National Research Center on Rural Education Support (NRCRES)

The National Research Center on Rural Education Support (NRCRES) was built directly on over 20 years of basic research on the development and school adjustment of rural youth conducted by researchers at the CDS and bridging with ongoing work conducted in the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, The Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, and NC Learn. Grant reviewers noted that the strong conceptual framework and empirical support for focusing on school transitions provided a compelling rationale for the professional development programs proposed by the NRCRES. This capacity to bridge basic and applied issues in human development uniquely situated the CDS to serve as a key collaborator with the School of Education, the Department of Psychology, and the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute.

The NRCRES develops and evaluates teacher training and consultation programs that are aimed at enhancing teacher quality in rural schools in North Carolina and throughout the nation as well as supporting teachers and students during key school transitions (i.e. the transition to school, the transition to middle school, the transition from high school to college). The NRCRES has been designed to establish and evaluate model programs to form a comprehensive package of interventions that should significantly lessen the deleterious impact of the collective interplay between problematic student characteristics, issues in teacher quality and professional development, lack of educational resources, and factors that inhibit postsecondary attainment of rural youth. Comprehensive strategies are developed that support the improvement of student characteristics (e.g., academic, behavioral, and social risk factors associated with childhood poverty), that enhance the capacities of teachers to meet the needs of children and youth who are at-risk of school difficulties, that provide resources that are commensurate with the educational needs of students with limited opportunities and experiences, and that provide students and their parents with information to explore their academic and occupational skills and interests.

Learn more at: www.nrcres.org