Module 2 CollageRural Community

Group # 2: Angela Rowe, Lindsay Brunner, Laura Zimmer, and Paula Martens

Use the RESOURCES you have.

Affects of WEATHER on rural America.

SMALLER class sizes.

ContinuousImprovement

Childhood OBESITY due to limited family income and readily access to physical activity.

Train EDUCATORS to provide high quality education. 

Limited FUNDING for school repairs and resources.

Photo's Bibliography[Picture of children's feet]. Angela Rowe's Personal Photograph.

[Picture of coins in clear container]. Retrieved on October 19, 2009, from http://www.newsobserver.com/content/media/2008/6/13/money.jpg.

[Blue Arrow clip art]. Created in Googledocs on October 19, 2009.

[Picture of drought corn field]. Retrieved on October 19, 2009, from staffwww.fullcoll.edu/.../ drought_corn.jpg Retrieved October 18, 2009.  Google images.com

[Picture of flooded corn field]. Retrieved on October 19, 2009, from minnesota.publicradio.org Retrieved on October 18, 2009.  Google images.com

[Picture of Ohio Department of Education Logo]. Retrieved on October 19, 2009, from http://www.education.com/files/47801_47900/47821/file_47821.gif.

[Picture of Your Districts Designation Logo]. Retrieved on October 19, 2009, from http://www.woodridge.k12.oh.us/ourpages/auto/2009/8/24/65313698/Picture1.jpg.

[Picture of school bus being towed]. Retrieved on October 19, 2009, from http://blog.nj.com/ledgerupdates_impact/2007/11/large_346077_ttbuss22_fj_2.JPG.

[Pictures of childhood obesity billboard]. Retrieved on October 19, 2009, from http://static.pyzam.com/img/funnypics/misc/dueling-billboards.jpg.

[Red Arrow clip art]. Created in Googledocs on October 19, 2009.

Article Summaries

Lambert, M. S. (2009). Searching for Hamlet: To be or not to be for rural education. Rural Policy Matters , 11 (7), 2-5. This article highlights the rural tour that Barack Obama and his team took in July and August.  This tour was to highlight the problems and seek out approaches and ideas that would help rural areas.  The tour is visiting among the poorest rural and small town in the country.  This highlights how title 1 is working against this area.   It talks about the problems of keeping and getting qualified teachers.  This article talks about how government believes that the way in which to solve the problems is to use charter schools and increase taxes.  Both of these options are not solving the problems in poor areas.  The one point that is made throughout is that title one goes to schools in which they target large number of qualifying children not relying on large percentages of low-income schools which often makes rural schools not qualify for as much help that they qualify for.

 Articles Summaries Continued

Carpenter, M. (2001, June 12). Rural school districts stuggle with funding, bias in teaching gifted students. Pittsburgh Post Gazette . Pittsburgh, PA, USA. This article highlights the struggle of one gifted teacher and the challenges she faces as she goes through her career.  This article highlights parents reactions both for and against gifted students.  It highlights how gifted services were funded out of special education formula in which both learning disabilities, physical impairment, and gifted education was funded from.  Thus if a poor school district had many needs in disabilities then the district would find strains on the gifted program.  This article highlights the fact that assumptions might be the smart children have an advantage and can take care of themselves.  In some cases the parents who truly cared about their gifted child were forced to get an IEP in order to meet these gifted children’s needs.  It also highlights the fact the spectrum of needs in a rural area in one class  could be too great for those gifted students to truly get pushed or challenged enough.  One lasting thought was that in a rural areas the values and culture of the classroom can often perceive gifted students as having things come to easily to them and the B’ student has to work his/her butt of is often valued more than a gifted child.

 Articles Summaries Continued

Bull, A. (n.d.). Learning circles. Retrieved October 14th, 2009, from NALD: www.nald.ca/learningcircles/index.htm This article highlights an area in Canada that was trying to link together all rural areas and how they study/learn. It highlights that rural areas are not all the same or can be labeled as a simple category.  There are many differences in the rural geography, economic regions and cultural differences.  The article did offer three commonalities.  1.) a lot of people know each other 2.) nature affects people’s lives much more than in the city economically, socially, and culturally and 3.)people live further apart and this distance is a major factor in their lives.3.

 Articles Summaries Continued

1. Aberg-Bengtsson, L. (2009). The smaller the better? A review of research on small rural schools in sweeden. International Journal of Education , 48, 100-108. This article is a research article that was done in Sweeden.  This article talks a lot about the makes ups of how schools became divided or set up.  The article talks about how the community is intertwined with the school and when the school is under fire the community will react.  The article compared some of its studied with urban areas.  The findings were inconclusive in most areas except that it was determined that more research is needed to determine if and how the community affects the rural school and how this can be supported.

     Articles Summaries Continued

Doeden, C. L. (2000). Community-Based Education and Rural Development. Nebraska: Neighborhood Funders Group. This article was a highlight of a case study of how rural schools in Nebraska helped to show how community connection helps strengthen the schools and not only gives back to the community but helps the students.  This community based school helped to re-invest in the community in which they are born and raised.  One school that was looked at used their adults and elderly as experts and this gave children a chance to reconnect with prior generations.  This community involvement also helped to highlight economics by incorporating local businesses in school projects.  This can lead to small business development.  As well as this community involvement as a whole teaches values of collaborations, cooperation and communication through their experiences.  This program was developed over many years and hopes to be a model of how to join rural struggling schools with the communities that surround it.

 Articles Summaries Continued Browne-Ferrigno, T., Maynard, B. (2005). Meeting the Learning Needs of Students: A Rural High Need School Districts Systematic Leadership Development Initiative. The Rural Educator. This journal article emphasizes the importance of training needed to be successfully prepared to administrate in a rural school setting. A major goal for PEP is improved school leadership focused on enhanced student learning this type of social community. Pike County has multiple generations of its residents relying solely on governmental support. Like many school districts in Eastern Kentucky, Pike County faces challenges, however, with the advance of PEP, these administers are working hard to create "Success of All" children in their community.       

 Articles Summaries Continued

Woodrum, A. (2009). Cultural identity and schooling in Rural New Mexico. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 24(8).  New Mexico is a rural state that is trying to reform a higher quality of education to increase the achievement of students in the social community. The culture and history of these communities offered a sense of family and traditions which students in rural communities often say was positive. However, the the numbers in completing college have decreased and the importance of "Success for All" is critical to create in such a rural community.

 Articles Summaries ContinuedHerzog, M. J., Pittman, B. R. (1995). Home, Family, and Community: Ingredients in the Rural Education Equation. Phi Delta Kappan 77. This journal article gives readers an understanding the problems of rural education, as well as the strengths of such rural social and educational communities. The study concludes that in rural communities in general, working populations are shrinking, economies are declining and students are not competing well in college attendance and completion. However, students at Western Carolina University, were surveyed about their experience growing up in a rural community. The responses were surprisingly positive, stating their experience indicated a sense of home and family. To obtain the high quality education in the dominant social communities, such students need to capitialize on the community and family ties.

 Articles Summaries Continued

Haas, T. (1990). Leaving Home: Circumstances Afflicting Rural America During the Last Decade and Their Impact on Public Education. Peabody Journal of Education, 67. The author describes the economic, demographic, social and emotional status of rural Americans at the end of the twentieth century. The cause of change focuses on "High Quality" education, noting that due to this reform, how educators are teaching are becoming more important then in the past. The future education for rural education is beginning to show positive results.  

 Articles Summaries Continued

Lawrence, B. (2009). Rural Gifted Education: A Comprehensive Literature Review. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 32(4).  Barbara focuses on rural values and culture, being gifted and identified as rural gifted students. It is essential for educators to be highly qualified to teach rural students and important to sustain this of rural communities. In the past, rural communities valued their history and schooling was relaxed and in order to establish success rates today, the education focus needs to be stronger.

Article Summaries Continued

Blankenau, J. (2009). Nutrition, physical activity, and obesity in rural America. Center for Rural Affairs.

Students and adults in rural America are not as physically fit as they were in years past for a number of reasons.  First, families do not live as close to community or recreation centers and thus do not get out as much which has then been linked to obesity along with a few other things.  Secondly, students do not ride their bike or walk to school as much due to the fear of crimes and extra traffic.  Finally, families in rural America are beginning to have more two parent working homes and thus there is less time after school for families to prepare healthy meals and get out and exercise.

Article Summaries Continued

Dewees, S. (1999). Improving rural school facilities for teaching and learning. ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools.

Rural schools are hit with a number of short falls to regulations that, financially, they cannot get themselves out of.  Rural schools often do not meet the American's with Disabilities Act of 1990 to accommodate special needs due to the older buildings that are used as the school house.  However, rural schools may not meet some national mandates due to a lack of funding, they often do have higher community support and participation since the buildings often serve as a community center as well.

Article Summaries Continued

Farmer, T.W., et al. (2006). Adequate yearly progress in small rural schools and rural low-income schools. The Rural Educator.

Even with the additional funding through the Rural Education Achievement Program, many rural schools are still struggling to meet Adequate Yearly Progress each year through the No Child Left Behind Act.  The extreme lack of funding and high financial responsibility of these districts to purchase additional resources to help teach the students is difficult each year.

Article Summaries ContinuedHarmon, H.L. (2002). Educational issues in rural schools in America. Educational Resources Information Center.

Rural schools are faced with many issues that ultimately affect the quality of education it's students get.  First, students are faced with a stigma that can ultimately affect their achievement.  Students in rural America are often viewed as having low aspirations and not being considered the smartest students.  Secondly, rural schools are faced with high state and national standards that they struggle to meet due to funding issues.  Thirdly, schools have a harder time keeping and attracting teachers due to a number of reasons: low pay, limited mobility, lack of professional development opportunities, etc.  There are some benefits of rural schools, however: smaller class sizes and high community involvement due to the traditional values in the students homes and families.

Article Summaries Continued

Reid, H., & Lincoln, B. (2008). Strengthening rural America. United States Congress.

In rural America, students and districts are faced with difficult situations everyday.  It is difficult for districts to maintain and attract highly qualified teachers due to the limited funding available to them.  Funding also becomes an issue for maintaining and purchasing new school buses as they wear faster due to the extreme distances they must drive each school year.

Article Summaries Continued

Faircloth, S.C.  (2009).  Re-visioning the future of education for  Native youth in rural schools and communities.  Journal of Research in Rural Education 24(9).  In rural setting this native author felt that her education did not help her to globalize outside of her rural community.  She felt that to her teachers she would be successful in graduating and learning how to live in her community.  She went to college and proceeded to get her doctorate and her struggle now is to return home to the community. She feels it is important for students to learn how to live both in their community and in a globalized world. Barlow, D.  (2008).  America's forgotten schools.  The Education digest 73(8), 67-70.  Rural school districts have to decide how to spend their funding, because many rural districts are spread out they spend more money on transportation that could be used for valuable educational tools.  While it studies show great value in smaller school settings it is hard for rural schools to get the funding needed to teach their students.  One suggestion would be for state policy makers to look at and restructure how they allocate funds.  

Article Summaries ContinuedRude, H.A., Whetstone, P.J. (2008). Ethical considerations for special educators in rural America. Rural Special Education Quarterly 27(1/2), 10-18.     Concerns about whether children wth special needs are receiving an education they deserve in Rural schools.  Teachers, administrators, and special educators need apply ethical behaviors when considering processes, teaching, research, and creating policies that affect special needs students.   Zacharakis, J., Devin, M., Miller, T. (2008). Political economy of rural schools in the heartland. Rural Special Education Quarterly, 27(3), 16-22.    A rural communities are starting to decline.  Rural communities cannot depend on international businesses to locate to their communities and they need to learn how to create opportunities within their communities.  Schools contribute to the community by providing opportunities for lifelong learning, they become community centers, and they allow for students to become entrepreneurs. 

Article Summaries Continued

Wright, K.A. (2007).  Reenergizing small communities: A vital role for rural schools. The Educational Forum, 71(4), 345-360.   Schools have become an important part of a rural communities infrastructure. Schools have become a place for lifetime learning, a place for community organizations, and help create a collective value.  A school in a rural setting needs to help preserve the values of the local cultures as well as prepare the students for a globalized world.

Bibliography 1. Aberg-Bengtsson, L. (2009). The smaller the better? A review of research on

small rural schools in sweeden. International Journal of Education , 48, 100-108.

2. Barlow, D.  (2008).  America's forgotten schools.  The Education digest 73(8), 67-70.

3. Blankenau, J. (2009). Nutrition, physical activity, and obesity in rural America. Center for Rural Affairs.

4. Bull, A. (n.d.). Learning circles. Retrieved October 14th, 2009, from NALD: www.nald.ca/learningcircles/index.htm

5. Browne-Ferrigno, T. (2005). Meeting the learning needs of students: A rural high need school districts systematic LDI. The Rural Educator.

6. Carpenter, M. (2001, June 12). Rural school districts stuggle with funding, bias in teaching gifted students. Pittsburgh Post Gazette . Pittsburgh, PA, USA.

7. Dewees, S. (1999). Improving rural school facilities for teaching and learning. ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools. 

  

Bibliography Continued8.    Doeden, C. L. (2000). Community-based education and rural development. Nebraska: Neighborhood Funders  Group.9.    Faircloth, S.C.  (2009).  Re-visioning the future of education for  Native youth in rural schools and communities.  Journal of Research in Rural Education 24(9). 10.    Lambert, M. S. (2009). Searching for Hamlet: To be or not to be for rural education. Rural Policy Matters , 11 (7), 2-5.11.    Lawrence, B. (2009). Rural Gifted Education:  A  comprehensive literature review. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 32(4).   12.    Farmer, T.W., et al. (2006).  Adequate yearly progress in small rural schools and rural low-income schools. The Rural Educator. 13.    Haas, T. (1990). Leaving home: circumstances afflicting rural America education equation.  Peabody Journal of Education, 67. 14.    Harmon, H.L. (2002). Educational issues in rural schools in America. Educational Resources Information Center. 

Bibliography Continued15.    Herzog, J.M., Pittman, B. R. (1995). Home, family, and communty: Ingredients in the rural education equation. Phi Delta Kappan, 77. 16.    Reid, H., & Lincoln, B. (2008). Strengthening rural America. United States Congress. 17.    Rude, H.A., Whetstone, P.J. (2008). Ethical considerations for special educators in rural America. Rural Special Education Quarterly 27(1/2), 10-18.18.   Wright, K.A. (2007).  Reenergizing small communities: A vital role for rural schools. The Educational Forum, 71(4), 345-360. 19.    Woodrum, A. (2009). Cultural identity and schooling in rural New Mexico. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 24(8).  20.    Zacharakis, J., Devin, M., Miller, T. (2008). Political economy of rural schools in the heartland. Rural Special Education Quarterly, 27(3), 16-22.