NREA Weekly Updates: January 28th 2022

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Teach Rural JOB BOARD
National Center for Rural Education Research Networks (NCRERN)
We are hiring a Replication State Network Manager to manage partnerships with 3-4 state education agencies that will test whether our attendance and postsecondary readiness interventions are effective in other rural settings. Can you please share this role description with your networks to support our recruitment efforts?

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Come work with National Center for Rural Education Research Networks (NCRERN) to do groundbreaking research on what works in rural education!

We’re looking for someone to join our team in March or April of 2022 to help manage partnerships with 3-4 state education agencies that will test whether our attendance and postsecondary readiness interventions are effective in other rural settings. We aspire to highlight the diversity of rural communities across the country, with particular attention to BIPOC students and communities. This is a great opportunity for someone with a background in education research or program evaluation.
Program evaluation knowledge, randomized control trials, and implementation research experience preferred
Salary is $77-79k, benefits package contingent on the state of residence
Opportunity to work remotely or in Cambridge, MA office
Priority application deadline is 1/31/22
Submit a cover letter and resume that clearly demonstrate that you meet the required qualifications to the Harvard portal
BIPOC candidates are encouraged to apply!
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Request from our Partners: Rural School Collaborative
Request from our Partners: Rural School Collaborative
The GRAD Partnership for student success is a new national initiative that encourages and supports communities in efforts to use high-quality student success systems that empower schools to graduate all students ready for the future.

The GRAD Partnership, which is led by the Everyone Graduates Center at John Hopkins University, consists of nine national partners, including the Rural Schools Collaborative. RSC’s work will focus on establishing regional rural school networks that will participate in this nationwide effort. The project has received funding support from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

To ensure that rural narratives are an integral facet of the GRAD Partnership, RSC is interested in identifying rural school districts that have engaged in the development and implementation of Early Warning/On-Track Systems (EWS). In addition, RSC is happy to visit with districts that would like to learn more about this work or the launch of the GRAD Partnership.

Please contact Gary Funk at gfunk@ruralschoolscollaborative.org if your district is using EWS or if you would like more information about the GRAD Partnership. RSC is committed to learning more about EWS work in the rural school sector, and they look forward to connecting rural school districts to this important work.

We invite you to learn more about the GRAD Partnership. Please know that reaching out or sharing information will not be regarded as a commitment to EWS or the project.
 
The Rural Student Success team at the University of Georgia is excited to let you know that on March 3-4, 2022, we will host our second annual Rural Student Success unConference. See our website for information and recordings from last year’s meeting. This year the unConference will once again be virtual, and we hope you will join us to share your insights, experience, and ideas with others dedicated to the success of rural students in higher education. A flyer about the unConference is attached. Please share it broadly within your professional networks.
For this gathering, we're once again borrowing the concept of the unConference from the technology and business worlds and will focus not on formal research presentations but on conversations about best practices, innovative ideas, and current/future research agendas on rural students in higher education with researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and students across the country.
This year’s theme is “Exploring Rural Student Identity in America” and will include keynotes on rural student identity, policy impacting rural students, and inclusive curricular and co-curricular pedagogy for the rural student community in higher education. You can visit our website for details about this year’s keynote speakers, schedule, and registration fees. We expect registration to fill quickly and encourage you to register soon.
Please don't hesitate to reach out to rural@uga.edu with any questions you might have. We hope to see you in March.
 
AASA is working with our American Rescue Plan Committee and our partners at EducationCounsel to develop and curate best-in-class resources for district leaders to use for recovery and redesign, especially your use of the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) funds.
This Major Strategies Self-Assessment (Tool III) is the third in a series of these resources:


While those earlier resources applied to your entire plans, this third installment focuses on your major strategy or couple of largest strategies for recovery and/or redesign. The guidance has two parts: a self-assessment tool (see pages 2-3 of this document or click here to download an editable version to use for your reflection) and a hypothetical example (see pages 4-6) to illustrate what a completed reflection might look like.
Read More
 
Survey Request of Rural Education Support
Survey Request of Rural Education Support
You are invited to reply to a 15-minute survey about the extent to which you receive services and supports from your state education agency that is responsive to rural contexts. Results from this survey, jointly developed by NREA, ADI, and ICF, will help NREA and other advocates understand rural educators’ needs for assistance.
Your replies will be kept private and anonymous, and your identity will never be associated with your answers. Your participation in this survey is entirely voluntary, and you may withdraw at any time without any penalty. In addition, your participation or non-participation will not be used to positively or negatively affect you or your participation in any NREA program. If you are unable to complete the survey in one sitting, you may leave it and re-enter to finish later.
Click here to get started: Survey of Rural Education Support
If you have any questions about this survey, please contact Caitlin Howley at caitlin.howley@icf.com. Thank you for your input!
 

Committee for Children is a nonprofit best known for its Second Step social-emotional learning programs. Reaching more than 20.5 million children worldwide each year, Committee for Children provides SEL resources to thousands of schools around the country.

Fortify Youth Mental Health

Educators and caregivers can positively influence the mental health of children and youth. We’ve handpicked research-based resources that provide mental health information as well as tips shown to boost favorable outcomes.

Social-Emotional Learning Webinars

Are you interested in social-emotional learning (SEL)? Join a free webinar to learn more about the Second Step® family of SEL programs and hear from SEL experts on industry-wide trends and the latest research.


“Small” Talk with Rural School Leaders

There are many unique opportunities and challenges that smaller, rural school districts face while implementing social-emotional learning (SEL) initiatives. Watch our free, on-demand, the panel where rural district leaders share experiences of supporting SEL in their schools.

 
NREAC
Superintendent Turnover Survey
  
AASA has issued a survey to all superintendents to gauge what retirement is looking like this year. Thank you to those of you who have already pushed the survey out to your superintendent members; we would welcome anything you can do to share the survey with your superintendent members. Need sample text for a quick email? We’ve got you covered: Please take a moment to complete this very brief survey by AASA looking to capture real-time data on superintendent retirements this year. We know you are slammed with work and have been inundated with survey requests, and we always appreciate the time you take to provide your critical feedback and perspective. Thank you for this support. You can access the survey here: https://survey.k12insight.com/survey1.aspx?k=SsUVURsTPPsPsPsPsYPSUQPUPV&lang=0

States are Lynchpin to Broadband Expansion

The new $42.5 billion pot for broadband deployment in the Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act will go to new players in the broadband arena…the states. Traditionally, federal broadband funding has been distributed by the Federal Communications Commission and the USDA directly to internet providers. Now, each state will receive $100 million and be required to generate a five-year action plan to govern the use of funds and establish a process to prioritize locations classified as unserved and underserved. However, all states are not equally prepared to handle the broadband challenge. Some have existing broadband offices and some even have experience running their own broadband grant programs. In other states, multiple agencies may have jurisdiction over broadband. The remainder of the $42.5 billion will be allocated across states based on their percentage of unserved locations. States must include cooperatives, local governments, nonprofits, and public utilities as eligible entities for broadband funds. The highest priority for the National Grange is and has been to establish connectivity for the unserved first, the underserved second, and then other connectivity needs. 

National Telecommunications and Information Administration Will Coordinate 

The NTIA’s new Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth (OICG) will have the primary responsibility to coordinate government spending to close the digital divide. OIG's core mission will be to fund broadband infrastructure, leverage data for decision-making, and coordinate among states, tribes, and the private sector. The National Grange will work with its state Grange chapters to develop partnerships with individual state broadband agencies to assure local broadband needs are met.

Affordability Should Not be a Roadblock

Even after broadband becomes available, some people may not be able to afford it. Congress has created a $14 billion long-term Affordable Connectivity Program that replaces the temporary Emergency Broadband Benefit program created during the COVID pandemic.  Households qualify for ACP low-cost broadband if they receive USDA’s WIC or SNAP benefits or have an income at or below 200% of the federal poverty guidelines. The Federal Communications Commission will administer the new ACP. 

National Grange Submits Comments to NTIA

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is seeking public input on its new mission as America’s lead agency for broadband deployment. In a letter to the NTIA administrator, the National Grange raised several issues which need to be addressed in order to reach the last mile of rural America with high-speed broadband, such as:

  • Connect the unserved first as mandated by Congress
  • Administer broadband expansion projects in line with the mixed-technology approach outlined by Congress
  • Build on the agency’s commitment to better broadband mapping data
  • As states and territories come to NTIA seeking broadband funding, require those states and territories to ensure timely access, fair cost-sharing, and expedited resolution of pole attachment disputes in return.
  • Establish effective, efficient, and transparent oversight of the state agencies and broadband providers who receive these funds
 
Daily Yonder:
Analysis: Addressing Our Rural Childcare Crisis
Analysis: Addressing Our Rural Childcare Crisis
In 2020, the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust challenged the professional schools at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to take a deep dive into two rural counties in the eastern part of the state where unemployment, housing, healthcare, and many services including broadband and childcare leave moderate- and low-income residents behind. Both Edgecombe and Robeson counties have experienced population loss through out-migration and deaths even though both counties have community colleges and one has a constituent institution of the state university system. The challenge is to create new approaches, with UNC working as an anchor institution hand in hand with the local communities, bringing new student talent and investments to solve the challenges the communities see as their priorities.
Read More
 
The Rural Educator: Growing Each Year!
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This report shows the number of views of the ERIC records for your content and the number of PDF downloads if you permit the full text to display in ERIC. These statistics are for the six-month period from July 1, 2021, to December 31, 2021.
­­• A view is counted whenever a user accesses the abstract.
­­• A download is recorded whenever a user opens the PDF attached to the ERIC record.
 
This report is only for your content hosted on the ERIC digital library of education research at https://eric.ed.gov. It does not include the views at third-party providers of ERIC or at the publisher's website. You can learn more about the metrics report in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9-5yRKMW5o
 
The first table shows the total visits and downloads for your currently indexed source(s). In the "Views and Downloads" column the total views are visualized in green and downloads in blue. The table is followed by a list of up to ten (10) articles or document titles with the most total views for each source. We are unable to give statistics for all articles.
 
EDITORIAL STAFF
Co-Editors:
Catharine Biddle, University of Maine
Devon Brenner, Mississippi State University
Erin McHenry-Sorber, West Virginia University

Promising Practices Editor:
Amy Price Azano, Virginia Tech

Social Media Coordinators:
Natalie Downes, University of Canberra
Katie Dulaney, Penn State University
 
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