Chattanooga, Tennessee---The NREA announces the selection of Mrs. Joni Carroll as their National Rural Teacher of the Year. The award is sponsored by The College Board, which awards the winning teacher a stipend for their classroom and their personal use during the 2020-2021 school year.

Mrs. Joni Carroll teaches at Cohagen Elementary School in Cohagen, Montana, where she has taught grades K-8 for 14 years, and she is completing her 25th year in education. Mrs. Carroll teaches all subjects in her 1-room Montana school. She currently serves 14 students ranging from all Kindergarten through the 8th grade.

8th-grade student Krystan Hafla states: “I will always be grateful to her for everything she has done for me and taught me about school and life. She is the kind of person everyone needs in their life.”

The Montana Small School Alliance submitted her application by Executive Director Dan Rask. During her time at Cohagen, “Her focus has always been on the students and what is best for them. Everything she does from instruction, lunch, and activities is always purposefully planned on how it will benefit the students.”

The NREA Teacher of the Year Team reviewed and interviewed great teachers from across all United States regions. Team leader Allison Nys stated, “This was a tough decision coming down to two very dedicated educators, and the finalists strongly represented rural teaching at the highest level.”

Minnesota’s Ryan Larson, who won the Minnesota Rural Education Associations state teacher of the year, was submitted in June of this year. Ryan teaches in the Dragon Academy within the Pine City Jr./Sr. High School in Pine City, Minnesota. He created and developed the academy after seeing the need for struggling students in his study skills class.

Texas: Emma Buitron, Banquete ISD in Corpus Christi, Texas. Submitted by the Texas Rural Education Association.

Indiana: Julie Evans, Bloomfield School District in Bloomfield, Indiana. Submitted by the Indiana Small and Rural Schools Association.

Nebraska: Laureen Powell, Cross County Community School in Stromsberg, Nebraska. Submitted by the Nebraska Rural Community Schools Association.

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville School of Education recently received a grant from the Rural Schools Collaborative (RSC), a national nonprofit committed to strengthening the bonds between schools and communities. The grant is part of RSC's I am a Rural Teacher campaign, a national advocacy effort that is supported by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The grant will support a collaboration between the RSC and the School of Education that will expand the Proud Rural Teacher podcast – created by Jessica Brogley, a lecturer in the School of Education – giving it a national audience.

“The podcast initially started as a platform for us to share our initiatives, connect ideas related to rural living and education, and gather stories of teaching in rural areas, as a means of providing direction, resources, and inspiration for others who are just like us,” said Brogley.

We are very happy to announce a new partnership with Morehead State University (MSU) in Morehead, Kentucky! Working in collaboration with the National Rural Education Association, the Morehead State University- Ernst & Sara Volgenau College of Education will anchor our new Appalachian Hub. In addition to supporting the mission of the Rural Schools Collaborative, the Appalachian Hub will celebrate the stories and uplift the dreams of rural schools and teachers from the Appalachian regions of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina.

We were pleased to have the opportunity to visit with several representatives from the Ernst & Sara Volgenau College of Education about the establishment of the Appalachian Hub.

Since 2015, the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) has provided schools across the state with access to highly skilled instructional coaches. Primarily working in rural settings, these coaches provide a voluntary, integrated coaching model that focuses on building sustainable systems. Coaches provide a range of services, including systems design, strategic planning support, whole-team professional learning, professional learning community (PLC) LC facilitation, and fidelity monitoring. This article describes the theory of action for KDE’s Continuous Improvement Coaching program, presents two case studies of rural elementary schools who utilized the program, and discusses the key features of the program and its relevance for rural schools.