Transcript The Rural Education Center

National Research Center on Rural
Education Support
The Early School
Transition Collaborative
NRCRES: Early School Transition
Collaborative
Lynne Vernon-Feagans, PI
Kirsten Kainz
Barbara Wasik
Joe Sparling
Kate Gallagher
Steve Knotek
Marnie Ginsberg
Pledger Fedora
Steve Amendum
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to improve the
teaching strategies of rural kindergarten
and first grade teachers in the areas of
literacy and behavior management, with a
specific focus on children who have been
identified as struggling learners.
Overview
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Rationale for focusing on Rural Schools
Rationale for the importance of the Transition to School
Rationale for teaching strategies for Struggling Learners
Rationale for the content of Literacy and Behavior
Research Design
School Characteristics
Professional Development Collaboration
Teacher and Child Outcomes
Progress of the project
Demonstration of teacher strategies with struggling learners
Justification of Focus on Rural Schools
• 40% of public schools are in non-metro areas,
depending on your definition of metro.
• Rural schools generally have fewer resources
• Rural teachers indicate that distance is a factor that
prevents them from pursuing professional
development opportunities
• Rural schools often have the inability to attract and
retain high quality teachers
• Economic strategies have resulted in the closing of
community schools that have forced many children to
ride buses long distances.
• Most of the research about children at risk for poor
school outcomes is based on studies of urban children
• Almost half of all poor children live in rural areas.
• Children in non-urban areas on average are more poor
than children in urban areas
• There is some evidence that there may be different risk
and protective factors in urban versus rural areas
Percent of Children Living in Poverty
1959-2004
Percent of Children Living in
Poverty in Metro and nonMetro
Risk Factors Associated with
Non-Urban Life
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More maternal depression
More tobacco use
More alcohol and prescription drug abuse
Less access to health and mental health services
Less access and availability to childcare
Longer distances to work and childcare
Less access to public transportation
Fewer good jobs
Protective Factors Associated
with Non-Urban Life
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Less exposure to random violent crime
More single family homes
More homes and land owned by families
More access to extended family
Stronger connections to religious institutions
Greater sense of community
The Family Life Project: Families and
Children in Rural America
• 16.5 million program project (NICHD)
• Following a birth cohort of every baby born to mothers
who reside in 3 poor rural counties in North Carolina
and 3 poor rural counties in Pennsylvania
(oversampling for poverty and ethnicity).
• Families are followed intensively over the children’s first
three years. We are in the process of applying for the
renewal of the grant to follow the children into school.
Why focus on the transition to
school in rural areas?
• Research has shown that the first few years of school are
critical for children’s later school success (Vernon-Feagans,
1996, 2004; Alexander& Entwisle, 1992)
• Children in rural areas are often “known” by teachers
• Children in rural areas have less access to resources before
formal schooling
• Children in rural areas often have a rich and supportive family
life that is not understood by schools.
Why focus on struggling learners?
• Struggling learners are usually the ones that do not make
expected progress (Pianta, 2001; Meisels, 2001)
• This emphasis on struggling learners has been highlighted
through disaggregated data mandated by NCLB
• Teachers report these struggling learners are the children
who have the least success in learning and behavior.
• Teachers often attribute poor learning by students on the
children’s behavior and/or their home situation.
Why focus on literacy and
behavior?
• Research and teacher reports suggest that children’s
behavior can facilitate or hamper learning (Shonkoff &
Phillips, 2000).
• Reading becomes the foundation for subsequent academic
learning (Snow, Burns & Griffin; Vernon-Feagans, 1996)
From http://www.ncruralcenter.org/databank/rural_county_map.asp
Research Design
• Choose a poor rural county with limited access to teacher
professional development (One of the 10 poorest counties in North
Carolina, identified nationally as a persistently poor county since
1970, county-wide low literacy rates).
• Select 4 elementary schools in the county who are willing to
participate.
• Randomly assign 2 schools to the intervention and 2 schools to the
control group. Target all kindergarten and first grade classrooms to
be part of the study.
– 5 children in each classroom are randomly selected from those
children identified by the teacher as struggling learners
– 5 children in each classroom are randomly selected from those
children identified by the teacher as not struggling learners
Year 1
24 teachers
(n = 240)
Control
Experimental
Kindergarten
1st Grade
30 high risk 30 high risk
(6 teachers)
(6 teachers)
Year 2
24 teachers
(n = 240)
Kindergarten
1st Grade
30 high risk
30 high risk
(6 teachers)
(6 teachers)
30 low risk
30 low risk
30 low risk
30 low risk
30 high risk
30 high risk 30 high risk
(6 teachers)
(6 teachers)
30 low risk
30 low risk
30 high risk
(6 teachers)
(6 teachers)
30 low risk
30 low risk
Characteristics of the Schools
• Since last April
– Superintendent retired
– Both principals at the experimental schools resigned and
new principals name in August
– The K-5 coordinator for the county resigned and the new
coordinator was named in August
• The average number of years of teaching in the district is over
20 years.
• There is only one teacher in kindergarten and one teacher in
1st grade who have taught in another county.
• Availability of teaching assistants is limited
• Availability of support staff – school psychologist, guidance
counselor – extremely limited
Characteristics of one Intervention
School
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91%
71%
67%
61%
• 21%
free and reduced lunch
minority students
passed third grade EOGs
teachers with at least 10 years of
experience
teacher turnover rate
Teacher Professional Development:
Collaborative Consultation
A Professional development model that empowers teachers
to articulate classroom difficulties and allows them control
over the process of development through interaction with
other professionals who value and validate their needs and
skills. The consultation emphasizes diagnostic teaching
during one-to-one interaction with the struggling learners.
The model is a bidirectional model
where information from the schools influences the
strategies and materials we use and in turn the strategies
and materials we give to the schools influences their
competence. This is an ever evolving model that changes
with the ongoing needs of schools, teachers, and students.
Transactional:
LEEP
LISTEN during
 Focus Groups
 Grade-Level
meetings
 Ono-on-One
time with
teachers
A collaborative consultation model designed to
increase teacher expertise and efficacy for
facilitating children’s literacy and behavior
development
EMPATHIZE by
 Understanding
where the
teacher is
starting
 Acknowledging
teacher expertise
ENCOURAGE through
 Teachercentered training
and ongoing
support
 Teacher
ownership and
expertise
PROBLEM-SOLVE by
 Supporting a
diagnostic
teaching cycle
 Accessing
research-based
teaching
strategies
Rural Schools’ Behavior and Literacy Needs and Goals for
Struggling Learners in Kindergarten and First Grade
Collaborative
Consultation
Development of Problem
Solving Diagnostic Strategies
Transactional
processes
Development of Relevant
Teaching Strategies
Training Collaborative School Partners
in Problem Solving Diagnostics
and Teaching Strategies
Implementation of Diagnostics and Strategies in
One to One Teaching Moments
Improved Behavior and Literacy
for Struggling Learners
Specific Collaborative Consultation
• Consultants visit each classroom each week to promote teachers’
one to one diagnostic teaching strategies with struggling learners,
starting with one child identified by the teacher. Teacher tries to work
with the child 15 minutes per day.
• Focus of consultant work to date – building rapport, establishing
routines, examining classroom and school resources, facilitating
classroom climate.
• Former teachers hired as aides so teachers can work with struggling
learners
Teacher Outcomes
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Improved literacy resources in the classroom
Improved behavior management in the classroom
Improved literacy teaching strategies for struggling learners
Improved teacher/child relationship with struggling learners
Improved perceptions of teaching struggling learners
Improved overall teaching strategies
Child Outcomes
Children’s Literacy Development
Vocabulary (PPVT-III)
Oral Language (Wordless Picture Book Activity)
Print Awareness (Concepts about Print)
Sublexical Skills (CTOPP)
Word ID ( WJ-DRB: Word Attack & Letter Word/ID)
Reading Rate (Qualitative Reading Inventory)
Reading Comprehension (Qualitative Reading Inventory)
Children’s Behavior
Problem Behaviors (Classroom Behavior Inventory)
Engagement (One-on-One Observation)
Independence (Classroom Behavior Inventory)
Affect (One-on-One Observation)
Implementation of Design
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Have identified students in classes
Obtained informed consent
Pretest teacher questionnaires (complete)
Pretest classroom observations (complete)
Pretest child assessments (almost complete)
Developed a demonstration classroom (complete)