MACOMB, IL –The National Rural Education Association (NREA) recently launched the 2025 Why Rural Matters report, a project with a more than 20-year history of [...]

After an exciting first year, the AIRSS team is proud to launch the second volume ofThe Prairie Career Advocate. This storytelling effort is part of [...]

AIRSS is dedicated to advancing education for rural students, and supporting Career and Technical Education (CTE) has become a main focus in that goal; our [...]

We are excited to present our 2025 Annual Report: “We Are Here!” Defining “rural” for Illinois is an essential task that AIRSS is determined to [...]

Intro When most people hear “career and technical education,” (CTE) they picture high school students in a shop class, coding in a computer lab, or [...]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASESeptember 1, 2025 Association of Illinois Rural and Small Schools Announces Premier Sponsorship with OPTERRA to Support Rural School Infrastructure and Facilities Modernization [...]

The Association of Illinois Rural and Small Schools is excited to welcome Karli Strom to our work as an Assistant Director reviewing Career and Technical [...]

John Glasgow, Program Director, Association of Illinois Rural and Small Schools David Ardrey, Executive Director, Association of Illinois Rural and Small Schools Tom Withee, Director, Goshen Consulting [...]

Career and Technical Education (CTE) has strong potential in rural schools to serve as a student empowerment and community revitalization powerhouse. Because of their embeddedness, [...]

The AIRSS team is proud to present the fourth issue of our new digital publication, The Prairie Career Advocate. This storytelling effort is part of [...]

Recently, the Association of Illinois Rural and Small Schools launched the nomination form for our first-ever Illinois Rural Teacher of the Year Award. We were [...]

As all in rural education understand, there is an ongoing and pervasive shortage of educators in rural schools. Although the most recent IARSS Educator Shortage [...]

The AIRSS team is proud to present the third issue of our new digital publication, The Prairie Career Advocate. This storytelling effort is part of [...]

Thank you to Kings Financial Consulting, Inc. for your support of our mission to advocate and be the VOICE of Illinois rural and small schools! [...]

By Joe Brewer When Thomas bolted out of my history class to respond to an accident on a remote road in our rural community, his [...]