NCRERN Newsletter: Spring 2022
We hope you are doing well as this school year comes to an end! In this newsletter, we’ll share updates from NCRERN’s Annual Spring Convening, including highlights from the data diagnostics and the interventions our districts chose to pilot next year. We’ll also share an opportunity for rural districts across the country to replicate an intervention to address absenteeism and NCRERN’s recent publication that provides an overview of our work in New York and Ohio. But first, to close out this school year, I would like to celebrate everything that our partner districts in our New York and Ohio rural research network accomplished this year.
NCRERN districts:
- Successfully launched and implemented a postsecondary readiness intervention. Districts chose to work with their students on the Student Success Planning or Career Exposure interventions.
- Attended a mid-year implementation reflection meeting in January to reflect on intervention implementation and make improvements.
- Selected and planned for a 2022-23 postsecondary readiness or postsecondary entry intervention at NCRERN’s Annual Spring Convening. During Convening, districts reviewed data diagnostics and completed activities such as a root cause analysis and impact-effort analysis to help inform their intervention preferences.
- Administered a postsecondary readiness pre- and post-survey to students to include social-emotional learning (SEL) constructs as outcomes in this year’s postsecondary readiness interventions.
- Are currently administering a senior exit survey for graduating 12th graders.
Highlights from PSR/PSE Data DiagnosticsThis year’s diagnostics covered multiple topics to help districts gain a greater understanding of their students’ postsecondary trajectories and preparation to help districts decide which interventions to pilot. The diagnostics found that, on average, NCRERN districts outperformed their states in FAFSA completion. College enrollment rates across NCRERN districts remained steady over time, hovering around mid-to-low 40%, yet are lower than the national average, about 65%. A central takeaway for many districts was how 9th grade GPA is a strong predictor of outcomes such as on-time graduation, college enrollment, and college persistence. To help bridge the gap between K-12 and non-college postsecondary outcomes, we will scale up our senior exit survey, which asks students about their completion of postsecondary planning milestones and their postsecondary plans post-high school graduation.
PSR and PSE Interventions
Additionally, I am pleased to announce that the interventions selected for next year seek to support all students, no matter what postsecondary pathway they are considering. These interventions are student success planning and a postsecondary entry checklist. You can find an overview of the two interventions in the Intervention Spotlights section below.
National Replication Study of Personalized Attendance Messaging
During the 2022-23 academic year, NCRERN is supporting a national cohort of rural districts to replicate the personalized messaging attendance intervention. This intervention was initially piloted in 8 districts in NCRERN’s New York and Ohio rural research network during the 2020-21 academic year. Even amidst the uncertainty and disruption of the pandemic, the initial pilot study found, with a high degree of certainty, that the personalized messages led to a modest decrease in absences for rural students. Interested in participating in our national cohort? Check out the project website for more information or see below for more details.
The NCRERN team is looking forward to another great year working with our partner districts. They never fail to amaze us with all the amazing work they do and their commitment to improving outcomes for their students.
Over these summer months, we hope you will engage with NCRERN by visiting our website, reaching out to us, or forwarding this newsletter to someone interested in rural education.
With warm regards,
Jenn