Charateristics of Rural School Districts

A new report from the National Center for Education Statistics introduces data from the fifth administration of the School and Staffing Survey (SASS). It is the most extensive sample survey of teachers and administrators in the U.S. Characteristics of Schools, Districts, Teachers, Principals, and School Libraries in the United States: 2003-04 Schools and Staffing Survey has 47 data tables, all of which break out statistics on rural/small town districts. The report includes a relatively small number of findings regarding rural/small town districts that are are included below. The most interesting finding is that a higher percent of rural/small town principals have teaching responsibilities in comparison to their non-rural counterparts.

Extended-day Programs

Forty-seven percent of public schools reported having extended-day programs providing instruction beyond the normal school day for students who needed academic assistance. Public schools located in central city locations were more likely to have this program (58 percent) than schools located in urban fringe/large towns (42 percent) or rural/small towns (45 percent). p. 3

Temporary Buildings

Thirty-two percent of public schools reported having one or more temporary buildings, and 9 percent of public schools reported an enrollment that exceeded the capacity of their permanent and temporary buildings. Public schools in rural areas were less likely to have temporary buildings (21 percent) than schools in urban fringe/large towns (34 percent) or central city locations (38 percent). The percentage of schools having temporary buildings in urban fringe/large towns was measurably different from the percentage of schools in central city locations. p.4

Teacher Experience

Eighteen percent of public school teachers had 3 or fewer years of full-time teaching experience, and 82 percent reported having 4 or more years of full-time teaching experience. Among public schools, there was a smaller percentage of teachers with 3 or fewer years of full-time teaching experience in rural/small town communities (15 percent) than the percentage of teachers with 3 or fewer years experience teaching in central cities (20 percent). There was no measurable difference between the percentage of teachers with 3 or fewer years experience teaching in urban fringe/large towns (18 percent) compared to central city or rural/small town communities. p.4

Principals with Teaching Duties

Twenty-eight percent of public school principals were currently teaching in addition to serving as principal. Principals of public schools located in rural/small town locations were more likely to be teaching in addition to serving as principal (38 percent), compared to principals of public schools in urban fringe/large town (22 percent) or central city locations (16 percent). There was no measurable difference in the percentage of principals who were teaching in public schools in urban fringe/large towns as compared to principals of public schools in central city locations. p.5

REL Contracts Announced

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Education issued a press release announcing that the department had awarded new 5-year contracts to 10 Regional Educational Laboratories. There is some information in the announcement that I didn't have when I posted Four Labs Flip on Tuesday.

The comments of Institute of Education Sciences Grover J. (Russ) Whitehurst are of interest. He noted that the labs "provide a critical link between research and practice." He added, "I'm pleased with the quality of the 10 organizations that have won the competition. We look forward to a very productive relationship as we work to meet the research needs of those engaged in improving the effectiveness of education."

The other piece of information is the total amount of each contract for the next five years. To get a sense of how much research the labs are supposed to do on issues affecting rural schools use the following calculation. (1) Add up the contract amounts for all the labs. (2) Multiple the sum by 25% since IES is required to make sure that a quarter of the labs work focuse on issues affecting rural communities. (3) Divide the product by 5 to get the amount the ten labs collectively are supposed to allocate toward rural issues each year. Could someone with a calculator post the answer for us?

AERA Rural Education SIG Sessions

The Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association is being held April 7 - 11 in San Francisco. The sessions sponsored by the Rural Education Special Interest Group are listed below. Users can do an online search of the program to find additional rural education sessions. Check the program for the most up to date information.

Saturday, April 8, 9:05am - 9:45am
Paper Discussion Session
Rural Education SIG
Moscone Center West / 3rd Floor
Rountable 24
Abstract: These papers center on the roleof identity formation in students' ways of life and interpretation of their learning world.

Session Participants:
Chair: David M. Callejo-Perez (West Virginia University)
Discussant: Kalie R. Kossar (West Virginia University)

Gender, Family Help, and Homework Management Reported by Rural Middle-School Students. Jianzhong Xu (Mississippi State University), Lyn Corno (Teachers College, Columbia University)

Patterns of Adjustment During the Transition From Middle to High School in Rural African-American Youth. Dylan Robertson (Center for Developmental Science), Tom Farmer (The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill), Matthew J. Irvin (The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill), Jana Thompson (Center for Developmental Science)

Spatial and Sociodemographic Patterns of Student Mobility. Kai A. Schafft (The Pennsylvania State University)

Student-Led Rural Community Dialogues: Discovering and Reinventing Students’ Place.
Matthew C. Calvert (University of Wisconsin-Extension), Cynthia Taines (University of Wisconsin - Madison)

The Mystery of Size: School-District Size, Curriculum Offerings, and Student Achievement in Rural Pennsylvania. Yi Gong (Keene State College), Wenfan Yan (Indiana University of Pennsylvania)

Full Circle: A Case Study of the Consolidation, Closing, Restoration, and Reopening of Barnardsville Elementary School. Gail D. Buckner (Western Carolina University), Mary Jean R. Herzog (Western Carolina University)

An Inquiry Into Achievement Differences: Traditional and Virtual High-School Courses.
Dennis M. Mulcahy (Memorial University of Newfoundland), Michael Kristopher Barbour (The University of Georgia)

Monday, April 10, 8:15am - 10:15am
Research on Rural Education: Multiple Perspectives in the United States and Abroad
Rural Education SIG
Moscone Center South / Mezzanine Level East, Room 222
Abstract: This session combines papers dealing with research on rural education in the US and abroad; creating possibilities for comparative studies in education.

Session Participants:
Chair: Edmund T. Hamann (University of Nebraska)
Discussant: Aimee A. Howley (Ohio University)

Analysis of Distance Education Use in Rural Schools. Wallace Hannum (The University of North Carolina), Tom Farmer (The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill), William R. Veal (College of Charleston), Jim Barber (The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill), Jonathan Banks (The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill), Michelle Sylva (The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill)

Mix and Match or Mismatch: High-Ability Students and Rural Schools in an Australian Context. Margaret M. Plunkett (Monash University-Gippsland), Monique Y. Osborn (Monash University)

School of the Air in Australia: From Radio to Satellite. Stephen J. Crump (University of Newcastle)

School Size and the “Power Rating” of Poverty: Substantive Finding or Statistical Artifact? Theodore Coladarci (The University of Maine)

The Influence of Rurality on Teachers' Perceptions of Their Status in English Elementary Schools. Linda M. Hargreaves (Cambridge University), Anthony Pell (Leicester University)

Monday, April 10: 4:05pm - 6:05pm
Rural Education: Rethinking the Possibilities Remove from My Schedule
SIG-Rural Education
Moscone Center South / Mezzanine Level East, Room 224
Abstract: This paper session seeks to expand research about rural education by examining issues and problems (diversity and gender identity) not usually associated with rural communities.

Session Participants:
Chair: Shana Pate (North Texas State University)
Discussant: Sharon L. Spall (Western Kentucky University)

What Can I Learn From Rural Black Family Pedagogy? Sherick A. Hughes (The University of Toledo)

Saving the Children of the Poor in Rural Schools. Aimee A. Howley (Ohio University), Caitlin Howley (AEL, Inc.), Craig B. Howley (Ohio University)

The Development of Secondary-School/Community Partnerships for a College-Going Culture in Diverse, Rural Schools: What Matters? Betty Alford (Stephen F. Austin State University), Peggy B. Gill (The University of Texas at Tyler)

What Makes Effective Rural School Teachers? Andrea M. Lachance (The State University of New York-Cortland)

Teacher Resources in High-Need Rural Schools in Texas. Debra H. Jones (Southwest Educational Development Laboratory), Celeste Alexander (Southwest Educational Development Laboratory), Michael Vaden-Kiernan (Southwest Educational Development Laboratory), Zena H. Rudo (Southwest Educational Development Laboratory)

State Funding for Out-of-State Rural Students

By Rural School Blogger (AKA Stephen Bohrer)

I understand from talking to Paula Stephenson, director of the Colorado Rural Schools Caucus, that an amendment to the Colorado school finance bill that passed out of the Colorado House of Representatives may have begun as a way to close a charter school in northwest Colorado that was predominately composed of students from Utah. One thing led to another, and we have a bill that if passed would make districts ineligible to receive state aid for students from adjoining states.

I understand there are 172 students from adjoining states attending Colorado schools. Colorado probably has as many students attending schools across the state line as come into the state. Does anyone know how many Colorado kids attend out of state? Does the legislature want to start a school finance war with other states that are educating Colorado students? School districts touching Colorado borders are all rural and small. Would we even have to talk about this if Denver touched a border of another state?

Rural schools throughout the country are experiencing declining enrollment and now someone has decided it is not fair for Colorado taxpayers to educate students from other states, regardless of how close they may live to our schools or perceive the quality of our programs. I thought we were here to educate all Americans. Many of our most ardent bashers talk of choice as if that alone were sufficient to provide an adequate education. Now the same party talking choice wants to deny students from Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Kansas from expressing their choice by enrolling in Colorado schools.

For a specific example, Peetz is 2.5 miles south of the Nebraska border. The school there enrolls 32 Nebraska students out of a total student count of 120. My district, Holyoke, has nine Nebraska students attending our district of 600 students. We could survive the loss of $56,000 that the students represent, but what will Peetz do by August when they stand to lose 26% of their students, and budget?

How might this apply to students living in an adjoining state, but in a district that does not adjoin the Colorado district? How would this apply to foreign exchange students? How would this apply to dual home families (Celebrities or CEOs) whose child spends part of the year (October 1 “count day” for instance) in Colorado, but the rest of the year in another state, adjoining or not?

On March 3, 2006, Senator Ken Salazar (D-Colorado) gave the Keynote Address at the National Farmers Union Convention in Colorado. It was a good speech in that the Senator talked candidly about the challenges facing rural America, the obstacles to addressing them, and how the federal government should respond. It does not appear the state legislators are hearing his message. This anti-rural school amendment to the school finance act is mean spirited and tasteless. Perhaps the senator can bring his bully pulpit to the Colorado State Capital and teach those elected to represent us that rural schools count too.

Mr. Rural ED has Moved

Mr. Rural ED has moved to a new weblog service. The new service is more powerful allowing for multiple authors and more flexibility in design. The new site also allows users to subscribe to an RSS news feed of the blog. Visit the new home of Mr. Rural ED at http://mrruraled.typepad.com/

Four Labs Flip

The U.S. Department of Education has annouced that four of the ten regional educational laboratories have been awarded to new organizations. The RELs constitute the largest investment by the federal government into rural education research.

The new lab contract holders are:

The CNA Corporation replaces Edvantia—formerly AEL (Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia).

Education Development Center, Inc replaces Laboratory at Brown (LAB) (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Puerto Rico, and Virgin Islands).

Edvance Research, Inc replaces Southwest Education Development Laboratory (Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas).

The Pennsylvania State University replaces Laboratory for Student Success (Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Washington, DC).

Labs successfully defending their contracts are:

Learning Point Associates serving Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning serving Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming.

Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory serving Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington.

Pacific Resources for Education and Learning serving American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia (Chuuk, Kosrae, Pohnpei, and Yap), Guam, Hawaii, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau).

University of North Carolina at Greensboro serving Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

WestEd serving Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah.

The Regional Educational Laboratory program is located in the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences.

Navigating Resources for Rural Schools

I hadn't been there for awhile, so I was surprised to see a new look for the U.S. Department of Education's Navigating Resources for Rural Schools site. It's a definite improvement over the look of the old site, which included a lot of stock photographs that had been used in other online and print publications.

At first glance it doesn't seem like there's much data on the site. Then again, is there ever enough? It seems like I can never find the exact information I'm looking for in the tables generaqted by the National Center on Education Statistics. Actually, there is a fair amount information available on the site and I could always get the data and make my own tables.

One downside is that some of the data is old. For example, the data posted on student achievement in civics on the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) is from 1998. My sense is that NCES is overflowing with data that could be used to generate information on rural schools. Should we expect NCES to do all the work and have all the fun? I don't think so.

Creating a rural education databank would be a nice project for an organization wanting to support rural education research. Anybody interested?

NREA Research Symposium

This notice came in from Bob Mooneyham, Executive Director of the National Rural Education Association.
----------
The National Rural Education Association will host the NREA Research Symposium on October 21-22, 2006, at the Westin Crown Center Hotel, Kansas City, Missouri. The NREA Research Symposium will precede the 98th Annual NREA Convention, which is scheduled on October 23-25, 2006. Registration for the NREA Research Symposium will be $150, unless you register for the NREA Convention. Registration for the 98th Annual NREA Convention provides a free registration for the NREA Research Symposium.

You are invited to submit a proposal to present at the NREA Research Symposium. All proposed manuscripts will be peer reviewed based on a uniform rubric.

The NREA Executive Committee has established a $500 award for the Best Research Paper. The award will be presented to the author of the paper that is judged to be the Best Research Paper. The award will be presented at the Symposium and the recipient of the award will present the Best Research Paper during the Research Symposium.
---------
Go to http://www.nrea.net/NREA%20Annual%20Convention.htm for more information about the Research Forum and the NREA Convention.

Rural Middle School Student Homework Management

A recently article from "The Journal of Research in Rural Education" makes the a contribution to our understanding of differences between rural and nonrural students. Authors Janzhong Xu and Lyn Corno examine homework management by middle schools students. I'm not too crazy about the definition they use for rural, but it follows standard conventions. They note that using data from only one school limits the generalizability of their findings.

Differences identified by Xu and Corno include:

"Urban students reported taking significantly more initiative in time management, focusing attention, and monitoring motivation than they did in arranging their environment or in controlling their emotions."

"Rural students ... reported taking significantly more initiative in arranging their homework environment, managing time, and focusing attention than they did in monitoring motivation or in controlling their emotions."

"Urban students took significantly less initiative in arranging their environment, while rural students took significantly less initiative in monitoring their motivation."

Xu and Corno also provide plausible explanations for the differences. You can read about them at http://www.umaine.edu/jrre/21-2.htm

Senator Salazar on Rural America

On March 3, 2006, Senator Ken Salazar (D-Colorado) gave the Keynote Address at the National Farmers Union Convention in Colorado. It was a good speech in that the Senator talked candidly about the challenges facing rural America, the obstacles to addressing them, and how the federal government should respond.

In the interest of full disclosure, I worked as a canvasser on Senator Salazar's campaign. I also tend to like him since he attended The University of Michigan Law School.

The full text of Senator Salazar’s speech is available at http://salazar.senate.gov/news/speeches/060303farmunion.html
Here are some excerpts.
----------
Often times, I have heard rural America described as the heartbeat of our great nation. As Colorado’s United States Senator, I am proud of my values and roots in rural Colorado, and I believe in that description. I also believe that rural America has the potential to be the heartbeat of our nation’s economy.

For years, our rural communities have produced the affordable food that feed American families. Rural Americans have been the stewards of the land for our future generations.

Time after time, the young men and women of our rural communities have proudly answered the call to service and have defended our country as members of our armed services.

In fact, a recent article in the Denver Post, wrote about a study that shows rural communities in Colorado, and across the U.S., are producing the vast majority of our new military recruits. For example, rural Jackson County, in northwest Colorado, has the second-highest recruitment rate in the country.

For years, our rural communities have embodied that democratic spirit on which our great nation was founded and, today, they continue that tradition.

Today, our rural communities are at a turning point. While they continue their great legacy, they are also emerging as reservoirs of vast potential to drive America toward a viable twenty-first century economy and meaningful national security.
----------
But we have obstacles to overcome. My friends, the evidence suggests that the current Administration does not share this vision of a thriving rural America. Over the past few years rural communities have carried the burden of budget cuts for the entire federal budget.

Amazingly, while agriculture accounts for less than 1% of the total budget, 25% of the proposed mandatory cuts for the next fiscal year alone will come from programs serving our rural communities. We have to keep our fiscal house in order and balance our budget - but not on the backs of the men and women of rural America.
----------
It’s not enough for the Administration to say it shares our values; it has to truly believe in those values if we are to make the difference we know we can make.

This Administration should not feel like investment in our communities is fiscally irresponsible spending or charity. Rural America should not be thought of, talked about, and invested in as a way for politicians to get votes. It should be a driver for our economy and certainly not an afterthought.

I want our government to be long-term partners with rural America, to share the vision of a thriving, innovative network of rural communities across this Nation acting as a driving force for our national prosperity and our national security. Failure to invest in the future of rural America is a terrible missed opportunity.

Education Service Agencies Supporting Rural Schools

An article in the March 2006 issue of "The School Administrator" describes the ways intermediate school districts are providing support to rural districts. Author Hobart Harmon uses examples from across the country to the value of educational service units. Some examples:

"Heywood Cordy, superintendent in Jenkins County, Ga., relies on the Teacher Alternative Preparation program offered by the Central Savannah River Area Regional Educational Service Agency. His district hired seven teachers who completed the RESA program in the past year. 'The bottom line is without the RESA pool of teaching candidates our students would have a sub in the classroom, rather than a high-quality, full-time teacher,' Cordy says."
----------
"As superintendent of the 715-student Northeast Community School District in Goose Lake, Iowa, Jim Cox relies on the Mississippi Bend Area Education Agency to adequately serve students with disabilities. The service agency has the capacity to hire high-caliber educators to serve on a regional basis. Cox finds the agency also does an excellent job in keeping school district personnel informed of new regulations and the latest research regarding special education services and issues."
----------
"In Washington state, Educational Service District 112 makes available an NCLB Communication Toolkit to its 30 school districts. It includes sample letters, forms, news releases and Q&A sheets to help educators talk easily and accurately with parents and community members about the law. 'It is one of many resources available from ESD 112 that saves us time and money,' says Jim Saltness, superintendent of the Stevenson-Carson School District in Stevenson, Wash."

Hobart's article is a nice contribution to our understanding of how education service agencies are supporting rural schools. You can view the article on the American Association of School Administrators website at http://www.aasa.org/publications/saarticledetail.cfm?ItemNumber=5450&snItemNumber=&tnItemNumber=

A Perfect Storm on the Great Plains

A March 16 report in the Denver Post describes a perfect storm of factors creating population declines in the Great Plains. Author Robert Sanchez (Plains Grow More Lonesome) cites minimal economic development in Colorado's agriculture-based counties coupled with drought and stagnate crop price as contributing to the problem. Adding to the problem are farm consolidations and the closing of manufacturing businesses.

For years economic development in many rural communities was built on attracting businesses that brought lower skilled and lower paying jobs. As a result, there were few if any jobs available for college graduates in rural communities. The current situation on the plains is evidence that the focus on lower skilled jobs is no longer a viable option for the long-term sustainability of rural communities.

The good news is that technology is helping create more jobs that can be done anywhere. I know someone who works out of their home in Colorado for a company where most of her colleagues work in their office in Philadelphia. She can literally do her job anywhere as long as she has access to high-speed Internet and mail delivery. These types of jobs will continue to grow as companies become more comfortable with people work off site.

How can schools adapt to these economic conditions? One way is to place greater emphasis on preparing students for post-secondary education. For most people a high school diploma is not sufficient to finding work in the knowledge economy. Even if they don't work in the knowledge economy most good paying jobs require some sort of college training though not necessarily a four-year degree.

Another aspect of the shift toward higher-skilled, higher-wage jobs is that people who work in these types of jobs have high expectations for their schools. Rural communities wanting to attract people who work in the knowledge economy need to have strong schools. Without good schools they might be washed away in the perfect storm on the Great Plains.