Amanda Witte, CYFS project manager, has been selected to participate in an inaugural fellows program through the University of Nebraska’s Rural Futures Institute. As one of 15 faculty fellows, Witte was selected for her contributions to rural communities through research.
A CYFS team has released a new working paper titled “Studying Educational Effectiveness in Rural Settings: A Guide for Researchers.”
The guide draws from experience gained while conducting research through CYFS’ National Center for Research on Rural Education, which was funded from 2009 to 2014 by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences.
After leading the National Center for Research on Rural Education, a team of CYFS researchers has edited a new book titled “Rural Education Research in the United States: State of the Science and Emerging Directions.”
When the team began their work, there were not books focused specifically on rural education research—a gap they aimed to fill, said Gwen Nugent, lead editor and CYFS research professor.
As the school year begins at North Bend Elementary School, preschool teacher Morgan Root is supporting students of all grade levels with an evidence-based model developed by CYFS researchers.
Root is learning to facilitate the model, Teachers and Parents as Partners, as part of a new project focused on training rural school personnel. TAPP supports collaborative relationships between parents and teachers to improve students’ social, behavioral and academic outcomes. It also features a facilitator who guides the problem-solving process.
CYFS director Susan Sheridan and Amanda Witte, project manager, led a December 2015 webinar to share results from their study of conjoint behavioral consultation (CBC) in rural communities. Developed by Sheridan, CBC (also known as Teachers and Parents as Partners) is a structured parent-teacher partnership model that promotes positive academic and social outcomes for students.
Gretna and Chadron, Nebraska, are each home to slightly more than 5,500 residents. That’s where their similarity ends.
The city of Gretna borders a major metropolitan suburb, while—nearly 500 miles away in Nebraska’s Panhandle—Chadron is a short drive from the Badlands of South Dakota.
CYFS research associate professor Gina Kunz led a roundtable discussion of how family-school partnerships can bolster science literacy in rural communities as part of a Feb. 19 Big Idea Seminar co-sponsored by CYFS.
Kunz prefaced the discussion by reviewing the structure, goals and key findings underlying family-school partnerships. She also outlined several partnership-based strategies for enhancing children’s awareness and understanding of science.
Nine doctoral student affiliates of the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools received recognition for their research at the 2013 Rural Futures Conference, earning multiple graduate student poster awards presented Nov. 5 in Lincoln, Neb.