Our most recent publication, Walking Together, explores what’s possible when schools, families, and communities become true partners. Here we’re featuring A Parent’s Bill of Rights, outlining what parents are entitled to expect from schools and districts, as well as a downloadable list of questions to ask of your child’s educators. As parents, we want what’s best for our children, both inside and outside of school. We… Read more →
I grew up in Joiner, Arkansas—a small farming community located in the heart of the Delta; the population back then was about 800, and now it’s even less than that. My grandfather, who raised me alongside my grandmother, worked as a sharecropper—and my family made sure I got a good education because they knew school was the key to a… Read more →
This is an interview with Gary Funk, the founding Director of Rural Schools Collaborative, based in Cambridge, Wisconsin. The interview was conducted by Ryan Fowler of TNTP. A longer version of this post appeared on the TNTP blog. Q: Can you talk about your background in rural education, and how you got involved with Rural Schools Collaborative? A: I began as an elementary school… Read more →
More than two decades after the fact, my family still refers to fifth grade as my “lost year.” My experience had been so lacking in academic rigor that when I found myself at a new school the following year, my sixth-grade teacher told my parents to give me extra work at home so I could catch up. He told them… Read more →