Rural Alliance’s purpose is to support rural education partners and their priority areas for growth, development, and educational impact. Our main activities include collaboration and learning, fundraising, and technical assistance.
School Workforce Support & Development
Our rural educational workforce demonstrates deep commitment and focus on their students, schools, and communities simultaneously. This is coupled with constraints on time to dedicate toward professional development, and an ability to support each other and adapt to school and student needs through the pandemic recovery. Rural Alliance will be focusing on solutions such as cultural competency and family engagement, principal development, sharing of best practices and mental health supports.
Social-Emotional & Outside School Hours
Before and after school, summertime, and activities that complement pure academic learning are essential to supporting healthy development of students and staff.
Family & CUltural Engagement
Seeking to understand our families and their cultural assets is core to supporting graduation and post-secondary going rural communities. Our network prioritizes engaging parents as advocates to best understand how to support them and their children in their academic and career aspirations. Success for all will be dependent on our school and community systems knowing and understanding their diverse populations and deeply collaborating to overcome barriers.
Post-Secondary Access
Clearing the way for student’s career and educational pathways after high school remains an important focus for our network. Rural Alliance has supported the network through dual-credit expansion, career pipeline programming, vocational career pathways, and rural counselor’s network learning. Expanding opportunity for options in career and post-secondary pathways that are responsive to student and community need.
Internet Access & Blended Learning
Access to highspeed internet and quality technology equip students, families, and educators with an ability to create adaptive and responsive learning environments. Rural Alliance will be supporting our network in diving deeper into the research on which programs, practices, and tools are most effective for student outcomes through blended and online learning.
Early Learning
Early childhood development and readiness for Kindergarten cannot be achieved without well-supported families and communities. Rural Alliance and 7 partner districts (linked here: A Way Forward for Early Learning HUBs) are actively engaged in conversations around integration of early learning and care systems that support rural families and their children.
Data for the Network
Our network is committed to better educational outcomes for their students and communities. We aspire to create and hold ourselves accountable to tracking needs – quantitative and qualitative – and successes on many levels. Rural Alliance and our network will be working collaboratively to identify and track what matters.