November 2007

Copyright
© 2007
Queue, Inc.

In Georgia, Low Rural Student Achievement Linked to Resources, Challenges

Georgia’s rural schools produce some of the worst student achievement outcomes in the country, and face an uphill battle to reverse that trend. That is because they serve a student population with the severest socio-economic challenges in the country, and they operate with less money than rural schools in other states. These realities help rank Georgia 12th in the U.S. in need of rural education attention and improvement, according to multiple criteria used in the 2007 edition of Why Rural Matters, the fourth report in a biennial research series from the Rural School and Community Trust. The reports provide essential information on the condition of rural education in the 50 states. Georgia receives this high ranking for many reasons. Nearly one-third of all public school students in Georgia attend rural schools—the third largest rural student population in the country, at almost half a million students. Minority and English Language Learner enrollment is also high in rural areas, as is the percentage of students who qualify for subsidized meals, at almost 46%. Educational attainment among rural adults, a factor in student achievement, is among the nation’s lowest, and only about 55% of current students graduate from high school in four years—the second worst rate in the country. The size Schools and district size—other factors in student achievement—in rural areas are about 7.5 times larger than the national median (the fourth largest nationally). So it is no surprise that Georgia’s rural student scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress are among the lowest for rural students in the U.S.

A biennial report issued by the Rural School and Community Trust uncovered new trends and challenges facing rural educators. Overall, enrollment in rural schools is up by 15%—a reversal of the year-over-year declines these communities have seen. While overall enrollment is on the rise the most startling data revealed in the new report, Why Rural Matters 2007, is the 55% increase in rural minority students, with some states experiencing increases of over 100%.

Why Rural Matters 2007: The Realities of Rural Education Growth also serves as a reminder that many rural schools continue to face a number of challenges, including high poverty levels, low student achievement, low teacher salaries and uneven distribution of Title I funds.

 In Why Rural Matters 2007, the Rural Trust uses the Rural Education Priority Gauge to assess and rank the overall performance of rural schools in all states. Based on an in-depth analysis comprised of 23 equally weighted indicators, the report prioritizes the needs of rural schools using five gauges: (1) importance of rural education, (2) socioeconomic challenges, (3) student diversity, (4) policy context, and (5) educational outcomes. The higher the ranking on a gauge, the more important, or the more urgent rural education matters are in that state. While no single state appeared at the top of each list, Mississippi, Alabama, Arizona, and North Carolina all scored the highest in at least four gauges.

By applying the Rural Education Priority Gauge, the report cites that the priority states where rural schools produce the worst student achievement outcomes also face an uphill battle to reverse that trend.

Most priority states serve student populations with the severest socio-economic challenges—especially high poverty levels—and they operate with less money than rural schools in other states. Those states are located in four rural education regions: the Southwest (Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas), the Southeast (North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and Georgia), the Mid-South Delta (Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana), and Appalachia (Kentucky and Tennessee).

Specific findings and trends discussed in Why Rural Matters 2007 include:

• Poorer and more diverse rural communities generate the lowest NAEP scores in the country. The 12 states with the lowest average NAEP scores also have high socioeconomic challenges and high student diversity (Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and West Virginia).
• Rural graduation rates are below 70% in ten states, most of which are in the Southeast: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. South Carolina leads the nation with the lowest rate at 55%. Some states with the highest overall graduation rates—Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa, Utah, Wyoming—also had the largest “graduation gaps” between white and minority students, with the graduation rate for minorities between 50-60%.
• Recruiting and retaining high quality teachers is an acute challenge for rural schools. Teacher salaries are lowest in the 13 states through the nation’s heartland (North Dakota, South Dakota, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Nebraska, Tennessee, Montana, Louisiana, Iowa, and Kansas).
• Between 2002-03 and 2004-05, enrollment in schools located in communities of fewer than 2,500 increased by 1,339,000 (or 15%). Enrollment for schools in communities of greater than 2,500 decreased by over 738,000 students—a 2% decrease—during the same time period. While declining enrollment remains a significant factor in some rural school districts, this represents a reversal of fortunes for rural schools overall.
• The population of rural English Language Learner (ELL) students is also sizable and growing. Rural ELL enrollment in the U.S. has increased dramatically in recent decades, more than doubling in the 15-year period between 1989-90 and 2004-05—a rate of increase more than seven times higher than the rate of increase for total student enrollment.
• Southern states have the lowest per pupil instructional expenditures. Nearly 50% of all ELL students live in rural communities in this region where states are ill-equipped to serve these students and where school face some of the most severe socioeconomic challenges.

In the report, the Rural Trust offers some policy considerations to help improve the outlook for rural education, including:

• Keep schools small. Research shows there are academic benefits for students attending small schools in small districts. Congress and state legislators should find ways to replicate advantages of large-scale systems without losing the intimacy, accountability, and cost-effective educational strategy of small schools.
• Concentrate resources in high poverty areas. The cost of teaching low-income children rises disproportionately as the poverty rate increases; more student support per pupil in schools with high poverty rates is needed.
• Maximize rural school effectiveness and efficiency with technology. Distance learning has been proven to be effective in meeting needs of rural communities. Additional financial and policy assistance is needed to develop and maintain adequate technology infrastructure, interlocal cooperation, and program coordination to support distance learning among clusters of schools.

The 2007 edition of Why Rural Matters is the fourth report in a biennial research series from the Rural School and Community Trust, but it is not a longitudinal study. Rather it is a snapshot of rural education using a changing set of indicators that reveal the complexity and diversity of rural education. The reports provide essential information on the condition of rural education in the 50 states.

The full text: http://files.ruraledu.org/wrm07/press/why_rural_matters_press_release.pdf

The full text is available at
http://www.ruraledu.org/site/apps/nl/content.asp?c=beJMIZOCIrH&b=3508831&ct=4537855

Georgia Principal Named 2008 MetLife/NASSP National High School Principal of the Year

Molly Howard, principal of Jefferson County High School in Louisville, Georgia, has been named the 2008 MetLife/National Association of Secondary School Principals National High School Principal of the Year. Howard has been at the helm of Jefferson County High since 1995, the year in which two county high schools were closed and consolidated, with mixed community reaction, to form Jefferson County High. Arriving during this very traumatic event in the community forced Howard to work even harder to assure residents that the change would be a good one.

Since then, Howard and her dedicated staff have changed the culture of learning in the school, by setting higher expectations and eliminating all lower level courses. When she arrived, only 20 percent of the school’s students were high achieving, 10 percent joined the military or attended technical schools and 70 percent graduated without seeking higher collegiate achievement. When Jefferson was built in 1995, over half of the county’s adult population didn’t have a high school education. Howard was determined to change that statistic.

Since Howard’s arrival, students now start the 9th grade at Jefferson taking college preparatory level English, math, science and social studies. Howard and her staff have turned Jefferson into a true professional community, implementing several strategies to increase collaboration among teachers in order to best serve the student population. An “Algebra That Works” (ATW) program was initiated, breaking Algebra I into four units and allowing students a greater chance of mastering the course. The results have been undeniable. Before the ATW program, during the 2003-2004 school year, only 41.7 percent of students at Jefferson met or exceeded the state-mandated end-of-course test for Algebra. During the 2006-2007 school year, 68 percent of students met or exceeded the standards.

Reading Across the Nation

Reading Across the Nation is designed as a resource for policymakers and professionals who are working to optimize the early language and literacy experiences of young children. By presenting “reading snapshots” for each state, with comparative rankings on literacy indicators, this chartbook will be a useful tool for policy makers and program planners as they consider how to make investments in the early years to enhance literacy and language development. The charts provide detailed state by state information about whether parents are meeting the basic recommendation of daily reading aloud to their children.

Data on frequency of reading to young children are from the National Survey of Children’s Health (2003), in which families of a nationally representative sample of children were interviewed by telephone about early childhood routines (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2005). For each state, data are also presented on fourth grade reading performance from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) (2005). Reach Out and Read (ROR) National Center data (2007) and US census data (2000) are used to derive proportions of young children ages 0-5 years in each state who are served by ROR, both in the general population and for those families living in or near poverty. Data are also presented on the ratio of young children to libraries for each state.

The Problem: Children entering school not ready to learn

Up to one-third of American children enter kindergarten lacking at least some of the skills needed for a successful learning experience. For too many children, the preschool years have left them without the language skills necessary for literacy acquisition. When children are poor readers by the end of first grade, they are likely to remain so in fourth grade. Interventions in the early years that promote language development are powerful, cost-effective routes to improved school performance. The National Research Council’s Committee on the Prevention of Reading Difficulties in Young Children stated that most reading difficulties can be prevented by promoting language and literacy development. Snow CE, Burns S, Griffin P (Eds) (1998) 

The Solution: Parents reading aloud

Parents reading frequently to their children provide language and literacy skills that help children learn to read. Helping children to prepare for the challenge of learning to read before school entry is better than helping them catch up later. Reading aloud is the single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading. Early language skills, the foundation for later reading ability, are based primarily on language exposure and human interaction – parents and other adults talking to young children. The more words parents use when speaking to an eight-month-old infant, the greater the size of the child’s vocabulary at age three. Many children from low-income families hear fewer.

Georgia Report: http://healthychild.ucla.edu/ROR/States/Georgia.pdf

Two Title I Schools Receive National Honor

Two Georgia schools have been selected for national recognition as outstanding Title I schools. International Community School in DeKalb County and J.S. Pate Elementary School in Crisp County are Georgia's first National Title I Distinguished schools. The two national award recipients were among 805 schools identified as Georgia Title I Distinguished Schools. To be considered distinguished, a school must have made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) under No Child Left Behind for at least three years.

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY SCHOOL
   The International Community School in DeKalb County is a K-6 charter school established in 2002 and serves a very diverse student population. They are being recognized for significantly closing the achievement gap between economically-disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students.

J.S. PATE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
   J.S. Pate Elementary School, a K-2 school in Crisp County, is being honored for making Adequate Yearly Progress for 9 consecutive years and having the highest combined reading and math scores in 2007. With more than 75 percent of its students receiving free and reduced lunch, J.S. Pate has had extremely high test scores. This past school year, 97 percent of the Pate's students passed state tests in Reading and English Language Arts and 92 percent passed in mathematics.

Forsyth County Schools Choose Algebra Program

Tabula Digita, an educational gaming company delivering pre-algebra and algebra software programs to K-12 schools and districts, has announced new sales to 75 schools in eight states – including  Georgia.

“Prior to purchasing DimensionM, we had been actively researching interactive technology and virtual environments for teaching and learning in our schools – we are always striving to stay ahead of our students’ needs,” said Jill Hobson, director of instructional technology for Forsyth County Schools in Georgia. “What we found with the Tabula Digita products was very compelling. They truly allow us the opportunity to teach our students in a more intuitive and exciting manner. Students and teachers alike are totally engaged with these educational games."

The DimensionM educational video games embed pre-algebra and algebra lessons within cutting-edge, three-dimensional settings. Middle school and high school students learn multifaceted mathematical concepts by completing “missions” or lessons in a reality-based environment. Here they challenge themselves in single-player format or they can challenge other students in a fast-paced, tournament-style set-up. The gaming programs correlate to the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) and state standards and target key objectives covered on state tests.