This website provides a description of and evaluation of the Appalachian Rural Systemic Initiative, otherwise known as ARSI.

ARSI was a ten-year project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Grant number ESR-0086188, as part of the Rural Systemic Initiative (RSI) program which included over a dozen other poor rural areas around the nation. For 10 years Inverness Research Associates served as external evaluators to ARSI, documenting and studying its growth and progress and its contributions to science, math and technology education in the Appalachian regions of six states – Kentucky, Ohio, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.

This website is designed to provide a multi-dimensional description of ARSI based on data collected, analyzed and interpreted by Inverness Research. Consisting of a portfolio of reports and portrayals, this website aims to illumine the long-term, steady ARSI investment in the development of a large scale rural education improvement infrastructure. As such it is intended to provide a vehicle for a range of audiences to learn about the ARSI approach to building indigenous capacity for science and mathematics improvement in impoverished rural areas of Appalachia.

Click here to enter the ARSI Evaluation Portfolio