NREA Weekly Updates: May 13th, 2022

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NREA Podcast
Raising Rural: A Fair Chance for a Good Life, which will explore creative and cooperative action around three strands: community, agency, and creativity.
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Thank you for agreeing to present at the 2022 National Forum to Advance Rural Education.
 
As a token of our appreciation for your participation in the event, up to THREE presenters per session receive a $100 presenter discount off the standard registration rates. If you have any co-presenters, please pass along this important information, so they take advantage of this benefit as well.
 
Simply click the Register Now button below, and select either In-Person Presenter or Virtual Presenter according to your selected presentation type. Your discount will be automatically applied during checkout.

Please register by June 1, 2022and consider booking your hotel room. Last year, the event hotel sold out, and we had to secure rooms nearby.

Look for an email in the next few weeks regarding the next steps for presenters. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please contact the event team at nfare@nrea.site.
NFARE Registration
 
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Join us on May 17 at 2:00 pm ET for a virtual event, Introducing the GRAD Partnership: Advancing the Next Generation of Early Warning/On-Track SystemsThe GRAD Partnership is a collaborative initiative that works with school districts and community partners to implement high-quality student success (on-track) systems so that schools are empowered to graduate all students ready for their future. Register here: https://bit.ly/3KqbqHK
 
Call for Authors - Rurality across Race and Ethnicity (Edited Book)
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In partnership with Tyler Hallmark and Sonja Ardoin, I am thrilled to announce a Call for Authors for an upcoming edited book entitled, Rurality across Race and Ethnicity: Considerations for Advancing Higher Education Equity. The book will explore how colleges and universities can better support students from rural areas who identify as Asian American, Pacific Islander, Black and African American, Hispanic and Latinx, Indigenous, and/or multiracial, placing these students and their communities in conversation with national higher education discourse. 
 
As a part of the Call, we seek two types of submissions.
  1. Book chapters, which would be approximately 15-20 pages in length (double-spaced) and would share original research, assessments, evaluations, literature reviews, and/or perspectives on rural Students/Communities of Color with a clear articulation of how the findings inform practitioners, policymakers, and scholars.
  2. Notes from the field would be approximately 3-5 pages in length (double-spaced) and would highlight ongoing/existing practices or programs that serve rural Students of Color.
 
Of course, at this time, submissions are only brief 300-500 word abstracts for either type.
 
I have attached a PDF of the Call to this email. You can also find the Call linked here: https://tinyurl.com/Race-and-Rurality-Call
 
 
We Can Do This Campaign: NREA is a Proud Partner
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Our national partner, National PTA, is hosting a Town Hall on Wed., May 18 at 7 p.m. EDT titled “We Can Do This: How Families Can Navigate Today’s COVID-19 Environment”. The event will discuss how to best tackle vaccine hesitancy, tips for navigating conversations in today’s COVID-19 environment, and the importance of a community-focused vaccination effort. Panelists will include:
 
  • CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky 
  • Senior Policy Advisor to the White House, Dr. Cameron Webb
  • Dr. Ilan Shapiro with the American Academy of Pediatrics
  • PTA leaders Christel Wesley and Sandra West
 
The town hall will be moderated by Spectrum News National Health Reporter Erin Billups and feature an introduction from National PTA President Anna King. 
 
Watch the event live at Facebook.com/ParentTeacherAssociation. Please use the hashtags #WeCanDoThis and #SafeAtSchool to join the conversation!

 
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NREAC:
NREAC May Call Notes
May 11, 2022
 
Updates from Capitol Hill
Many of the same issues facing Capitol Hill discussed last month continue—Congress has been stalled in passing an aid package for Ukraine and a COVID relief supplemental bill.
There seems to be movement on the Ukraine aid piece—the House passed a nearly $40 billion package last night (May 10), and it now goes to the Senate. Congress originally wanted to couple the Ukraine and COVID packages to ensure the passage of both. The de-coupling of the two now puts the COVID-19 package in jeopardy.
AASA urges Congress to extend the child nutrition waivers, but hope is dwindling as we get closer to the June 30 expiration date. We have launched a call to action for Supts to reach out to their members of Congress, urging them to extend the waivers. Please feel free to share with your members.
Appropriations are also underway: We have heard that leadership is in conversations to discuss topline numbers. Committees have also started holding hearings with Cabinet members to testify on their department’s section of the President’s budget proposal.
AASA joined 51 organizations in a letter asking Congress to invest $3 billion in Title II in FY23.
Heather raised the question about the impact of increased Veterans Affairs medical care funding on overall spending since it is a part of non-defense discretionary (NDD) funding. VA medical care is funded one year in advance, so the FY 2022 bill included FY 2023 VA funding already, which was a $13.8 billion (14%) increase over FY 2022. The President’s FY 2023 budget requested a further increase. Therefore, $13.8 billion of any FY 2023 NDD increase appropriators give themselves is already enacted for veterans' health care (but that won’t be made available until Oct 1, on the first day of FY 23).
The Administration and Democratic appropriators have started talking about increases for NDD, veterans' health care, and defense as if they are three separate categories. 
But all this is just framing: the Appropriators will decide on a discretionary total (the 302(a) allocation) and break it down into 12 302(b) allocations for the 12 subcommittees. So essentially, they are looking at total numbers knowing that the VA costs will impact the levels – asking for an increase in overall numbers to offset the VA increase. There are no NDD and Defense caps set in law anymore.
Summer Waivers
In the meantime, USDA provides what flexibilities they can around school meals for the summer. The Dept. has provided states with a checklist allowing them to request a waiver for both Non-Congregate Setting and Parent Pick Up. However, these waivers can only be used when “operations are limited due to the pandemic” and expire on Sept. 30, 2022.
They also highlight waivers that were available before COVID, including the offer versus serve and meal service time restrictions. These waivers would be applicable through April 2023. More details here. USDA cannot provide flexibility around nutritional standards or continue the higher reimbursement rate without Congressional approval.
USDA Announces FY21 allocations for Secure Rural Schools- $238 million. See state breakdown here. You’ll remember that the program was reauthorized for three years through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Package that was passed last summer.
Section 504
On May 6, the Department of Education announced that it would be updated. Section 405—is the law that mandates how schools and colleges must accommodate students with disabilities.
 
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The Rural Educator
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MTSS beliefs of Rural Elementary School Leaders: Pilot
This study is conducted for educational research purposes and consists of a survey.
Participants will complete a brief (20-30 minute) survey and will be required to complete scale-based questions and provide key demographic information.
The participant will reflect on their experiences and report demographic information about their relationship with disability (self, family, work history).
As a leader in education, this research may benefit the field in which the participant works in through additional research or legislative review.
This is a voluntary survey and is not a requirement of the organization that shared it with the participant.
The participant’s identity will be hidden from the researcher and only seen as a number based on the timestamp of the completed survey. The data will be stored on a secure external hard drive and kept in a key lock safe when not being directly accessed by the researcher for 10 years; additionally, one paper copy will be kept in another key lock safe for 10 years.
Molly Bremner is the primary investigator and can be reached: at bremnem@alverno.edu, supervising advisor and committee chair: Dr. Seth Marie Westfall and can be reached at: sethmarie.westfall@alverno.edu. 
If contact for concerns about the participant’s privacy and rights is needed, please reach Alverno College at its acting IRB Chair (Paul Smith, 382-6363, paul.smith@alverno.edu).
Minimal risk is a risk of harm to the participant that is no greater than the risk encountered in normal, day-to-day activities or during routine physical or psychological examinations. This survey is noted only to pose minimal risk.
 Research participation is voluntary, and the participant may withdraw from participation at any time. Some questions deal with sensitive issues in this survey instrument, and the participants may refuse to answer individual questions.
Molly Bremner has the approval of the Internal Review Board of Alverno College.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeI-2EFzhqtNdEFnBOkpBeMBkCAQH08kfPgOQ84lU7JF5KrVA/viewform
 
Updates and Releases
 
Rural Education SIG 102
Rural Education SIG 102
The Rural Education Special Interest Group (SIG) promotes scholarly conversation about the lives of rural people, places, and their schools through research. It provides a forum for the dissemination of this research. Sponsored by The NREA.
Read More
 
 
APA/APF/Oregon State University Psychological Science Workshop for High School Psychology Teachers
July 27-29, 2022, Corvallis, OR 
 
APA, the APA Committee of Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools (TOPSS), the American Psychological Foundation, and Oregon State University are pleased to announce an extended summer workshop for high school psychology teachers. This workshop will allow high school psychology teachers to share peer-to-peer creative ideas and learn new concepts to enhance teaching skills further. This workshop will bring together 25 high school psychology teachers to:
  • Learn from master teachers.
  • Listen to faculty research presentations and keynote addresses.
  • Network with one another.
 
The TOPSS Committee has recommended this workshop aim to provide a professional development opportunity to teachers who:
  • Have 3 or fewer years of experience teaching high school psychology,
  • Are you employed at a school located in a rural area (i.e., with a locale code of 32, 33, 41, 42, or 43 as assigned by the National Center for Education Statistics. You may check your locale using this link)? And/or
  • Are employed at a school serving low-income students (defined as a school in which 20 percent or more of the students are from families with incomes below the poverty line, based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates), and/or is classified as a Title 1 school.
 
We hope at least 80% of the participants will fit one or more of these criteria. Housing in the Oregon State University campus dorms and materials are provided for all participants. There is no registration fee. Participants receive travel stipends of $300. For teachers in need of extra travel support, additional funding is available and can be requested through the application form.  
                                                       
The 2022 workshop will highlight the scientific basis of psychology and promote teaching psychological science. Topics will include lessons to help promote scientific literacy, incorporating laboratory experiments in the psychology class, and more. Participants will also learn about the revised National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula and use the revised standards in course planning. The 2022 presenters include Annette Nielsen of Woods Cross High School, Woods Cross, Utah, Jennifer Schlicht of Olathe South High School, Olathe, Kansas, and faculty presenters from the Oregon State University. A keynote speaker will be announced this spring.
 
Applications
Visit the workshop website for more details and to apply. The deadline is May 23, 2022.  We are currently exploring possibilities for virtual participation in this workshop. If you are interested in participating virtually, please share your interest through this form. We will contact all teachers interested in virtual participation with relevant information when available.
 
Please visit the website for important health and safety information about the workshop and expectations for participants to engage with the psychology community after the workshop ends. The workshop is open to 25 teachers. Applicants must have at least one-year of experience teaching high school psychology to be considered for this workshop.
 
This workshop has been sponsored by the American Psychological Foundation (APF) David and Carol Myers Fund to Support Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools, the Oregon State University School of Psychological Science, and APA.
 
Please contact Angelica DeFalco if you have any questions.
 
 
 
NREA Partners with NC3!
NREA Partners with NC3!
About NC3
NC3 was established to help build a workforce prepared to meet the needs of today’s and tomorrow’s industries by connecting employers and educational institutions in synergistic partnerships that foster effective training, the elevation of skilled careers, and employment opportunities. In fulfilling its mission, NC3 builds deep industry-educational partnerships and develops, implements, and sustains industry-recognized portable certifications built on national skills standards. We envision an industrial labor market where all workers have jobs they need to thrive, and all companies have well-trained employees they need to operate and grow. Learn more at www.nc3.net.

Podcast Link
You can access the podcast with Roger and G.A. Buie from our website:
NREA Latest Partnership: Kajeet
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