The Coalition of Essential Schools and Rural Educational Reform

Jim La Prad

doi:10.35608/ruraled.v36i3.319

Abstract

The Coalition of Essential Schools (CES) has existed for thirty years and includes hundreds of public schools that are diverse in size, population, and programmatic emphasis. A qualitative grounded theory approach is utilized to describe how three rural (non-urban/suburban) high schools operationalize CES Common Principles. This research documents that the CES reform network may be both a viable and underutilized reform model for rural school districts to assist them in achieving educational excellence. Empirical data came from school site visits, interviews and school documents. Grounded theory identifies four working hypothesis that explain how these schools, as CES members, aim to be true to the Coalition’s principles. The working hypotheses are: (1) Educational justice, democracy, and citizenship, (2) The educational value of interpersonal relationships between teachers and students, (3) Pedagogical and curricular organization to enhance student engagement and learning, and (4) Pathways to adulthood via the world.

Highlights

Rural Educational Reform?Unlike many reform efforts in urban or suburban school districts, rural educational reform has taken different routes
Often rural school districts are the largest employer in the area and along with the waves of federal and state educational mandates, are faced with consolidation issues that place educational reform agendas on the distant ‘back burners,’ ; close to one-fourth of all United States students attend a rural school and the quality of their education matters (Johnson, Showalter, Klein, & Lester, 2014)
The second, and perhaps more important goal, is to enable each student to reflect on his or her education and how prepared he or she is for the responsibilities of democratic citizenship, and the world of work, and a life of learning (John Dewey High School, 2012a, p. 17)

Summary

Introduction

Unlike many reform efforts in urban or suburban school districts, rural educational reform has taken different routes. Kannapel (2000) was cautiously hopeful that some middle ground could be found between standards-based reform and rural school improvement efforts. What I have witnessed is regional educational leaders struggling to meet AYP under the standards based accountability movements and complaining that state legislators are driving education into the ground. Schafft (2010) and Powell, Higgins, Aran and Freed (2009) explain that the current standardized accountability movement has had devastating effects on rural schools by weakening educational programs, disempowering educational leaders, demoralizing teachers, and disengaging students. Many of the rural students along with their urban and suburban counterparts attend schools that struggle to provide the educational experiences that develop the knowledge and skills necessary for the engaged citizenship our twenty-first century democracy demands (Brown, 2014; Trilling & Fadel, 2009; Wagner, 2008)

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