Driving Equity: Understanding and Addressing Transportation Barriers in Rural Illinois
For rural districts in Illinois, transportation remains one of the most expensive and logistically complex responsibilities.
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AIRSS Welcomes New Partner, OneGoal
Thank you to OneGoal for your support of our mission to advocate and be the VOICE of Illinois rural and small schools! The Association of [...]
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Winter 2025 Issue of The Prairie Career Advocate
Bureau Valley CUSD #340: Investing in Rural Career Pathways
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A Cornucopia of CTE Creativity
This Thanksgiving season, we’re celebrating the incredible variety of CTE programs that help students build real-world skills and bright futures. We asked you to share [...]
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A White Paper Series on the Rural Schools Infrastructure Crisis
Co-authored by David Ardrey, Executive Director, Association of Illinois Rural and Small Schools and Roger Eddy, Former Executive Director, Illinois Association of School Boards This [...]
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Do Rural Students with Disabilities Still Have a Fair Chance?
AIRSS Joins Hundreds of Organizations in Condemning Sweeping Cuts to the U.S. Department of Education
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Congratulations to the 133 Rural Schools Designated as “Exemplary” by the 2025 Illinois Report Card
The Illinois Report Card is an annual report released by the Illinois State Board of Education, detailing how schools, districts, and the state as a [...]
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Introducing the 2025 Illinois Rural Teacher of the Year: Dee Rose, Shawnee CUSD #84
Rural teachers need to be elevated and celebrated. For all the conversations and challenges we hear about our public education system, it is all too [...]
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Illinois Rural Education Policy Insufficiencies Ranked as Most “Crucial” in the Nation According to the 2025 Why Rural Matters Report
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 [...]
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Support Rural Sessions at the 2025 Joint Annual Conference in Chicago
The AIRSS team looks forward to seeing you at this year’s Joint Annual Conference! We have several sessions featuring AIRSS leadership, including the return of [...]
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Fall 2025 Issue of The Prairie Career Advocate
Stillman Valley High School: The Changing Field of Ag Education
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New Review of Rural and Small School Career Education Programs Finds Systemic Misalignment Hinders Student Access and Achievement
MACOMB, IL – The Association of Illinois Rural and Small Schools (AIRSS) has completed its initial statewide assessment of rural career and technical education programs [...]
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AIRSS Receives Career Pathway Grant in Partnership with WACS, ROE26, ISBE
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 [...]
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2025 AIRSS Annual Report is Now Available
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 [...]
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Middle School CTE: Foundation for Lifelong Learning
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 [...]
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