National Rural Education Association Official Podcast

This episode of the Rural Voice begins our series of interviews with upcoming National Rural Education Conference speakers to be held in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in October of 2022. We Interviewed Mr. Ben Winchester, a former guest on the podcast, regarding the changing trends in housing from urban to rural areas of the United States. They discuss the changing housing landscape and need in communitie...

In this episode of the Rural Voice, Drs. Allen Pratt and Christopher Silver interview Dr. Lisa Costello regarding her experience and expertise on the COVID-19 Pandemic and vaccines. We discussed the impact of COVID on schools and on children. We discuss the variants and the science behind treatment and invention measures. We discuss the impact of vaccine availability, particularly for children und...

The Rural Voice interviews Hall Charter is a Director at TRANSFR based in New York City, and Katelyn Cutshall is currently Vice President, Economic Development and Government Relations. We discuss the usefulness of TRANSFR VR and how the technology has advanced beyond the classroom. This technology provides simulated training and exposure for teaching various hands-on skills. This can benefit care...

Today's episode interviews Representative Mark White District 83 representative to the Tennessee General Assembly. Representative White serves as Chair for the Education Administration Committee and has served on several committees related to education. He is also the Director, College of Leadership and Public Service Lipscomb University. In this interview, we discuss policy, budgetary challenges,...

In Arizona, school superintendents are elected. Superintendent Carter discusses providing services to help schools organize and fund elections. He discusses the importance of active listening to meet the needs of schools. He talks about finding a critical mass in the themes of these discussions. Once critical mass is found, partners are needed to help meet the needs of partner schools to achieve g...

In this episode of the rural voice, we interview Mike Hogg and Denise Yonts regarding rural education, technology, college preparedness, and adaption to the changing COVID world. We discuss utilizing school buses for creating a mobile STEM lab for virtual learning. We discuss how they have created programs to help first-generation and low-income high school students access college, including the s...

In this episode, we interview Rhonda "Randi" Weingarten at the National Rural Education Association Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana. Ms. Weingarten is most notable for her work on education advocacy and legislation. She served as a teacher from 1991 to 1997 at Clara Barton High School in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and as a lawyer for the firm of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan from 1983 to 1986. In th...

In this episode, we interview the authors of Teaching in Rural Places Thriving in Classrooms, Schools, and Communities, Drs. Amy Price Azano, Devon Brenner, and Ann Schulte regarding the changing demands of education in rural America. They discuss the importance of geography, culture, and change in rural education. They discuss the socio-economic challenges, diversity in rural education, and metho...

In this episode, we interview Mike Lowers, Director of School Implementation at PresenceLearning, discussing issues within special education, pedagogy, and IEP and speech in addressing support services. We discuss that many rural schools have limited to no resources where students might find special education programs. One issue with this is that some students may have conditions that may not impa...

In today's episode of the Rural Voice, we interview the author of the bestselling book "The Growing Season: How I Built a New Life–and Saved an American Farm." We provide a short introduction to Ms. Frey as well as discuss her vision for rural America and education. We discuss the importance of internet connectivity in rural America and the challenges of growing up in a small rural community. We d...

In this episode of the Rural Voice, the cohosts interview Dr. Christina Kishimoto, former state superintendent of the Hawaii State Department of Education. She discusses the role of educators as influencers and policymakers. She discusses how teachers and principals have significant power to create and sustain lasting change. Dr. Kishimoto suggests partnering with policymakers by inviting them to...

In this special episode of the Rural Voice, the cohosts Drs. Pratt, Bigham, and Silver invite NREA friend and contributor Dr. Brad Mitchell, to respond to a recent article from the New York Times titled The Tragedy of America’s Rural Schools by Casey Parks, Published Sept. 7, 2021. As noted in this article, the discussants discuss some of the challenges of making overarching claims in a single cas...

In this episode of the Rural Voice, we interview Ms. Laurie Smith, a 4th-grade teacher in Sumner, Nebraska, and the National Rural Education Association’s teacher of the year for 2021. In this interview, we meet Ms. Smith and discuss her vision for rural education. We explore her approach to creating and maintaining relationships in the community and creating safe learning spaces for students. As...

For this episode of the Rural Voice, our cohosts Drs. Bigham and Pratt interview Dr. Landon Mascareñaz and Ms. Shannon Nicholas about rural planning, partnerships, and connections between business and education and ways to capitalize on partnerships to better serve rural school districts. They discuss their work and advocacy in Colorado to connect rural school districts with partnerships that alig...

In this week's episode, we interview Ms. Haley Danielle Richardson, Second-Grade Teacher, University Charter School, Livingston, Alabama. She discusses her experience with rural charter schools and connecting a new charter school and the community. She discusses the role that modeling plays in teaching children to achieve their dreams. Moreover, Ms. Richardson explores her own experience as a teac...

In this episode of the Rural Voice, we speak with Mr. Benjamin Winchester, Rural Sociologist from the University of Minnesota Extension, Center for Community Vitality, regarding the complexities of small-town living in rural America. We discuss some of the stereotypes of rural small towns and how such assumptions undermine the truth that exists on the ground in many of these small towns. We discus...

In this episode of the National Rural Education Association, the Rural Voice, Dr. Brad Mitchel rejoined us to readdress many of the themes discussed in episode S01E19 and some of the early indicators of the Biden team plans for rural education. We discuss the current issues facing rural school districts in our Post-COVID world. We discuss some of the lessons learned by the cohosts and our guests,...

Mike Krause is the former Tennessee Higher Education Commission Executive Director and now a senior advisor for government affairs and economic development at the Bradley Arant Boult Cummings law firm. Krause served as the coordinator for all statewide higher education efforts relative to COVID-19, acting as the chief liaison between campuses and the Tennessee Department of Health and the Governor...

In this Rural Voice episode, we interview Dr. Robert Pondiscio, a senior fellow and vice president for external affairs at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. He is also a senior advisor to Democracy Prep Public Schools, a high-performing charter school network based in Harlem, New York. He has written extensively on education best practices. This interview discusses the differences between curriculu...

In this episode of the National Rural Education Association Podcast, the Rural Voice, we interview our cohost Dr. Jared Bigham regarding his personal experience with becoming infected with COVID-19. In this episode recorded in October of 2020, we discuss rural education given COVID. We discuss some of the challenges of reporting infection rates in small classrooms and school districts. We also sug...

In a long-overdue episode of the National Rural Education Association, we interview author and Planning Director of the Caswell County Planning Department in Yanceyville, North Carolina, Matthew Hoagland. In his recent book Think Small: A Millennial's Guide to Building a Meaningful Life in Rural America proposes a paradigm shift in many college graduate students' mindset. As many graduates are str...

The Rural Voice is joined by Dr. Brad Mitchell, the Senior Strategist at Battelle for Kids. Brad was The Ohio State University/Battelle Director of STEM Partnerships, CEO of the Educational Council, a professor at The Ohio State University, the Director of Community Partnerships for the Ohio Children and Family First Initiative, and a team member of the National Commission on Excellence in Educati...

In this episode of the National Rural Education Association Podcast, we interview Bharanidharan Rajakumar, Chief Executive Officer of TRANSFR Inc., a virtual reality solution for skills-based learning. Their solutions provide a variety of methods for not only virtual reality-based skills training but also outcomes-based talent assessment and performance monitoring. These technologies have the pote...

In this episode of the National Rural Education Association, we discuss the technological transitions during the Fall Semester of teaching, including resources, strategic alignment with technology and curriculum, and technological availability based on geographic location, socio-economic status, as well as political differences in how school districts continue with remote learning, developing hybr...

In this episode of the National Rural Education Association, the hosts speak to Will McIntee, the Midwest Political Director for the Biden Campaign. We discuss Joe Biden’s presidential campaign and how rural education and resources would be addressed should he be elected. We discuss the challenges of COVID-19 for rural teachers and administrators as well as how resources should be deployed for sup...