State Awards UNC $50,000 Education Rural Grant
January 29, 2018
The University of Northern Colorado and its partners were awarded a $50,000 grant from federal funds by the Colorado Department of Higher Education to boost recruitment and retention of educators in rural areas.
Assistant professors of Educational Leadership, Policy, and Development Jacob Skousen and Amie Cimienski will collaborate on the grant with the East Central and Northwest boards of cooperative education services. Together they will develop rural leader learning communities. The initiative’s activities will include providing professional development for teacher mentors to support new teachers, creating a learning community for principals and superintendents, and developing an effective principal pipeline of rural school teacher-leaders.
The funding comes from a federal grant and will support programs aimed at shoring up Colorado’s rural teacher workforce, including recruiting local residents, offering rural field experiences for teacher candidates and expanding professional development for teachers and administrators in high need areas, such as science, math and special education.
CDHE is administering the grant in tandem with the Colorado Center for Rural Education, housed at UNC. The center works to serve the needs of rural educators in Colorado by focusing on growing and sustaining the pipeline of rural educators.
For more information, visit https://highered.colorado.gov/Publications/Press/Releases/2018/20180129-Rural-Education-Grants-Press-Release.pdf
