Education Resources

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Associations at Work in Appalachia

Appalachian College Association
The Appalachian College Association is a consortium of 33 private liberal-arts colleges in Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. It encourages member colleges to foster Appalachian history and culture; to share ideas, information, programs, and resources; and to support the economic development of the Appalachian Region by serving as resources for agencies formulating regional policies.

Appalachian Studies Association
The association's mission is to encourage study, advance scholarship, disseminate information, and enhance communication between Appalachian people, their communities, governmental organizations, and educational institutions.

Community Colleges of Appalachia
Community Colleges of Appalachia is an association of public community colleges serving the common interests of member colleges and their communities through programs and services responsive to Appalachia's unique cultural, geographic, and economic development challenges.

Organizations Concerned about Rural Education
OCRE is a coalition of organizations dedicated to improvement of public education and economic development in rural America. Its Web site offers links to news, research, and data on rural public education issues.

The National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship
Through its founding member, Springfield Technical Community College, NACCE will be a major channel for distributing best practices in entrepreneurship and student business incubation education at the community college level. Community colleges at all stages of development in their entrepreneurial programs are welcome to participate.

Tech Corps
Tech Corps is a national nonprofit that places technology volunteers into schools, offering tech support and teacher training. The corps offer high-quality technical resources that enrich K-12 teaching and learning.

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Teaching Tools

Federal Resources for Educational Excellence
The FREE Web site has some of the latest research-based curricular materials. More than 30 federal agencies coordinated to make hundreds of federally supported teaching and learning resources easier to find.

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U.S. Department of Education

Navigating Resources for Rural Schools
This site provides access to data, research, recent publications, and resources on rural education and schools.

Education Resource Organizations Directory
EROD is a directory of state and regional agencies that provide information and assistance to education agencies, community groups, and parents. The major Department of Education–funded regional centers serving the Appalachian Region are listed below. 

• Comprehensive Regional Assistance Centers
  The centers assist state departments of education, school districts, and schools in the implementation of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, known as the "No Child Left Behind Act;" and they assist with general school reform. The centers focus on two priorities: assisting Title I schoolwide programs and helping the local school districts that have the highest numbers of children in poverty. While each center has its own methods of operation, all centers provide technical assistance and training. .
• Equity Assistance Centers
  These centers assist school districts and education agencies with issues related to educational equity in the areas of race, national origin, and gender desegregation.
• Regional Educational Laboratories
  The Regional Educational Laboratories conduct and publish research on education issues and provide training programs to teachers and administrators. The labs also offer region-specific services that must be accessed through district education officials.
• Regional Resource Centers for Special Education
  The centers assist state education agencies in improving education programs, practices, and policies that affect children and youths with disabilities. The centers offer consultation, information services, technical assistance, training, and product development.

Financial Assistance for Appalachian Students

Financial assistance comes in many forms. The most common are grants and scholarships (that do not have to be repaid) and loans (that must be repaid). Some types of aid—particularly federal aid, which includes Pell Grants and Guaranteed Student Loans—are available only through educational institutions. Most technical schools, colleges, and universities have financial aid offices that can advise students on the different types of funding available to them.

 Students can also research alternative funding sources:

• Many employers offer tuition assistance or reimbursement as an employee benefit, and some (particularly larger companies, such as Wal-Mart) have scholarship programs for employees' children.
• Some religious and civic organizations offer scholarships. Examples include the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and local Lions Clubs and Rotary Clubs.
• Many professional organizations and their affiliated student organizations offer financial assistance to individuals planning to enter that profession. While some may require membership in their organization to benefit, not all do.
• Many national, state, and local ethnicity- or nationality-based organizations (such as the Abruzzo and Molise (regions of Italy) Heritage Society) also offer scholarships.
• There are many sources of general scholarship information on the Internet. One such source is Fastweb.

Sources of Financial Assistance

The following programs are available exclusively to students from the Appalachian Region. For more information, contact the programs directly.

Corporation for Ohio Appalachian Development
COAD provides scholarship assistance for residents of a 30-county service area in Ohio.
1 Pinchot Lane
PO Box 787
Athens, OH 45701
740.594.8499
coad@coadinc.org

Muskingum University
Appalachian Regional Grants are available to students from the Appalachian Region attending Muskingum College.
163 Stormont Street
New Concord, OH 43762
740.826.8139

Ohio University
The Appalachian Scholars Program is a need-based scholarship program that seeks students from Appalachian Ohio who demonstrate enthusiasm, motivation to succeed, academic achievement and financial need. It is available on five of Ohio University's campuses: Athens, Chillicothe, Eastern, Southern and Zanesville.

Choose Appalachian Teaching
The Choose Appalachian Teaching undergraduate scholarship program is for future mathematics and science teachers of adolescents to young adults in southern and eastern Ohio. Scholarships are for two, three, or four years.

Foundation for Appalachian Ohio (FAO)
FAO's Web site provides a list of scholarships available to students in Appalachian Ohio.

East Tennessee Foundation (ETF)
ETF administers more than 50 scholarship funds. Scholarship awards are based on financial need, scholastic achievement, school, county of residence, extracurricular activities, field of study, and student potential and motivation.

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