Raised nearly $50 million in matching funds to support place-based education as part of the Annenberg Rural Challenge.

    Established relationships with more than 700 rural schools and communities in 35 states to support place-based education work.

    Worked with the Educational Testing Service to develop and pilot a performance-based student assessment system for place-based learning.

    Created Education Renewal Zones (ERZs) -- an innovative collaboration of rural schools, teacher training institutions, a technical college, and a variety of education support organizations -- to improve the quality of teachers and school leaders in rural Missouri.

    Substantially influenced the growing national awareness that small schools are better through its widely publicized research on the relationships among school size, poverty and student achievement.

    Established a Rural Education Finance Center that provides assistance to rural citizens working to address the serious issues of equity and adequacy in rural school funding. With substantial funding from the Ford Foundation, began intensive work to help rural citizens improve school finance in the states of Vermont, West Virginia, North Carolina, Mississippi, and Nebraska.

    Published Why Rural Matters, a nationally recognized report providing the first-ever snapshot of rural education in each of the 50 states.

    Built viable new networks of rural activists working to improve their schools in Arkansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and West Virginia, and significantly expanded existing networks in Georgia and Mississippi.

    Helped citizen groups change state policies in Georgia, Mississippi, and North Carolina, and made significant progress toward policy change in several other states.

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