Miles or megabytes? Speed limits or bandwidth? Country roads or fiber optics?
For years, reaching out to families and schools in rural communities has meant long hours of costly travel. This reality has made distance technology an appealing alternative – and the dissertation focus of Michael Coutts, a CYFS doctoral student affiliate.
The CYFS-housed National Center for Research on Rural Education (R2Ed) generated discussion and disseminated findings about factors influencing the academic success of rural K-12 students when it hosted 150 researchers, practitioners and policymakers at a conference held April 3-4 in Omaha, Neb.
With support from the University of Nebraska’s Center for Great Plains Studies and the CYFS-housed National Center for Research on Rural Education (R2Ed), Gov. Dave Heineman has proclaimed April 1-6 as Rural Education Week in the state.
Great Plains director Richard Edwards and R2Ed director Susan Sheridan joined Peter Longo, professor of political science at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, in requesting the proclamation. Its signing sets the stage for two events that will address education in rural communities throughout the Cornhusker State and beyond.
Congratulations to Drs. Susan M. Sheridan, Todd Glover, Gina Kunz and Jim Bovaird on their recent $3 million, four-year grant, “CBC in Rural Communities,” awarded in March 2010.
Amanda Witte is project manager. The grant, funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES), will be housed jointly in the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools (CYFS) and the National Center for Research on Rural Education (R2Ed).