On behalf of the National Center for Research on Rural Education (R2Ed), I cordially invite you to peruse this first edition of the "Rural 360°" – an electronic newsletter that will provide insights into the dedicated efforts of our personnel and collaborators throughout the region and the country. It is my hope that this regular update will prove both informative and interesting to the researchers, educators and community leaders whose company we are extremely grateful to keep.
Sincerely,
Susan M. Sheridan, PhD
Director, National Center for Research on Rural Education
R2Ed National Leadership Advisory Board
Dr. Patricia Hardré serves as Associate Dean for Graduate Programs and Research at the University of Oklahoma's Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education. As an Associate Professor of Instructional Psychology and Technology, Dr. Hardré has spent more than a decade conducting rural education research related to students, teachers and administrators. She is prominently involved with numerous rural education organizations throughout the United States.
Dr. Hardré shares the source of her interest in rural education, touches upon her primary research foci, and discusses the challenges and opportunities for rural schools in the following interview recorded specifically for the Rural360°.
Listen to Dr. Hardré's Interview
Patricia Hardré, PhD
Dr. Patricia Hardré and colleagues examined the influence of numerous factors on rural students' motivation and intent to complete high school for this 2009 study published in the Journal of Research in Rural Education. The researchers employed a variety of questionnaires and scales to specifically determine which and how self-perceptions interact to impact rural students' motivation. These factors and their implications are summarized in a one-page research digest compiled by R2Ed.
View Research Digest
Advances & Opportunities in Rural Education Research / Creating Rural Connections
R2Ed has initiated several professional presentation series to provide researchers and practitioners with opportunities to interact with prominent speakers. These series are intended to provide a forum for addressing issues of importance to the national rural education collective.
Dr. Louis Cicchinelli, Executive Vice President of Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning, visited the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus in January to give the keynote presentation of the Advances and Opportunities in Rural Education Research Speaker Series. Dr. Cicchinelli reviewed state of the rural education research, explored the challenges facing rural administrators and teachers, and explored potential directions for a future rural research agenda.
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View Presentation
On April 21, the University of Kansas' Dr. Jim Knight will kick off the Creating Rural Connections Speaker Series with a presentation on instructional coaching and its role in enhancing K-12 education. In addition to defining this form of professional development, Dr. Knight will explain the principles on which it was founded and specify the steps instructional coaches take to improve teacher practice and subsequent student outcomes. A video of Dr. Knight's presentation will be posted on the R2Ed website by the end of April.
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Sandra Plata-Potter, a doctoral student affiliate of R2Ed and CYFS, is working with first-generation rural Latino families to improve their preschool children's "emergent literacy" – the skills and knowledge that serve as foundations for reading and writing. Plata-Potter believes such efforts are especially important in light of the ongoing shift of Latino-Americans from urban settings to rural communities.
"By the year 2025, the Latino population will be one of the biggest in rural America," said Plata-Potter, whose Puerto Rican parents raised her in New York City. "They're moving away from the big cities and into rural America, which changes the whole picture."
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College of Education & Human Sciences (CEHS)
University of Nebraska - Lincoln