Current Programs
Mission: POSSIBLE Campaign forEquitable Education. Working in our individual communities, we hold school administrations and local school boards accountable for managing their schools wisely and efficiently and improving educational outcomes and school climate for students. We support the efforts of local schools to improve by running quality candidates for school board, campaigning for millage increases to improve school facilities, and helping with after-school programs, among other activities. This past year we have added a focus on improving equality of educational opportunity, quality of education, and school climate at the local level. We have designed neighbor-to-neighbor discussion guides to facilitate community conversations on these topics that will lead to systemic change.
Rural Community Revitalization Project. Realizing that distressed school districts are a symptom of distressed communities, we are addressing the root causes of loss of enrollment in rural schools, rural poverty, and disconnect between rural school and community. We have assembled a coalition of partners in education (Arkansas Rural Education Association, Arkansas African American Administrators Association, Single Parents College Fund, and Arkansas Teacher Housing Development Foundation), economic development (Arkansas Economic Development Commission, UA Extension Service), environment (Audubon Arkansas), rural services (Department of Rural Services), and culture (Department of Arkansas Heritage) to assist community members in a process that includes asset inventory, visioning, planning and implementation to revitalize their communities. Community schools are an integral part of this community-driven process with students not only being a part of the visioning, asset inventory, and planning process, but also part of the development with service learning and place-based education projects that help improve their community and youth enterprises to teach entrepreneurial skills and provide youth employment in places where there are few opportunities for young people.
Policy Advocacy. We use a collaborative process within our membership to identify policies that are favorable to rural schools and communities. Then we furnish advocacy materials and use our statewide network to advocate for these policies and our publications and newsletters to educate the public on the good things about rural schools and communities.
Our long-term goal is to establish a chapter in every community that has a small or rural school. To date we have about 35 chapters with about 700 members in just about every area of the state, from the eastern and southeastern Delta to the Ozark and Ouachita Mountains in northern and western Arkansas.
Our activities include:
- Recruit and train volunteer coordinators to set up chapters in their communities;
- Publish a quarterly newsletter distributed to about 2,000 people, including chapter members, educators, and policy makers;
- Distribute three brochures: “Small and Rural Schools: Providing Arkansas Students with a World Class Education,” “Small and Rural Schools: Providing Arkansas Students with a Positive Learning Environment,” and “Arkansas’ Small Schools: Producing Higher Graduation Rates”;
- Distribute academic studies about the effects of school closures on African-American leadership and communities;
- Provide a Quality Schools Initiative by which community members can assess the effectiveness and viability of their school and formulate an action plan for addressing problems;
- Hold a Policy Council meeting where chapter leaders identify issues and set goals and strategies for the organization and evaluate its effectiveness;
- Hold annual conferences where members come together to learn leadership skills and address problems and concerns that affect our children, schools, and communities. Since 2006 about 425 people have participated in these meetings.