We are proud to announce the 2019-20 Grants in Place Fellows Program!

The Rural Schools Collaborative (RSC) is pleased to announce its 2019-20 Grants in Place program. This year RSC will select nine Grants in Place Fellows, who will work with their respective students on place-based, action research projects. Grants in Place is a cooperative venture with our Regional Hub partners, and one Fellow will be selected to represent each of our nine Hubs.

Rural classroom teachers are eligible to apply if they teach in a public school district that is within an RSC Hub’s region. Here is a LIST of RSC’s Regional Hubs. If you do not teach in one of our Hub regions, please remember that rural teachers from across the nation are eligible to apply for our National Signature Project Award, which is co-sponsored by the National Rural Education Association. If you have a question regarding your eligibility please email info@ruralschoolscollaborative.org .

Applications for this year’s Grants in Place program must be received by Tuesday, October 15^th. We plan on announcing the Fellows by early November. Applicants should propose a project that will be completed by the end of the 2019-2020 school year.

Grants in Place Fellows will each receive a grant of up to $2,000 to support the place-based project, a professional development presentation, and an honorarium. Of this amount $1,000 will be earmarked for the actual place-based project.

Proposed projects should exhibit the basic tenets of place-based education. The action research element will include five phases:

• Problem identification
• Plan of action
• Data collection
• Analysis of data
• Plan for future action

More information on the action research model is provided here.

The Grants in Place Fellows program will be an important aspect of RSC’s work with our regional Hub partners. We look forward to supporting our Fellows throughout the year and sharing their stories and research with people across the nation. This will be a high profile effort.

Please note that Fellows will have the following expectations:

• cooperate with a research mentor, who will assist with the action research component;
• participate in two one-hour “cohort” webinars with other Fellows;
• work with students to implement the proposed place-based project;
• successfully complete the action research report;
• and make a presentation on their completed project in conjunction with our Regional Hub Partners. (Please note: travel and a substitute teacher, if necessary, will be covered by the grant award)

Eligible applications must have the support of the teacher’s building administrator. We simply ask that the applicant’s building administrator send us an email acknowledging their awareness and support of their teacher’s interest in applying for the program. The building administrator email should be sent in by the October 15^th deadline. This email should be sent to RSC director Gary Funk at gfunk@ruralschoolscollaborative.org .

Click Here to Apply!

The Rural Schools Collaborative wants to thank the following people for serving on our Grants in Place Committee for 2019-2020: Ann Schulte, Chair, from California State University, Chico; Linda Carrier from Plymouth State University in New Hampshire, Tammy LaPrad from Monmouth College in Illinois, and RSC board member Julie Leeth, from the Community Foundation of the Ozarks in Missouri.