2018 NREA Foundation Essay Contest

The National Rural Education Association (NREA) has opened the NREA Foundation Essay Contest for 2018.
The Indiana Small and Rural Schools has a rich history of participation and having at least one winner and/or runner up representing our state nearly every year for the past 7 years.
This is an excellent opportunity for our Indiana schools to participation in a national event in which we know that we can compete and compete well!  Our members are asked to encourage their schools and their teachers to consider participating.  We have had schools who participate as all classes activity, some with classes as the teacher elects do so, and some (mostly middle or upper grades) who have used this as an outside or extra credit assignment (one of our Indiana winners competed as an extra credit writer).

The contest is divided into three divisions, with awards in each division:

Elementary – Grades 3-5 – Up to 250 word essay

               Winner – $250       Runner-up – $100

Middle School/Junior High – Grades 6-8 – Up to 500 word essay

                Winner – $400      Runner-up  – $200

High School – Grades 9-12 – Video essay up to 3-4 minutes in length

Winner – $400      Runner-up  – $200

Students write or create their video from a prompt provided by the NREA.

Both written and video essays have a scoring rubric to be used by judges and which is provided in the NREA information.

Deadline for submission is April 1, 2018.  Winners will be announced by May 15, 2018.

Each school building is asked to submit their best 5 entries per division level in their building… 5 entries for grades 3-6, 5 entries for grades 6-8 and 5 entries for grades 9-12.

To learn more here is the NREA link with all the information and directions: CLICK HERE