McRel Rural E-News, No. 38, December 2004

1. Online tutoring targeted at rural areas EdWeek (requires free registration)
A national association is teaming up with three of its regional members and one of the country's largest providers of supplemental instruction to use the Internet to help rural students better access academic tutoring that is required under No Child Left Behind. The partnership, armed with a $5 million, five-year federal grant, aims to overcome barriers that small and rural school districts face in obtaining such services from education companies, which mostly cater to large metropolitan areas.

2. Federal officials answer complaints EdWeek (requires free registration)
Normally, the monthly gathering of rural education advocates in Washington is a mild-mannered affair. Last month, the tension in the room was palpable. November’s meeting of the Organizations Concerned About Rural Education, or OCRE, saw several U.S. Department of Education officials defend the agency’s decision to award a $10 million grant to a virtually unknown entity in rural education circles.

3. Is a smaller school always a better school? Christian Science Monitor (free registration)
Across the United States, districts are embracing the small-school movement. New York City alone has pledged to open 200 new small schools by 2008 with help from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Nationwide, the foundation has worked with more than 1,500 schools in 42 states to reduce large high schools to communities of 400 students or fewer. Administrators in these districts point to an early body of research suggesting that smaller schools produce higher graduation rates and test scores, fewer dropouts and a better, safer sense of community. Yet some small-school advocates say unless schools are created thoughtfully and deliberately, reducing size will not solve this country’s education crisis.

4. Rural Nevada district outsources IT department The Lahonta Valley News
A school district in Fallon, Nevada outscourced its IT department to a private company in the form of an 18-month, $295,000 technology contract. District officials report that after the outside contractor brought in four full-time technicians to fix computers, the number of documented problems fell from 170 to 15 per month.

5. Teachers to be state employees? The Bismarck Tribune
A North Dakota senator wants the Legislature to explore doing away with local salary schedules and negotiations and make teachers state employees. Some educators find the idea attractive because it would eliminate drawn-out teacher negotiations that can become contentious and cause tension between teachers and school boards. It also would raise teachers salaries and benefits in rural districts to the same level as the state's largest districts.

6. States on ropes in school finance lawsuits EdWeek (requires free registration)
After 15 years of litigation over whether states are adequately financing their K-12 schools, the momentum has tipped in favor of those who say they are not. Of the six major judicial decisions in the past 18 months, advocates of increased school funding have won each time, dramatically changing the finance landscape in those states — and perhaps others.

7. Real estate hunters go old school Los Angeles Times (requires free registration)
For a new home or new venture, urbanites are snapping up entire campuses in the Midwest that have closed due to a lack of students. In the past year, at least a dozen communities have turned to EBay to sell schools shuttered for lack of kids. They've attracted tremendous interest from entrepreneurs seeking a bargain and an escape.

8. High school seniors sought for National Youth Science Camp^® honors
The National Youth Science Foundation is seeking two high school seniors from each state in the country to receive a full scholarship to attend the National Youth Science Camp® in July 2005. During the four-week, all-expense paid experience, participants will exchange ideas with scientists and other professionals from the academic and corporate worlds and learn from lectures and hands-on research projects presented by scientists from across the nation. Applications are due in February. Visit the NYSC Web site to learn more and to contact application coordinator for your state.

9. Lucent Global Science Scholars Competition
The Lucent Global Science Scholars Program, in existence since 1999, is an annual academic competition sponsored by the Lucent Technologies Foundation for students who demonstrate excellence in the sciences and plan to pursue a career in information and communications technologies. Recipients spend a week in Murray Hill, New Jersey, with researchers and scientists and fellow Global Science Scholars at the headquarters of Lucent Technologies and its world-renowned research and development arm, Bell Labs. In addition to attending the Summit, the winning Scholars receive a $5,000 award.

11. Working with families in the rural South: Findings from the Promising Readers Program
Mississippi State University’s Teresa Jayroe and Devon Brenner provide an update on a Reading Excellence Act-funded after-school and summer literacy program taught by parents and preservice teachers in an African-American elementary school in the rural south.

12. Are K-12 schools in the South prepared to meet new wave of Latino immigration?
Many teachers in the South don’t have the resources they need to successfully integrate a rapid influx of Latino students, concludes a recent study from the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute at the University of Southern California. Many of the 119 respondents interviewed for this study said that educators simply “don’t know what to do” with their classrooms that, in ethnic and linguistic terms, changed radically during the immigration boom of the 1990s. The study identifies four major immigrant education issues that have been problematic for educators and immigrant families and offers recommendations for addressing these issues.

13. Public data sources lacking on rural young children
Most national surveys and other public data sources yield little information about rural young children and their families, typically because of the challenges in collecting samples large enough from remote and far-flung communities, according to a new report from the National Center for Rural Early Childhood Learning Initiatives. The authors suggest that child advocates encourage state and federal agencies to produce reports specifically about rural young children and families so their needs can be better understood.

RESOURCES & INFORMATION

14. The NEA Foundation February grant review
Review for the NEA Foundation's next round of Innovation Grant and Learning & Leadership Grant applications begins February 1, 2005, with award notification by June 15, 2005. Applications for these grants are accepted on an ongoing, year-round basis, so it's never too late to apply. Grants of $2,000-$5,000 are available for all subjects, including the arts, literacy, science, and technology. Read about recent projects on the foundation’s website, then submit your own idea. All U.S. practicing K-12 public school teachers, education support professionals, and higher education faculty and staff at public colleges and universities are eligible to apply.

15. National School and Business Partnerships Awards
The Council for Corporate & School Partnerships is now accepting applications for the 2005 National School and Business Partnerships Award, which recognizes outstanding examples of collaboration between businesses and schools to improve the student educational experience. Deadline: January 28, 2005.