Small School District Research Articles

Remote Schooling During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Rural Latino Caregiver Perspectives and Experiences

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic forced more than 50 million students and their families to adapt to remote schooling. Most disrupted were communities of color, who faced multiple and overlapping inequalities in digital and equipment access, exposing and exacerbating existing disparities. Conducted in a small rural school district, this study surveyed the experiences of rural Spanish-speaking Latino caregivers. A total of 104 caregivers responded to a survey assessing caregiver digital literacy and access, school support, caregiver-teacher relationship and communication, and caregiver values, expectations, and teaching efficacy. Findings highlighted wide disparities in digital access and availability of equipment or devices compared to recent reports of more affluent White caregivers. Findings also highlighted that strong caregiver-teacher relationships were important for helping caregivers to navigate children’s instruction during remote instruction. While student learning losses have yet to be fully assessed, hints at the full impact of school closures for rural linguistically and culturally diverse families are available from other countries, and they suggest that learning losses will be much greater for children from disadvantaged families than the population at large.

Exploring the demographics of teachers who experience secondary traumatic stress

BackgroundOver the last decade, the prevalence of childhood and adolescent trauma has continued to gain public notice, forcing educational systems to explore the impact of these traumas on students, teachers, and schools. Some have implemented trauma-informed practices that are purported to be effective for supporting students in classrooms. Researchers have explored the possibility of its adverse effect on teachers as secondary traumatic stress. This study aimed to explore Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS) in classroom teachers in one small urban school district. STS is said to capture how professionals working closely with traumatized populations are impacted by witnessing their clients' experiences. This phenomenon has adversely affected attrition in other helping professions yet is only recently the focus of educational research.MethodsThe author administered an attitudinal survey to measure levels of STS in one small, urban school district in the U.S. The population sample in this study mirrored that of the district's population and that of national demographics of teachers in the U.S. Descriptive statistics were used to run regression analysis against the STS data.ResultsThe findings showed that most teachers experience STS levels within the normal range. White, working-class elementary school teachers experienced higher levels of STS than their K-12 classroom teacher peers.ImplicationsThe results support a need to continue research on the impact of STS on teachers. Further investigations could inform teacher preparation programs and professional development to identify practices that can help mitigate STS in teachers.

Caring through Crisis: Supporting African Immigrant Students and Educators during the COVID-19 Pandemic

All human beings need care, including professional caregivers such as educators. What happens when a global crisis places care providers; own care needs in conflict with their duty and desire to provide care? In this article, we apply care ethics to a school district's decisions regarding newcomer English learners (ELs) and their educators during the 2020-2021 academic year. Drawing on qualitative case study data from a larger multi-district, multi-state study, we examine how educators and administrators in a small urban school district in New England make sense of students' and educators' sometimes conflicting care needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. We argue that even school districts with clear commitments to equity and justice have their efforts severely limited by state and federal leadership's neglect of care/essential workers, youth, and marginalized groups. To end the ongoing pandemic and prevent future harm, we recommend that educational and political leaders prioritize human needs and relationships through a move towards "universal care" (Chatzidakis et al., 2020).

Similarity of friends versus nonfriends in adolescence: Developmental patterns and ecological influences.

This study examines developmental change across adolescence in the similarity of friends versus nonfriends. This differential in similarity is a key aspect of the organization of the peer context of development: The stronger the correlation between friends for an attribute, the more the attribute delineates clustering and divisions of friendships. We investigated change in the correlation between friends across 12 attributes covering demographics, orientations to key institutions (family, school, religion), and problem behavior, and we expected that the link between similarity and friendship would increase during adolescence for most attributes other than gender. We also predicted that the social ecological factors of school size and attribute variability would be associated with stronger correlations between friends and partially mediate developmental change. Data are from two grade cohorts of 27 small school districts, followed from sixth through 11th grades (N = 454 time-specific networks and over 65,000 person/waves of data; 84.2% White, 6.8% Hispanic/Latino, 3.2% African American, 1.3% Asian, .5% Native American, 3.9% other or multiple). The data analysis takes the form of a three-level random effects meta-analysis of network level correlations between friends (Moran's I). As expected, declining dominance of gender was offset by the emergence of moderate correlations across a broader profile of attributes. The ecological opportunity factors of grade cohort size and attribute variability significantly mediated these increases in correlations between friends, accounting for 23 to 73% of age-related change for 10 of the 11 attributes other than gender. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Building Sustainable Models of Research-Practice Partnerships Within Educational Systems.

To describe the 9-year journey of a group of language and literacy researchers in establishing and cultivating Research-Practice Partnerships (RPPs). Those interested in incorporating implementation science frameworks in their research may benefit from reading our exploration into this type of work and our lessons learned. We showcase how a group of researchers, who are committed to collaboration with school practitioners, navigated building and scaling RPPs within educational systems necessary for our long-term implementation work. We provide details and illustrative examples for three, distinct, mutually beneficial, and sustainable partnerships. Three different practice organizations are represented: (1) a single metropolitan school, (2) a small metropolitan school district, and (3) a large metropolitan school district, highlighting specific priorities and needs depending on the type of practice organization. Each partnership has distinct research and practice goals related to improving language and literacy outcomes in children. We describe how the researchers assisted with meeting the partner practice organizations' goals and engaged in capacity building while producing rigorous scientific knowledge to inform clinical and educational practice. Additionally, we discuss how research priorities and strategies were pivoted in the past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, illustrating our commitment to the partnerships and how to respond to challenges to guarantee long-term sustainability. By discussing three distinctive partnerships, we demonstrate the various ways researchers can approach RPPs and grow them into mutually beneficial collaborations and support implementation goals.

Implementation of Trauma-Informed Care in a Urban School District

The purpose of this study was to examine faculty, staff, and administrative perceptions regarding implementation of trauma-informed care (TIC) in a small suburban school district. All employees of the district were invited to participate, with 91 submitting completed surveys. Participants completed the ARTIC-35 to measure perceptions of TIC. While no significant differences were found for the total or subscale scores, findings indicated the staff, as a whole, had positive perceptions of the program. Based on these findings, it appears that professional development before and during the program helped staff become more responsive to students who had experienced trauma.

An Indigenous Community’s Fight for Cultural Continuity and Educational Equity With/In and Against a New England School District

Background/Context: Indigenous communities of the “Americas” have a long history of exercising sovereignty over and self-determination in the education of their children that predates colonial invasion. This was disrupted by the advent of colonial education and its assimilationist aims, and Indigenous communities have been in an ongoing battle to reclaim and recenter Indigenous knowledge, culture, and values in teaching and learning. This research describes one community’s fight for cultural revitalization and educational equity in the schools their children attend. Focus of Study/Research Questions: This study explored Indigenous parents’ and community leaders’ engagement within, against, and beyond the public schools their children attend, centering their perspectives, priorities, and practices. It explored the questions: What are Indigenous parents’ and community leaders’ engagement practices? Are their engagement practices culturally sustaining/revitalizing? How so, and/or why not? Setting: The research site was a small New England school district and town that is home to a Wampanoag tribe that has inhabited the area for 12,000 years and whose children represent the largest group of students of color in the local public schools. Research Design: This qualitative, exploratory case study foregrounded, privileged, and normalized Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing in research using Indigenous protocols, such as relationality and relational accountability, and Indigenous methodologies that included semi-structured conversations and talking circles. Findings/Results: Together, Native parents, through their focus on inequitable and exclusionary practices, and Native community leaders, through their mission to expand language and culture-centric curricula and programming, are challenging and fighting to change the overall objectives of colonial education in the schools their children attend. Separately, Native parents are experiencing more resistance from educators for their failure to comply with racialized and classist rules and expectations of engagement. Moreover, the advocacy efforts of Native leaders may be hampered by a lack of parent and student voice and contributions. Conclusions/Recommendations: We learned from the participants in this study that merging efforts and collectively holding schools accountable may be an essential move in creating and sustaining an education system that meets all their wishes and needs. This includes viewing parents and students as valuable knowledge holders who should be consulted and listened to in matters that concern and impact them. In addition, local school districts must do more than just respond affirmatively to and support community members’ initiative(s); they must also be the initiators and funders of changes that dismantle policies, practices, curricula, programming, and instruction that uphold a colonized school system.

“Much more chewing”: a case study of resistance to school reform in rural New York during the early twentieth century

ABSTRACT Between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as the United States was transformed from an agrarian nation to an industrial one, significant changes in the nation’s economic, social, and political structures, and the challenges that ensued, led to a multitude of diverse reform movements and a surge of regulatory measures from the federal and state governments. State governments played a particularly significant role in education reform by establishing new standards and regulations and taking steps to implement them in the nation’s schools. State education officials often met with resistance to reform from the residents of small rural school districts, who had enjoyed a long history of local control and resented the state’s interference. Conflict became more complicated when the residents within a rural community differed among themselves about school reform. This historical study investigates and analyses two documented disputes between the New York State Education Department and two common school districts in the Town of Conklin, Broome County, which occurred during the early 1900s. The physical condition of the schoolhouses led to both conflicts, and rural school consolidation and community infighting were additional factors that marked the second dispute. Both cases highlight the forces of local democratic governance and the central authority of the state over local schools and its role in the process of school reform. The Conklin cases are discussed and analysed within the larger contexts of localism, state-local tensions during the Progressive Era, rural school consolidation, and the reform initiatives of the New York State Education Department during this historical period.

School Assignment by Match Quality

Proponents of school choice argue that it improves educational outcomes by allowing parents to self-select into schools that are most effective for their children. Contrary to these arguments, empirical evidence suggests that parents may not incorporate school effectiveness or match quality when choosing schools. The findings potentially impugn proponents' effectiveness arguments of choice-based assignment. We develop novel solutions that restore effectiveness by maximizing match quality subject to stability constraints. Maximization algorithms are provided for both small and large school districts. Simulations reveal substantial match quality gains from our solutions compared to the celebrated Deferred Acceptance mechanism with a random tie-breaker. Our methodology can be used to optimize for other policy objectives in school choice or other priority-based matching problems. Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.

A Post-Hoc Comparison of Two Sexual Health Curricula on Sexual Health Knowledge, Perception, and Attitudes

A post-hoc study was conducted to ascertain the effect of comprehensive sex education on of 7th graders’ knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes regarding sexual health and sexual identities in a small city school district in the Midwest USA. All five middle schools in the district participated, three of which used a comprehensive curriculum and two taught their existing curriculum. A total of 260 online surveys were completed by the 7th graders through Qualtrics. Chi-square tests were conducted, and the outcome showed a statistically significant difference in student perception and attitudes regarding sexual identity and orientation between the two curriculum groups. The comprehensive curriculum group scored higher than the existing curriculum group on items that indicate openness and respect regarding diversity in sexual identities and orientation. Given that LGBTQ+ students are at a greater risk to engage in self-harm and suicidal attempts, the outcome potentially suggests that a more open and accepting school atmosphere can be created by the implementation of a comprehensive sexual health curriculum. It implies that a purposive, systematic, and longitudinal effort to provide comprehensive sexual health education could also help reduce the challenges LGBTQ+ youth face outside of school.

ONLINE LEARNING IN EDUCATION SECTOR REVEALING THE BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES

COVID-19 pandemic has led to secure disruptions in normal life, including closure of schools. It has impacted over 240 million children of the country who are enrolled in schools. Extended school closures may cause loss of learning. Online courses have the potential to open the pathways for more opportunities for students in “small, rural, or low socioeconomic school districts”. Online courses offer an excellent way for students to expand their educational opportunities and keep on competitive in the ever challenging realm of education. Students embarking on the path of higher education through online coursework need to be self-motivated, independent, and responsible learners. Understanding one’s learning style and skills will allow students to more accurately determine if online learning is suitable for them. Instructors and course designers will also benefit from understanding the aspects of a course that increase students’ understanding and participation. Communication in terms of supportive comments, constructive criticism, and prompt feedback from instructors to students is a key component of online courses. There are a number of drawbacks and potential issues that students may face while participating in an online course.

Toward a System of Evidence for All: Current Practices and Future Opportunities in 37 Randomized Trials

As a result of the evidence-based decision-making movement, the number of randomized trials evaluating educational programs and curricula has increased dramatically over the past 20 years. Policy makers and practitioners are encouraged to use the results of these trials to inform their decision making in schools and school districts. At the same time, however, little is known about the schools taking part in these randomized trials, both regarding how and why they were recruited and how they compare to populations in need of research. In this article, we report on a study of 37 cluster randomized trials funded by the Institute of Education Sciences between 2011 and 2015. Principal investigators of these grants were interviewed regarding the recruitment process and practices. Additionally, data on the schools included in 34 of these studies were analyzed to determine the general demographics of schools included in funded research, as well as how these samples compare to important policy relevant populations. We show that the types of schools included in research differ in a variety of ways from these populations. Large schools from large school districts in urban areas were overrepresented, whereas schools from small school districts in rural areas and towns are underrepresented. The article concludes with a discussion of how recruitment practices might be improved in order to meet the goals of the evidence-based decision-making movement.

Impact of a District-Wide One-to-One Technology Initiative on Kindergartners’ Engagement and Learning Outcomes

ABSTRACT Interest in providing one-to-one technology to students is increasing, particularly in low-income schools. This study examined the impact of one such approach on kindergartners’ math and literacy development during an academic year in a small urban public school district. A district-wide outreach program provided tablets to every kindergarten student in the district. Classrooms were randomly assigned within schools to receive either: (1) just the tablets or (2) tablets loaded with digital resources supporting foundational math skills. Qualitative data indicated that teachers appreciated having the tablets and believed that the resources improved instruction. Unexpectedly, findings indicated that while children’s literacy skills may have benefited from access to the digital math resources, their math skills did not. Overall use of the digital math resources was low in treatment classrooms. Digital resources show some promise in impacting some children’s foundational skills, but access to resources alone was not enough to improve targeted skills.

Policy Storms at the Central Office: Conflicting Narratives of Racial Equity and Segregation at School Committee Meetings

This article reports findings from a multiyear critical ethnography that examined race talk dilemmas of school leaders at the central office at a small urban school district to understand why racialized educational policies and practices still persist against African American students. This study takes a structural approach to investigating the impact that race talk has on educational policymaking at the local district level. The guiding research question in this paper examines how we can understand educational reform and policy implementation and the unintended consequences of those interventions through the local from a historical context.

Teachers Bridging the Digital Divide in Rural Schools with 1:1 Computing

This article shares the findings of a mixed method study about the implementation of 1:1 computing in a small rural Florida school district. Researchers used multiple regression analyses to examine whether Davis’ (1989) Technology Acceptance Model helped explain teachers’ adoption of 1:1. The results indicated that the rural teachers’ perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of 1:1 were significant predictors of both whole class and individualized instructions with 1:1. The qualitative phase of the study explored the ways in which the teachers integrated 1:1 into their instructional practices and what factors motivated them to do so. The analysis showed that the teachers used 1:1 largely to foster digital literacy and collaboration as well as to conduct student assessment. Reasons why the teachers integrated 1:1 into instruction included increasing student engagement, personalizing learning, and facilitating teacher productivity.

Nevertheless, they persisted: How a group of ‘noisy moms’ overcame dismissal and helped to improve school food in a US small city school district

The feeding of children has long been a gendered project and women have historically led the charge in most US school food activism. I center the pivotal role of women volunteers in the initiation, equitable distribution, and quality monitoring of school food, showing how this work continues today through a case study of women school food activists. This paper is based on an ethnographic case study of a small and dedicated group of mothers who labored for nearly a decade to improve school food in a school district of a small city in the Pacific Northwest. My analysis highlights some ways the mothers’ efforts to improve school food were discounted. I consider factors that contributed to their sidelining, noting that even deeply knowledgeable, active, and involved parents may be unable to impact major and/or immediate changes in school food, and that mothers can be discounted because of their positionality as mothers. I share how, through long-term persistence, the women created a path for progress that ultimately led to major change in the district’s school food, yet their key role in laying groundwork for the change remained largely unrecognized.

An Examination of an Evidence-Based Literacy Program in Rural Georgia

A small rural school district in the southwestern part of the United States required teachers to provide highly effective literacy instruction by implementing an evidence-based reading program called Journeys. With consistently low reading achievement, it was unclear whether teachers were implementing Journeys as prescribed. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore teacher implementation of the Journeys program for students at an elementary school in the district. The theoretical framework used to guide the study was Clay’s emergent literacy theory. The conceptual framework included five strands of the Journeys reading curriculum, which was derived from Clay’s theory. A modified formative program evaluation case study was conducted. Nine teachers who had taught reading and two administrators who supervised reading teachers were purposefully selected for semi-structured interviews. Coding and analysis of interview data indicated that more than half of the teachers were not implementing Journeys with fidelity. Themes that emerged from the interviews were; inconsistent understanding of evidence-based literacy instruction, lack of collaborative planning, teacher’s use of an alternate phonics-based resource, focus on technology integration, lack of teacher buy-in, and lack of teacher training in implementation of the Journeys program. Based on findings, a 3-day professional development training was developed to provide training in implementing Journeys’ underlying evidence-based strategies. In regard to social change, the study findings could assist school leaders in determining guidelines for the implementation of evidence-based reading curricula. The study findings could assist school leaders and teachers in effective implementation of Journeys and providing quality literacy instruction to enhance student learning in the district. Keywords: Journeys, evidence-based reading, fidelity, reading achievement, reading levels DOI : 10.7176/JEP/11-2-09 Publication date: January 31 st 2020

Overcoming Michigan’s Homework Gap: The Role of Broadband Internet Connectivity for Student Success and Career Outlooks

Differences in home Internet access have direct and indirect effects on K-12 student educational achievements. Much of the attention during the past years has been on the homework gap, disadvantages to students of lacking or poor Internet connectivity at home for the completion of homework assignments. Our research, based on a detailed survey of 3,258 students in grades 8-11 in small town and rural Michigan school districts, shows that the homework gap is real even after controlling for socioeconomic and other factors. It also shows that disparities in home Internet connectivity are associated, directly and indirectly, with much broader student performance gaps. They are associated with the development of digital skills, grades, standardized test scores, career orientation, and interest in pursuing post-secondary education. These challenges require a portfolio of responses, including coordinated efforts by local, state and federal policymakers to mitigate broadband infrastructure access and affordability gaps. They also require measures to make appropriate access devices available and the facilitation of skills and practices to take advantage of the opportunities offered by digitally supported teaching and learning.

When “College and Career Ready” Means Only (or Mostly) College Ready: Perspectives From Stakeholders in Six Rural and Small Communities

ABSTRACT This study of rural stakeholders’ perspectives related to college and career readiness exposes a nuanced dynamic that extends beyond pragmatic concerns for preparing rural students for the future. As college preparatory courses “crowded out” Career and Technical Education (CTE) offerings, stakeholders voiced a concomitant sense of losing something they described as real-life, relevant, and rural. Viewing extra-local policy as deforming local schooling and disembedding it from the community, stakeholders in the six rural and small school districts studied appear to be confined by three forms of binary thinking in their effort to provide a rural-responsive education.

Leadership Challenges During a Period of Change: Unpacking a District’s Efforts to Diversify Its Teacher Workforce

A superintendent initiates an equity focus in a small school district and experiences resistance from both school board members and principals. As the school district diversifies its teaching workforce, the superintendent and principals face myriad unexpected challenges, resulting in teachers of color resigning at three times the rate of White teachers. This case study (a) is designed for students in both school- and district-level preparation programs, (b) directly connects to National Educational Leadership Preparation (NELP) standards, and (c) encourages students to consider the multifaceted leadership challenges involved in talent management and large-scale change through several lenses.