Rural Policy Research Institute Joins NCRECLI as Partner

Left to right: Ann Peton, Charles Fluharty, and Cathy Grace

AUG. 14, 2004 | The Rural Policy Research Institute is a new partner of the National Center for Rural Early Childhood Learning Initiatives.

The two agencies will collaborate to add extensive data concerning services to young children and families to RUPRI’s sophisticated online data mapping service, which is provided by its Community Information Resource Center.

The institute is a joint program of Iowa State University, the University of Missouri, and the University of Nebraska. Charles W. Fluharty is director of the institute.

Cathy Grace, Ed.D., director of NCRECLI, said the Rural Policy Research Institute “provides a remarkable and unique service to researchers in the social sciences, including early childhood education, by making it possible to examine the spatial relationships of various demographic and economic factors at national, state and community levels. Using the RUPRI maps, we will be able to vividly demonstrate the gaps in educational services to at-risk young children and families in rural America.”

NCRECLI will work with individual states and with federal agencies to incorporate new sets of reliable data related to early childhood learning into the RUPRI database. Ann Peton, director of the Community Information Resources Center, will oversee the expansion of the database.

Rural Policy Research Institute: http://www.rupri.org/
Community Information Resources Center: http://circ.rupri.org/