During our multi-year relationship with the Colorado Center for Rural Education (or CCRE), Marzano Research has shared findings from our work studying the relationship between rural teacher stipends and educator retention. That study pointed to a strong pattern. Teachers who received CCRE stipends were staying in rural schools at higher rates, and recipients described meaningful effects on career decisions, day-to-day practice, and financial needs.
This year, the conversation around CCRE shifted. As Colorado entered a difficult budget cycle, proposed state funding cuts put the center’s future in jeopardy.
For organizations working in rural education, that kind of moment creates an immediate practical challenge: how to best share accurate evidence and clear data with policymakers needed to make an informed decision.
CCRE asked us to create a concise, visually clear handout that could help communicate key information about the center’s reach, its stipend work, and the broader rural educator workforce context.
Strong informational materials must do several things at once. They have to:
- Maintain accuracy.
- Distill a large body of information without flattening it.
- Present numbers cleanly with enough context to matter.
- Align with the client organization’s look and feel.
- Speak to the intended audience without drifting into jargon, information overload, or unsupported claims.
Most importantly, they have to do all that in very little space. These nuances can make the difference between content that gets skimmed and content that gets understood and absorbed.
For this informational handout, that meant identifying the facts most central to CCRE’s story and arranging them so readers could grasp the importance quickly. The final piece highlighted the center’s statewide reach and impact as well as the continuing need in rural districts.
It also reflected something we value in our client work more broadly: careful curation. Whether we are producing a multiyear evaluation, conducting data analysis, or turning complex information into a polished product, the core task is similar. We work to understand the purpose, identify what matters most, and deliver something accurate, usable, and effective in the real world.
There is now an encouraging early update. The Joint Budget Committee voted unanimously against the governor’s recommendation to eliminate funding for CCRE. While this is a preliminary development and the budget process is still underway, it suggests that concise, well-designed informational materials can be a valuable tool in education work.
We will keep watching this story as the state budget process moves forward. For now, rural districts continue to face staffing pressures, and the information used in those discussions needs to be as strong and focused as the professionals and organizations doing the work.
4/8/26 Update
CCRE is expected to survive state cuts after the Joint Budget Committee preserved its funding in the draft budget. The budget must now pass the House and Senate before going to the governor’s desk.
Sources
Breunlin, E. (2026, April 8). Colorado’s rural teacher pipeline programs will likely skirt funding cuts in state budget. The Colorado Sun. https://coloradosun.com/2026/04/08/colorado-center-for-rural-education-teacher-cadet-program/
Otte, E. (2026, February 6). State budget shortfall threatens future of UNC’s Center for Rural Education. Greenley Tribune. https://www.greeleytribune.com/2026/02/06/state-budget-shortfall-threatens-future-of-uncs-center-for-rural-education/
Tedeschi, S. (2022, June 29). Recruiting and Retaining Rural Teachers: The Colorado Center for Rural Education’s rural teacher stipend program. Marzano Research. https://marzanoresearch.com/recruiting-and-retaining-rural-teachers-the-colorado-center-for-rural-educations-rural-teacher-stipend-program/
