NCRERN Newsletter: Spring 2024
In this issue of NCRERN’s spring newsletter, we’re highlighting what our districts and the NCRERN team have been up to over the past couple of months, including a special spotlight on our partner Western Local School District.
New York & Ohio Rural Research Network (RRN)
Our New York & Ohio rural research network (RRN) districts are nearing the end of the school year in their repiloting of the What’s Your Path (9th graders) and Postsecondary Entry Checklist (12th graders) interventions, which seek to support students in exploring various postsecondary pathways and transitions into these pathways, respectively. Currently, districts are wrapping up these interventions and administering surveys to their 9th and 12th grade students to understand better how students view their postsecondary readiness and collect information about their postsecondary plans. We’ve learned so much about implementing these interventions and will be taking the summer months to generate results. NCRERN districts will reconvene in the fall to learn the results and will use this information to inform their decisions on how to best support their students going forward in postsecondary readiness and transitions.
National Replication Network
NCRERN has partnered with Infinite Campus on the LIFT Up Attendance program, which delivers personalized messages via Infinite Campus’ messenger feature to caregivers, providing crucial information about students' absences. Over 35 districts serving more than 20,000 rural students across 15 states launched the intervention this year. With the school year ending, our analytic team will analyze the impact these messages had on decreasing student absences, which we will share with the districts in the fall.
Spring Conferences
NCRERN had the opportunity to share our work at two conferences this spring. At the Association for Education Finance and Policy (AEFP) annual conference, research analysts Sativa Thompson and Dean Kaplan presented on NCRERN’s postsecondary readiness and transition work, specifically on the piloting of Student Success Planning and Career Exposure from the 2021-2022 school year, and on learnings of students postsecondary aspirations and outcomes. Additionally, NCRERN Director Jenn Ash, Senior Research Program Manager Kellie Solowski, and Research Analyst Sativa Thompson recently returned from the Rural Summit in Lexington, KY, where they presented on how NCRERN supports districts in using data and research evidence through a continuous improvement process.
Rural Education Resource Roundup
In this edition of the Rural Resource Roundup, we are sharing a podcast episode on rural teacher expectations and retention, a recent study from Boston College on rural serving institutions, and information on the upcoming summer conference for the Rural Schools Association of New York.
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.
Warmest wishes,
Jenn