A Unified States Affiliate of the National Rural Education Association and the National Rural Educational Advocacy Coalition.
Created in 1996 by:
The Montana Association Of County School Superintendents, Montana Rural Education Center UM-Western,
College of Education, Health and Human Development MSU-Bozeman, The Montana School Boards Association.
"Our purpose is to provide professional development, research, resources, and technical assistance to help Montana's small schools meet state and federal mandates in educationally sound ways."

Greetings!  Thank you for taking the time to browse our site.  Our website is updated weekly.  Links to the excellent materials, research and resources are located to the left of each page.  MSSA's revised K-12 curriculum is within the members section for review and download.  Contact the director or office manager for the username and password.  The home page has links to important reports on both federal and state education budgets and legislation that will affect schools here in Montana.  Our workshop registration page lists professional development offerings throughout the year.  The programs page briefly outlines what the MSSA offers school districts.  Look around then contact us for membership information or assistance.  Dan Rask, Executive Director

 MEMBER PAGE click here

• FEBRUARY WORKSHOP REGISTRATION NOW IN THE WORKSHOP REGISTRATION LINK.  SIGN UP EARLY.

• RENEWING ALTERNATIVE STANDARDS SCHOOLS APPLICATIONS DUE MARCH 1, 2012. 

Schools who need to renew their application for Alternative Standards to OPI have until March 1, 2012 to do so.  MSSA will be mailing out suggested application language and necessary documentation at the end of this week so that schools can work on their packet and have it complete in time for OPI.

• 2011-2012 WORKSHOP DATES AND SITES  - CLICK HERE

• MSSA SCHEDULE FOR CURRICULUM REVIEW, K-12 CURRICULUM AND TITLE IIA LANGUAGE FOR APPLICATIONS AND FINAL REPORTS ARE LOCATED IN THE MEMBER SECTION.   CONTACT THE DIRECTOR OR OFFICE MANAGER FOR USERNAME AND PASSWORD.

• MSSA SPONSORS GRADUATE LEVEL (588) COURSE THIS YEAR.

Once again the MSSA will sponsor a course from MSU-Bozeman in the second semester.  Contact the office for materials.  You may email your request to me at drask@metnet.mt.gov with your physical address to send out the registration materials.  Participants are expected to attend at least three consortium offerings during this year and then complete a paper indicating what you took away from each seminar and how you would implement it in your classroom.  County superintendents can indicate how they would encourage use of the materials in their rural school classrooms.

• ALIGNING COMMON CORE STANDARDS WITH MSSA REVISED CURRICULUM WILL BE AN AREA OF FOCUS DURING 2012.

The Executive Director and six instructors attended a training conducted by OPI on December 1 and 2, 2011 in Helena.  The purpose of this training is to begin the process of aligning our curriculum to the new Common Core Standards.  Allison Nys of Pioneer School, Roxie Bulen and Shelby Blixt of Melrose School, Nancy McKinley of Gildford Colony School, Susan Seastrand of Ayers Colony School, Traci Manseau of Deer Creek Colony School and two instructors from Beaverhead County High School will assist the Director in aligning our current curriculum for MSSA schools to the new Common Core Standards adopted in 46 states.  I will continue to report on our progress as we move along this year.

• MSSA SPONSORS THE CLASS "C" FINANCIAL DATA SURVEY.

All Class "C" school districts in Montana have received the survey data form to complete and return to the MSSA for this year.  We have 44 schools taking part this year.  Our Office Manager, Linda Sunderlin, has updated the survey with the support staff now averaged and included in the document.  Thanks for undertaking this project at a busy time in your schools.  We hope the data is useful during the second half of this year.  The document will be mailed out Tuesday of this week.

• MSSA SEPTEMBER 21ST, 2011 BOARD MEETING UNOFFICIAL MINUTES - CLICK HERE

• MSSA BOARD TO MEET JANUARY 25, 2012 AT MSU-BOZEMAN.  AGENDA - CLICK HERE

• FEDERAL EDUCATION LEGISLATIVE UPDATE - HOUSE ADVANCES ESEA REAUTHORIZATION BILLS.  AASA RESPONDS - CLICK HERE

NREAC report as of January 3, 2012,  CLICK HERE

Fiscal 2011 final budget resolution (HR 1473), CLICK HERE

• MSSA LETTERS OF AGREEMENT 2011-2012

2011-2012 MAP/NWEA ASSESSMENT/AGREEMENT FORM - CLICK HERE

2011-2012 CONSORTIUM LETTER OF AGREEMENT - CLICK HERE

2011-2012 ALTERNATIVE STANDARDS LETTER OF AGREEMENT - CLICK HERE