure time. So having reliable home Internet seems more important than ever…even priceless. However, does having Internet, or fast Internet, translate to higher rural home value?

This was the driving question behind a recent study conducted on two different rural Oklahoma counties (Woods and Pittsburg counties) that experienced a dramatic increase in broadband over the past decade. In Woods County, fixed broadband speeds of 50 Mbps or greater went from nonexistent in 2011 to available in more than 40% of census blocks in 2017, according to FCC data. Over those same six years (2011-2017) Pittsburg County also saw census blocks go from no broadband coverage to 24% coverage at 50 Mbps.