Monmouth College Rural Education Initiatives: 2021-22 Annual Report

2021-2022

ANNUAL REPORT

Sharing.

Connecting.

Engaging.

MONMOUTH COLLEGE

RURAL EDUCATION INITIATIVES department of educational studies

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR

Another season, another harvest, another seeding

T

his season—As REDI prepares to move into summer activities with students at the garden, we are in the position to reflect on last year’s projects and anticipate changes and improvements to those projects in this year’s schedule. As you read the annual report, you will see that although we have had another season of plenty, REDI continues to build upon our previous successes and broaden our agenda.

This harvest—We continue to have funding support for our projects, and most recently, our rural teacher corps, the TARTANS. REDI has just received a $25,000 donation to support the next cohort of five TARTANS. We formalized a partnership with the Future Forward literacy non-profit to establish an in-school tutoring service for students that utilizes members of the community to work with our younger students on their future academic accomplishments.

This seeding—This year, we have added two more schools to our place-based initiative, and have already begun working with grade levels to include place-based activities into their curriculum. We are entering into another great

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partnership with Recharge, an after-school teen center. We will use local resources to mentor teens through music, gardening, and game play in positive and productive environments. A school in Rockford, Illinois reached out to us to explore partnering with an eye toward creating a pipeline for our newly minted teachers, based on reports they have of our unique approach to incorporating community, environment, and rural revitalization into our educational goals and vision.

We feel gratified that our efforts are touching more people each year, and that we continue to strengthen and expand our platform, our connections, and contributions. We are optimistic about the seeds we are planting now, and look forward to another fruitful year with a cornucopia of fresh ideas, exuberant events, and valuable outcomes.

Craig Vivian Chair Monmouth College Educational Studies Department

REDI AT A GLANCE REDI stands for Rural Education Initiatives, a program of the Educational Studies Department at Monmouth College. Since 2019, it has brought together College faculty and staff, local educators, community partners, and national organizations who share a commitment to community and a vision for changing the face of rural education to improve equity and quality of life in rural areas.

REDI Initiatives: The TARTANS Rural Teacher Corps, which prepares teachers committed to rural education to be visionaries in their communities.

PLACE Teaching Sites, which provide learning spaces where students focus on their local place through project-based inquiry learning.

Monmouth Educational Garden & Farm, a place of living resources that enrich hands-on education about agriculture, sustainability and nutrition for all learners.

REDI’s robust rural network strengthens local relationships, fosters collaboration and accelerates community-driven action as it relates to rural revitalization through education.

We thank the following individuals from the Educational Studies Department who have served as acting REDI steering committee members. They have helped secure funding, conducted outreach, and built key infrastructure for the program: Craig Vivian, professor; Tammy La Prad, assistant professor; Jenni Dickens, director of partnerships and initiatives; John Glasgow, community engagement fellow; and Cammy Davis and Jesus Avala, Peace Corps Fellows. The department has also coalesced around this effort. The support of these department members has been invaluable: Michelle Holschuh-Simmons, associate professor; Brad Rowe, associate professor; Sherry Bair, associate professor; Tom Sargent, professor; and Amjad Karkout, academic administrative assistant.

ADVISORY BOARD Last year, in response to the promising growth and building momentum of REDI, we created the REDI Advisory Board.

We are grateful to the members of the board for their rural and agricultural insight and expertise; help in forging connections with relevant constituencies and audiences; and support in building awareness of REDI’s mission and efforts in rural revitalization through education.

LUCY THOMPSON

STEPHANIE BERNOTEIT

Future Farmers of America regional director and Monmouth College alumna

Executive Deputy Director of Academic Affairs at the Illinois Board of Higher Education

SHANE KAISER Compeer Financial insurance officer, Monmouth branch

DANIELLE NIERENBERG DENISE MANN

WENDELL SHAUMAN

TARTANS Advisory Board member and retired Monmouth teacher

Area farmer, past U.S. Grains Council chairman and Monmouth College alumnus

Food activist, President of Food Tank (a non-profit think tank), Monmouth College alumna, and winner of the prestigious Julia Child Award

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MILESTONES At the request of MonmouthRoseville schools, AmeriCorps Fellow Cammy Rose Davis and Professor Tammy La Prad developed a recommended reading list for elementary students to inspire place-based and outdoor curiosity. Themes of kindness, empathy, responsibility and cooperation were interwoven with stories of bugs, birds, water, and land. This list was shared with district teachers to support their language arts lesson planning.

SHARING.

Stories about REDI’s growth and impact have traveled outside the walls of our offices with the aim of inspiring and informing revitalization efforts in rural areas across the region and nation. In turn, REDI has sought out stories of others’ efforts to learn from and implement new ideas as we continue to develop our program. A television news story, a visit from our national place-based school network partner, funding applications to state elected officials, conference presentations, and school field trips helped us hear and share good news of good work.

Grant-funded report captures TARTANS story John Glasgow

17 13 Number of students

Hours of interviews

surveyed for report

captured valuable

on beginnings of

details for sharing

rural teacher corps

success stories

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The TARTANS rural teacher corps, a signature initiative of the REDI program, has a story to tell. With the generous COVID-19 Response Support Catalyst grant award from Compeer’s Fund for Rural America—via our partners, the Rural Schools Collaborative—that story became a guide.

John Glasgow (Rural Schools Collaborative) spoke with College faculty, staff, and students to document the history, structure and perspectives of the TARTANS program. After 13 hours of interviews, 17 student surveys, and 138 pages of transcription, Glasgow had captured the early beginnings and context of the TARTANS rural teacher corps.

Together with AmeriCorps Fellow Cammy Rose Davis, Glasgow also created a system to continuously capture TARTANS program data. This 30-page report has since been used to inform faculty conference presentations, guide the development of the program, and support conversations between Monmouth and other aspiring teacher corps programs around the country.

Early childhood students see own faces in exhibit Forty Kindergarten and first-grade multilingual students walked onto Monmouth College’s campus early last May and were greeted by familiar faces: their own.

The College’s Hewes Library had set up a gallery exhibit of their self-portraits, the culminating projects of a unit of study on skincolor and identity. The A student poses next to his self-portrait. visitors also participated in an interactive read-aloud, wrote encouraging notes to college students studying for finals, and decorated the building entrance with cheerful and multilingual chalk art.

Monmouth College Educational Studies students—many of whom were familiar from their practicum placements in their classrooms—led them through the stations. The college students had previously visited the Lincoln Early Childhood School classrooms to photograph and record students’ portraits and poems for a virtual gallery to share their works with distant friends and loved ones.

The success of the event inspired a repeat of the event in 2022, with nearly double the number of student visitors and an additional classroom participating.

A place-based PechaKucha Four Monmouth College Educational Studies students and one professor took the virtual mic and stole the show at a national place-based education symposium hosted in April by the Teton Science Schools. They designed and led a “PechaKucha” ­—a presentation format that features 20 slides for 20 seconds each—that highlighted their extraordinary place-based practicum experience at Harding Elementary last fall. Professor Tammy La Prad and students from her social studies and literacy courses earned a “best in show” award for their presentation.

Monmouth-Roseville superintendent Ed Fletcher describes the history and boundaries of the area’s school districts to TSS’s Charles Campbell and Margot Angstrom.

Teton Science Schools reps pay site visit REDI’s partner, Wyoming-based Teton Science Schools, sent their new director and district coach for their place-based school network on a site visit to Monmouth in November.

Director Charles Campbell and Coach Margot Angstrom toured REDI’s PLACE site, Central Intermediate School, to observe place-based education lessons in action. Their visit also included a tour of Lincoln and Harding schools, meetings with principals and the district superintendent to discuss expansion of PBE to the other elementary buildings, and an outing to the College educational farm to get a feel for the outdoor learning space.

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Professors Tammy La Prad and Michelle Holschuh Simmons (above) presented at the National Forum to Advance Rural Education, a joint conference hosted by the NREA and RSC in November 2021 in Indianapolis, Ind. They shared the background and development of the TARTANS program with other rural stakeholders from across the nation. Professor Craig Vivian, along with director of partnerships and initiatives Jenni Dickens and AmeriCorps Fellow Cammy Rose Davis (left), led a presentation on place-based outdoor learning.

Educational Farm in the news Quad Cities Channel 4 News visited the Monmouth Educational Farm last summer to cover a story on REDI’s place-based and outdoor education efforts.

The Dovos—a multilingual family from the Monmouth-Roseville school district—joined Jenni Dickens, Craig Vivian, Tammy La Prad and Monmouth-Roseville Director of Multilingual Learners Amy Gustaf Freitag ’07 to talk about their experiences with REDI programs.

The two-minute news segment aired by the CBS affiliate in June brought REDI’s initiatives to the eyes and ears of audiences more than 50 miles away.

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Lawmakers consider REDI proposals In the spring of 2022, REDI submitted three proposals for congressionally-directed spending to Rep. Cheri Bustos, Sen. Tammy Duckworth and Sen. Dick Durbin.

Representatives from all three Illinois lawmakers’ Washington offices have been in contact with Monmouth to support these applications.

If granted, these funds will strengthen the physical, curricular and network infrastructure of REDI, as well as establish a teachers-of-color scholarship fund and mentorship program for local high school students seeking to become teachers.

REDI’s proposal was selected by Rep. Bustos as one of 10 total applications to advance for consideration.

Rural Illinois schools have faced severe shortages of substitute teachers, particularly during the pandemic. In response, Monmouth partnered with the Regional Office of Education to give 28 teacher-licensure candidates the opportunity to gain experience and help the school districts by filling in as substitutes. (WHBF-TV)

CONNECTING. One of the many benefits of rural communities is the speed and nimbleness with which its members can respond to one another’s needs. Leveraging our partnerships, REDI was able to connect folks across organizations and learners throughout the region to valuable resources.

Tutors, substitutes, new grants and new colleagues came out of REDI’s efforts to connect partners with critical opportunities across its growing network.

Multilingual families enjoy taste of farm The Monmouth-Roseville school district hosted its first annual multilingual families event at the Monmouth educational farm in May 2021.

Initially a response to COVID restrictions (the district sought an outdoor venue where families could socially distance), the event was a great success, with more than 30 families of multilingual children in the district meeting at the farm.

Monmouth’s REDI team toured the grounds with the families, who shared their words for the structures and produce they saw, tasted farm honey and told stories about their own gardening experiences.

District multilingual families and teachers alike taste fresh honey on their tour of the Monmouth College Educational Farm.

Families took home meal kits from Hy-Vee, featuring produce also found at the farm. After seeing an excellent turnout and positive feedback, the event will be held again at the farm in 2022.

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Comprising the RSC staff in Wallace Hall are, from left: John Glasgow, Savannah Franklund ’21 and Taylor McCabe Junke.

REDI wing welcomes RSC REDI’s partner, the Rural Schools Collaborative, has grown in its staffing and has filled out the new REDI wing in the Educational Studies Department in Monmouth College’s Wallace Hall.

New executive director Taylor McCabe-Junke; development manager and Monmouth alumna Savannah Franklund ’21; and programs and partnerships manager (and Monmouth native) John Glasgow share offices in the wing. Three additional staff members work remotely but will visit the RSC offices periodically. This proximity mirrors the close partnership between Monmouth and the RSC, and benefits our collaborative efforts.

College students staff tutoring program Over the past year, Monmouth College Educational Studies students and Monmouth-Roseville high school students have worked together at the Jamieson Center to help area children who have fallen behind academically due, in part, to the harsh impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their school experiences.

REDI’s AmeriCorps and Peace Corps Fellows, Cammy Rose Davis and Jesus Ayala, have joined in to support the 14 children—many of whom are multilingual—receiving after-school tutoring at Jamieson’s Pattee Learning Center. Tutors work with the children four days a week and have formed close bonds as they tackle math, reading and writing together.

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Students in Javier Reyes’s sixth-grade classroom record a broadcast with new equipment purchased with funds from a Compeer grant.

Central Intermediate gets $10K innovation grant Javier Reyes, a place-based educator at Central Intermediate (a PLACE site), has his students reaching audiences beyond school walls with new broadcasting equipment.

The equipment was purchased with funds from Compeer Financial’s Rural Schools Innovation Grant, which Central Intermediate School was awarded last summer. The Rural Schools Collaborative and Compeer Financial—both REDI partners— reached Reyes through REDI, which worked to connect innovative teachers with the opportunity.

The $10,000 grant, which aims to advance out-of-the-box teaching happening in rural schools in spite of the pandemic, has helped Reyes’s students engage digitally in place-based learning: They have conducted live and recorded broadcasting, researching and reporting in their community. The district hopes to expand the program to the high school next year.

Community Arts Access Grant supports summer experiences REDI has been awarded a second generous $2,000 IACA Community Arts Access Grant grant from the Buchanan Center for the Arts to implement local placebased art programming for K-12 students.

This funding will support REDI’s AmeriCorps Fellow, Cammy Rose Davis, who will assist in developing summer art experiences especially for the area’s multilingual student population.

$14 million toward local literacy intervention Peace Corps Fellow Jesus Ayala supports REDI’s outreach to Monmouth-Roseville district multilingual learners.

Ayala provides multilingual support REDI’s newest Peace Corps Fellow, Jesus Ayala, became an important thread in the Monmouth-Roseville school district’s multilingual learner (ML) tapestry this year. Through REDI, Ayala connected with the district ML director, an ML high school teacher, and the school counselor, who have placed Ayala in two classrooms with ML students. Ayala supports these students in study halls, translating and supporting as needed across four subject areas (including driver’s education—an especially challenging subject with few translated materials).

Ayala also helps multilingual seniors think through life goals and college options, discussing possible next steps like scholarships and FAFSA applications. His connection with the students—getting to know their interests, goals and background—has helped them to improve their grades. Students have caught up on homework and increased their classwork submissions. Two students have already applied to colleges with his support.

Two more schools to implement PBE Two additional local schools have signed a contract to begin formally implementing place-based education in the 2022–23 school year. Lincoln Early Childhood School and Harding Elementary School will join Central Intermediate in the Teton Science Schools’ (TSS) Place Network—a national network of schools committed to placebased education, and which receive three years of training and onboarding from TSS. This expansion follows REDI’s growing role with TSS and the Rural Schools Collaborative as a model hub with both a rural teacher corps (TARTANS) and model placement sites (PLACE) for candidates to engage in place-based education. REDI will bring together their network of experts and resources to support teachers and students in these schools with their place-based projects and lessons.

Early literacy nonprofit Future Forward (a program of Education Analytics) has teamed up with Monmouth College to bring their literacy intervention program to Monmouth-Roseville schools.

The nonprofit was recently awarded $14 million—their largest single award—from the Department of Education’s Education Innovation and Research program to expand their reach to rural areas. Our partner, the Rural Schools Collaborative, connected Future Forward and REDI. Future Forward’s approach combines one-on-one literacy tutoring, family engagement, and social-emotional skillbuilding and will create several new jobs in the area, from tutors to program managers.

REDI will work with Future Forward to train and place Educational Studies teacher candidates as tutors to serve local students and to gain field experience, an arrangement that will benefit all stakeholders.

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ENGAGING.

Professor Tammy La Prad’s science and literacy students engaged second-graders in outdoor learning experiences at Jamieson Community Center’s raised garden beds. They spoke at the Monmouth-Roseville school board’s Novermber meeting about their experience.

Place-based learning benefits everyone. Our growing network of students, experts, and supporters came together this year to engage learners in their place. Hands-on camps, workshops and lessons brought community stakeholders together to learn about and learn from the extraordinary assets of our shared rural space.

Left: Students from REDI’s gardening camp show their learning poster and donate upcycled planters at the Monmouth farmer’s market.

Right: Art professor Janis Wunderlich leads a painting workshop at REDI’s outdoor art camp.

Grant-funded summer camps have eventful first year The Monmouth Educational Farm had a busy and fun-filled summer in 2021. Two summer camps, funded by Compeer’s Fund for Rural America grant award and co-sponsored by the Monmouth-Roseville Department of Multilingual Learners, brought area students and their families to the outdoor learning space.

First- through fourth-grade multilingual

children participated in a week-long gardening day camp, led by district teacher Sandra Pinedo ’17 and Monmouth staff member Jenni Dickens, during which they learned about plant life, growing nutritious food, and designed planters to share with the community at the downtown farmer’s market.

a painting workshop and a Monmouth College student led a photography workshop. Families joined their children in a culminating exhibition and a shared meal.

The camps’ success, the district’s support, and generous funding from Compeer and the 2022 IACA Community Arts Access Older students took part in a summer art Grant will allow the camps to be held again camp, where professor Janis Wunderlich led in 2022.

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REDI forms partnership with teen center New place-based outreach is on the horizon for REDI with the Eagle View Community Health System’s after-school teen center, Recharge. The center, which offers tutoring, special events, extracurricular programming, health services, a pantry and a full kitchen for area teens, opened in April in downtown Monmouth.

Recharge coordinators Amy Gugliotta and Amy Rogers reached out to REDI for mentors and tutors, as well as to develop programming at the Monmouth Educational Farm and Garden.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Recharge Teen Center was held in March 2022.

This programming might range from nature art to gardening workshops, from planting sustainable food trails to nutritious cooking classes. It will aim to engage teens in their community

by tapping into their interests in local ecology and support their agency in building up a community that reflects and serves them well.

Typewriter renaissance Every Tuesday during the Fall 2021 semester, young students could be heard clacking excitedly at typewriters at the Jamieson Center’s after-school program.

Five students from the Educational Studies Department joined Educational Studies Professor (and typewriter enthusiast) Brad Rowe and Peace Corps Fellow Jesus Ayala set up four typewriters for the 14 students in the program.

Students practiced their writing and conversation skills through creative writing, letter-writing, and other genres.

A note from a grateful student.

Jesus Ayala helps introduce an old word-processing technology to an eager new generation.

Many of these students are English learners, who

became increasingly comfortable sharing stories about their lives and expressing their interests through type and conversation. Students organically connected with each other as they set up typewriting competitions and dug into the mechanics of the machine.

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OUR THANKS Many folks have contributed to our efforts in obtaining funding and growing our program.

Our Compeer MORE for Agriculture grant award will benefit our shared programming with these supporters. We are thankful for support from, and look forward to continued work with, the following groups: The Rural Schools Collaborative Teton Science Schools Galesburg Community Foundation Monmouth College Hub school districts: Monmouth-Roseville, United, West Central, ROWVA, Farmington, Knoxville, La Harpe, Dallas City Compeer Financial TARTANS Advisory Board Warren County YMCA Jamieson Community Center FFA Warren-Henderson Farm Bureau Monmouth Area Chamber of Commerce Monmouth City Council Western Illinois University Peace Corps/AmeriCorps Fellows Graduate Program