In the caseof reading, for example, the research citedabove on the impact of pleasure readingsuggests that outside-of-school activitiesthat engage the student in interestingtexts and that encourage additional freevoluntary reading will be highly effective
Is the reading for pleasure considered highly effective for improving standardized test scores, performance in class, or something else entirely?
More timedevoted to homework appears to be relatedto better grades but not necessarily tohigher performance on standardized tests
Is this statement implying that the coursework students perform in schools has little impact on performance in standardized tests? Or is this statement implying that this is just for homework?
At Academic High I found that AsianAmerican students were rewarded for be-ing quiet, polite, and respectful. On sev-eral occasions I learned from teachersthat they had given passing grades toAsian American students who had notearned them. In each case, the studentwho was passed was described as a quietand polite student ... similarly, in herstudy on Hmong students, Goldstein(1985) [unpublished dissertation] foundthat Hmong students were promoted tothe next grade based on their behaviorrather than on their academic perfor-mance. (
I find this to be very interesting. From what I have seen, teachers often consider quiet and polite students who do not participate in learning to be good students. When understanding the concept of a good student, should we consider the students good learners if they do not learn at all? Is it enough to just respect the rules but not participate?
Calling attention to one's own accomplishments is fodder for ridicule. My friend often refers to this phenomenon as the "whack-a-mole" attitude. Just like the popular game at the county fair, when a child thinks he or she is superior enough to rise above the crowd, someone, including parents, might verbally whack him or her back down. Generally, Appalachians pride themselves on maintaining an egali-tarian community.
It is very interesting to see how different cultures interpret interaction. One culture may be based entirely around social, economic, or educational hierarchy while other cultures do the opposite.
Unfortunately, too many educators interpret this lack of adult involvement as a sign that the parents just don't care about school. As is the case in every economic bracket, some parents don't care, but most do. The lack of school involvement certainly does not reflect a lack of caring.
I liked the addition of this information. At the surface level, it may seem like lack of adult involvement means parents do not care about school. Often times this lack of involvement has to due with other outside factors such as multiple jobs.
I remember my own childhood in rural southeastern Appalachian Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky. Commonly shared values among my family and friends included the love of land and a sense of place-belonging. There was and still is an attachment to nature among many Appalachians, to the hills, the creeks, the fields.
I think that this would be true for many rural communities. Smaller population would lead to more shared values and a sense of belonging. Rural communities are also more likely to be in nature so there would be a greater appreciation for it.
For poor students in Appalachia, the most discouragi~g image may be the one promoted by the media, depicting them as backwoods, ignorant isolates.
Stereotypes often reinforce the stereotypes. If a child is being told through stereotypes that they are bad a school they may be less likely to work hard in school. This would lead them to performing worse and the stereotype being reinforced.
Rural high school graduation rates exceed the national average, and rural low-income students are even more likely than their metropolitan peers to earn a diploma.
This does not surprise me at all. From my own experience, graduation rates were very high at the rural school I went to. The number of students who pursued higher education post high school was very low though.
This problem is not limited to mathematics. For students taking advanced courses across the curriculum, the Advanced Placement program is an option that offers rigorous coursework leading to college credit. The availability of AP courses is an indicator of a school’s commitment and ability to offer advanced coursework. In rural areas, 73% of schools offer at least one AP course, compared to 95% and 92% in suburban and urban districts respectively (Mann, Sponsler, Welch, & Wyatt 2017). Rural students have significantly less access to STEM-focused AP courses—just 62% of rural schools offer at least one AP STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) course, compared with 93% of suburban schools (Mann, Sponsler, Welch, & Wyatt 2017). These gaps may indicate that rural students have limited access to academically rigorous programs
I grew up in a very rural area and in school I definitely noticed these impacts. In terms of advanced courses offered to rural schools there are significant issues. But, I noticed is that the pandemic was kind of a blessing for advanced educational offerings for rural schools. The pandemic forced many community colleges to expand their online offerings which from my experience, has been very beneficial to rural high school students that do not have access to AP classes or other programs.
Rural students and the schools they attend receive little attention in either policy or academia. This is despite the fact that more than 46 million Americans live in nonmetropolitan areas—a population roughly equivalent to the entire country of Spain
From what I have seen it is much less valuable for political figures to focus on rural areas and it can be more difficult to implement policies in rural areas.
Poverty in rural areas is also more persistent than in urban areas, and can be more likely to last for generations. For counties in persistent poverty, rates have remained above 20% for the past 30 years. Children growing up in these communities face challenges to their economic mobility and long-term development (Farrigan 2017). Overall, 85.3% of counties in persistent poverty are rural, which equates to about 15% of all rural counties nationally
This is not surprising to me at all. Even though communities within cities are divided, better economic opportunities can be only a couple blocks away. In the community I grew up in, better economic opportunities were a 2 hour drive away.
Although we entered this study assuming that the families had knowledge, skills, and resources, we underestimated the skillful use of multiple elec-tronic devices by the children and their families. Due to our unexamined assumptions about limited access to new technologies in low-income Latino families, we were surprised to see the number of them in the homes, the time spent using them, and the children’s expertise.
It is interesting to see researchers go into a study with an assumption and learn that they were not correct. In their situation, I would also probably have assumed that low-income latino households might have less fluency with technology. Earlier this week in my ED 50 class we learned about how low-income kids have higher screen time than high-income kids. This would probably explain why these low-income Latino children have a surprising amount of tech expertise.
Benny’s family belonged to a Pentecostal Spanish-speaking church, and this was his most important community literacy space, providing an array of experiences with oral, written, visual, and gestural texts, some constructed on his own and some mediated by others, using materials from the church and brought from home.
This is similar to the experience of my father. When he was growing the Bible was his tool for learning literacy. I imagine this is the case for many children across the world.
We also learned about other literacy spaces we were not able to observe.
What is this referring to? Are they referring to areas in school or out of school? Did the parents not consent to the researchers accessing the literacy space or was it the school itself.
We planned to investigate both the places outside of school, in their homes and communities, where the two children and their families accessed literacy resources and the formal and informal literacy interactions that they con-structed there.
I like how it did not just focus now how literacy is developed in schools. So much context for understanding how and why a person is learning a specific way happens outside of schools. Kids learn literacy both at home and at school