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Western Illinois University Educational Studies Professor Sandra Watkins (left), who teaches educational leadership courses at WIU, now serves as president of the National Rural Education Association (NREA). She will conclude her presidency in October at the organization's annual convention in St. Louis. She is pictured here with John Hill, the executive director of the NREA, which is based at Purdue University.
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WIU Educational Studies Professor Helms National Rural Ed Association

March 26, 2015

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MACOMB, IL — Since last November, a Western Illinois University faculty member has helmed the national organization that serves as "the voice of all rural schools and communities across the United States." WIU Educational Studies Professor Sandra Watkins began her term as president of the National Rural Education Association (NREA) last fall and will conclude her presidency this October at the organization's annual convention in St. Louis.

Watkins, who teaches educational leadership courses at Western, first became involved with the NREA about ten years ago through the encouragement of Robert Hall, former chair (2004-08) of, and professor in (1986-08), Western's educational leadership department. During her years of NREA service, she has recruited fellow educational studies faculty members Greg Montalvo, professor, and Jim La Prad, associate professor, as well as Jill Myers, professor of law enforcement and justice administration at WIU, to also serve the NREA, which was originally founded at the Department of Rural Education in 1907 and "is the oldest established national organization of its kind" in the U.S. Currently, the association has more than 3,000 members across the country, with 26 state association affiliates, and is based at Purdue University in Indiana.

"Basically, we are the leading national organization that supports providing services to enhance the educational opportunities in rural schools. I think, overall, the NREA does a good job of listening to rural schools' needs across the United States," Watkins noted. "For example, last year, at a state affiliate meeting held at the national conference, we talked about what the research needs are—the practical research needs that educators can implement in the schools. That's just one example of how we try to listen to our constituents, become involved and implement resources that support their needs."

Recently NREA Executive Director John Hill visited Western's campus to meet with Watkins and other WIU NREA members. Hill, on his trip to Illinois, also planned to meet with the new executive director of the Illinois affiliate of the NREA. He said members of the national organization, as well as the organization's state affiliates, have, over the last few years, utilized technology to discuss and keep pace with pressures and issues faced by rural school districts.

"We were a pencil-and-paper organization seven years ago, and now we're pretty much a virtual organization. Instead of meeting once a year, through technology, our executive committee meets monthly, and our research committee meets monthly, too. Our state executives are also able to meet two or three times per year via technology. We also have an active, online discussion board for our state executives, so they are talking with each other all the time."

According to Hill, over the years, the NREA's advocacy organization, the National Rural Education Advocacy Coalition (NREA-C), has made significant strides for rural schools, which Hill noted face increasing pressure due to capacity—or the lack of it.

"In most rural counties, the number of people living in those counties is stagnant or it is decreasing, which means we either have stagnant or decreasing enrollment. Because most dollar formulas are driven by the number of students, the number of dollars allocated per student has been decreasing, so this often means that financial capacity is strained," he explained. "One recent victory that our advocacy coalition has been able to achieve for students and educators in rural school districts has to with the government's E-Rate program, which provides discounted rates for telecommunications services. The FCC [Federal Communications Commission] originally set up the E-Rate program so schools could apply to receive federal money for external connections and internal connections, but the demand was so great, they could only fund the external connections. In that process, there was an effort to change the definition of 'rural,' which would have eliminated the eligibility of about 90 percent of the rural schools. The NREA-C advocated that particular definition of 'rural' be reversed, and it was," he added.

In addition to providing a voice for rural schools at the national government level, Watkins said the NREA also serves its membership—which includes elementary, middle and high school teachers, as well as faculty from higher education institutions—yearly via the organization's elected positions. She said, for her term, the NREA's executive committees (all 16 of them) have SMART (or specific, measureable, attainable, results-focused and trackable) goals.

"Our expectation is the committees will have achieved these goals and be able to report their results at the 2015 national convention in St. Louis later this year," Watkins said.

Watkins said the annual NREA Convention and Research Symposium provides a venue for NREA members to come together, face to face, annually to discuss issues and policies that affect rural education, as well as present and discuss the latest educational research.

"The fact that our convention and symposium is in St. Louis this year, so close to Macomb, is great for NREA members in the Midwest," she added.

According to Watkins, the keynote speakers at this year's NREA convention include Marcia Gentry, director of the Gifted Education Resource Institute and professor of educational studies at Purdue and former K-12 teacher and administrator, as well as Hal Davidson, a former K-12 bilingual math teacher and college faculty member who is now part of an Emmy-Award winning public television team that created math and technology integration programs. The annual NREA Convention and Research Symposium is set for Oct. 16-18 in St. Louis.

For more information about the NREA, visit www.nrea.net or contact Watkins at (309) 298-2297 or via email at SG-Watkins@wiu.edu.

Posted By: Teresa Koltzenburg (WIUNews@wiu.edu)
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