GRAD Partnership Rural Cohort Announces 30 New Schools

The GRAD Partnership for Advancing Student Success Systems is a national initiative that encourages and supports schools to use high quality student success systems that empower schools to graduate all students ready for the future. These efforts focus on increasing student agency, belonging, and connectedness, and participating schools nationwide provide key data that highlights the effectiveness of implementing these student-centered programs at increasing postsecondary success. The GRAD Partnership is a collaborative effort involving non-profits, community organizations, school districts, and schools which seeks to co-create effective student success systems with school leaders, teachers, students, parents, and community members.

RSC is proud to be working with several of our Regional Hub Network partners to launch pilot cohorts of participating schools in the GRAD Partnership for Advancing Student Success Systems. Our first cohort (2022-2024) featured 20 diverse rural schools in Far Northern California and the Black Belt (to learn more about how these schools are doing in year three of the project, read here). Additionally, RSC Indiana Great Lakes Regional Hub Partners at CELL are facilitating a project including rural, urban, suburban schools, outside of the rural cohort. The second rural cohort will include ~30 schools from the Missouri Ozarks, Eastern Carolina, Arizona, for a total of 50 schools. These schools will receive a modest matched support grant and technical assistance to implement new student success systems to help students reach on-time graduation.

This second cohort builds upon the success of the twenty rural schools who were supported by RSC’s Regional Hub partners at North State Together and the University of West Alabama. GRAD Partnership Coordinators Susan Scroth, of North State Together, and UWA’s Annah Rogers, have both seen positive impacts from this program and are excited for the project to grow. At a national level, data from the first two years shows that GRAD Partnership schools experienced a 5.4% decrease in chronic absenteeism and a 9.2% decrease in course failures for ninth grade students. Now, Annah and Susan are sharing their experiences as GRAD Partnership intermediaries with the new cohort as this promising project continues to grow.

Arizona Rural Schools Association

In Arizona, the Arizona Rural Schools Association (ARSA) will serve as the rural cohort intermediary, with the work led by GRAD Partnership Coordinator and former high school science teacher Ty White. Ty summarizes ARSA’s excitement for this project, noting that “this work supports rural schools across Arizona, where a little bit of support goes a long way. I am excited to work with so many creative school leaders to address challenges they face and build on their existing strengths.” Rural Schools Collaborative has additional gratitude to Dr. Melissa Sadorf, Executive Director of ARSA and Arizona Regional Hub lead, for bringing this project to fruition in rural Arizona.

ARSA’s ten pilot schools come from a wide swath of rural and remote locations, representing the diversity of the Grand Canyon State. They are as follows:

Chino Valley High School (Chino Valley, Az)

Dishchii'bikoh Community School (Cibecue, Az)

Duncan High School (Duncan, Az)

Globe High School (Globe, Az)

Hayden High School (Winkelman, Az)

Morenci High School (Morenci, Az)

San Carlos High School (San Carlos, Az)

San Simon School (San Simon, Az)

Theodore Roosevelt School (Ft. Apache, Az)

Valley Union High School (Elfrida, Az)

East Carolina University

In the eastern part of North Carolina, East Carolina University (ECU) serves as the leader in higher education, making RSC’s Southeast Hub a natural fit for the GRAD Partnership, with this project brought to ECU by hub lead Dr. Jerry Johnson. Jacqueline (Jacqui) Allen, a retired school counselor of 25 years who was born and raised in eastern North Carolina, will lead the GRAD Partnership work for ECU. “As a product of the rural school community in eastern North Carolina, I understand the challenges we face in terms of resources, opportunities, and exposure—we often feel like a forgotten part of the state. This lack of support can lead to student disengagement and underachievement, which directly affects our graduation rates.” Jacqui and the ECU team see the GRAD Partnership as an opportunity to bring much-needed support to these rural schools and improve student outcomes.

The schools that ECU will be collaborating with for the GRAD Partnership are:

Ayden-Grifton HS (Ayden, NC)

Farmville Central HS (Farmville, NC)

Greene Central HS (Snow Hill, NC)

JH Rose HS (Greenville, NC)

Kinston HS (Kinston, NC)

Northside HS (Pinetown, NC)

North Pitt HS (Bethel, NC)

Southside HS (Chocowinity, NC)

Southwest Edgecombe HS (Pinetops, NC)

Washington HS (Washington, NC)

Missouri State University

Missouri State University (MSU) will serve as the third intermediary for the second rural cohort, with the GRAD Partnership work being led out of MSU’s College of Education Center for Rural Education. Center Co-Directors Dr. Rhonda Bishop and Dr. Denise Cunningham, as well as MSU’s Dr. Russ Brock, will coordinate partnerships with schools across the Missouri Ozarks Regional Hub. RSC would like to thank the Community Foundation of the Ozarks, who share in RSC Regional Hub leadership with MSU, for providing additional support to the GRAD Partnership Schools. “Rural schools, unfortunately, often get overlooked when it comes to financial resources. These resources can really make a difference in student success. We're really hoping that this project will have a positive impact on our rural schools, not just locally or regionally, but nationally as well” shared Dr. Denise Cunningham.

Missouri State will be supporting the following schools:

Alton (Alton, MO)

Cassville (Cassville, MO)

Couch (Myrtle, MO)

Eminence (Eminence, MO)

Fair Play (Fair Play, MO)

Humansville (Humansville, MO)

Lutie (Theodosia, MO)

McDonald County (Anderson, MO)

Pleasant Hope (Pleasant Hope, MO)

Shell Knob #78 (Shell Knob, MO)

These schools, at present time, are each working to identify existing areas of strength in student success systems, setting goals and target areas for increasing agency, belonging, and connectedness, and forming student success teams of staff and school leadership. RSC’s intermediary partners at MSU, ARSA, and ECU support these efforts through direct conversations with the school teams, sharing resources, facilitating professional learning communities within each region, and supporting however else they can. Programs like the GRAD Partnership are vital to forging strong relationships between rural schools and rural-serving institutions like those within RSC’s Regional Hub Network.