Click HERE to download the survey findings, or read it in the viewer below.*
Click HERE to download the case studies, or read it in the viewer below.
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic threw school districts across the country into a state of turmoil. In rural Colorado, district and charter schools faced a unique set of challenges, pivots, and adaptations to an ever-evolving set of public health guidelines and disruptions to in-person learning. This context required tailored responses from philanthropic organizations serving Colorado’s rural communities.
To understand the needs and opportunities for supporting rural schools, Bellwether Education Partners interviewed 30 educators, nonprofit leaders, and funders and surveyed more than 80 rural district and charter school leaders in Colorado.
Bellwether’s case study, Support for Rural Colorado Schools: How Philanthropy and Districts Came Together to Serve Students in 2020, and report, Support for Rural Colorado Schools Survey: Opportunities for Philanthropy to Address District Needs* identify promising practices from funders’ early responses to the pandemic and pinpoint the most urgent needs of rural districts today, nearly two years after schools first closed their doors.
*Correction: Due to a drafting oversight, an earlier version of the survey report had a few discrepancies between the data cited in the text and the data in the tables. In addition, one survey result described as significant was not statistically significant. The oversights did not affect any key findings or conclusions. We corrected this version of the survey report.
