Students in rural areas of Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi and South Carolina will soon have greater access to college- and career-readiness efforts through the Rural Innovative Schools initiative, funded by a $20 million federal grant and additional private investment. The initiative is led by Breakthrough Learning, the national brand of NC New Schools, which is also implementing the work in six North Carolina school districts.
The initiative addresses the unique challenges of high-need students in rural areas by:
- radically changing expectations for college and career readiness;
- developing strong leadership at the classroom and school levels;
- building practices that lead to high-quality teaching and learning;
- promoting policies that lead to improved student outcomes; and
- cultivating business and community partners to engage education as a regional economic driver.
Through the initiative, Breakthrough Learning will:
- deliver customized professional learning to build the knowledge, skills and capabilities of teachers and administrators;
- provide design and planning services to strategically leverage time and financial resources to transform schools and districts to personalize learning for each student;
- identify and monitor data to improve decision making; and
- offer statewide support to identify policies and best practices for greater implementation of college and career readiness strategies.
More than 13,000 students and nearly 800 educators in the five states are projected to benefit from the effort, which will extend evidence-based college and career readiness strategies through a districtwide model and in schools of all sizes. Work in the four states will support new school settings and focus on new policy development and expanded partnerships with higher education and business. Additional work within North Carolina includes development of demonstration schools for national study sites and a district reach model.
Tony Habit, president of Breakthrough Learning, said the initiative will create new opportunities for students in low-income, rural counties to gain a leg up on college and careers.
“We are focused on changing lives in rural communities by increasing graduation rates and college credits earned for all high school students,” Habit said. “By partnering with school districts, state agencies, government and business leaders in these four states, we will create significant opportunities for students. Together we can change the face of education.”
The effort aims to increase the four-year graduation rate an average of 5 percent in program schools and increase the number of credits earned in college courses by 10 percent with the goal of students completing 12 or more units of college credit in three years.
The U.S. Department of Education last fall awarded the initiative a five-year, $20 million grant to develop new college and career readiness and college access opportunities for students in rural communities. The grant represents the only “scale-up” grant awarded under the recent Investing in Innovation (i3) initiative, which aims to develop innovative approaches to improve student achievement and replicate effective strategies nationwide.
An additional $4.2 million in funding will be raised jointly over the five-year initiative by Breakthrough Learning and participating districts and states. Investment partners in the Rural Innovative Schools scale-up initiative currently include: AT&T Aspire, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, Carnegie Corporation of New York, ChildTrust, Edward M. Armfield Sr. Foundation, Golden LEAF Foundation, Goodnight Educational Foundation, NC Electric Membership Corporation, SAS, Wells Fargo Foundation and the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation.
The scale-up effort builds on work that began in 2011. NC New Schools/Breakthrough Learning began leading innovative strategies in rural education with an earlier $15 million federal Investing in Innovation grant aimed at exposing students in 11 school districts to a college-ready culture and providing new opportunities for students to graduate with transferrable college credit. Through this current effort, students in the schools have the opportunity to earn transferrable college credits — tuition free — through local community colleges and online courses, providing significant cost-saving benefits to their families. In fall 2014, an estimated 1,700 students were taking college courses through the initiative.
Breakthrough Learning is a professional services agency focused on developing high-performing schools and districts by providing innovative approaches to teacher and administrator professional learning. We partner with districts, higher education, businesses and communities across the nation to ensure that all students graduate ready for college careers and life. For more information, visit breakthroughlearning.org.
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