$10M grant supports Harvard’s work within rural schools
The Center for Education Policy Research (CEPR) at Harvard University has been awarded a $10 million grant from the Institute of Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education to launch the National Center for Rural Education Research Networks (NCRERN). The national center, to be led by Thomas Kane of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Douglas Staiger of Dartmouth College, and Christopher Avery of the Harvard Kennedy School, will build on CEPR’s existing Proving Ground initiative and apply its model of evidence-based improvement to address chronic absenteeism, college readiness, and college enrollment — and the particular ways rural schools experience those challenges. “Because of their small sizes, rural school districts have too often been ignored by researchers and policy analysts. Yet more than 20 percent of students in the United States — nearly 10 million children — attend rural schools. Through the National Center for Rural Education Research Networks, we will...