Te ac he r s ' Pe r c e p tion s ofWhy the Prima r y and ElementaryStudentsin TheirSmallRural Schools Consist e ntl yScoreAt or Above the Provincial Average
OnThe CTBS
by
Jeffrey J. Ho wa r d
A thesispr e s e nted to the School of Graduate Studies inpa r t ia l fulfillme ntof the requirementsfor the deg re e
Mas t e r of Education
Facult yof Educ a tion Memor i alUni v ersityof Newfo u ndl and
May 21,19 9 6
St.John's NewfCJ.ll'dland
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Table of Contents ABSTRACT
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
CHAPTER
INTRODUCTION
The Debate About School Size Small School Achievementin
Newfoundland and Labrador The si s Question
Purposeof Thesis Si g n i fican ce Li mi t a t i o n s of Study Definition of Key Terms II METHODOLOGY
Introduction Qualitative Research Identification of Schools for
Inclusionin the Study Data Collection Collection of Data Other DocumentarySources Data Analysis
III Reviewof the Li t e r a ture Int r o du c t i on
Ach i e v e me n t
Adv a n t a ge s of SmallRura l Schools
IV SCHOOLPROFILE S Intr od u cti o n
Bayside All Grade, Summerville Summervi l le
Bayside Al l Grade Teachers' Perspectives St.Jerome'8Ac a d e my, He rn e Bay
Herne Bay St. Jerome's Aca demy 'reecne rs' serepe etIvee
i iii
12 12 17 21 22 23 24
25 26 33
3' '0
40 41 43
<S
<S 47 48
Beothuk Elementary. Tickle Cove 51
TickleCove 51
Be o t huk Elementary 52
Teachers' Perspectives 53
Blue Mount a i n R. c. School, Flut Cove 55
Flat Cove 55
Bl ue Mountain R. c.School 56
Teachers' Perspectives 58
Darby'sAllGrade School, Berry Hill 61
Berry Hill 61
Darby'sAll Grade School 62
Teachers' Perspectives 64
John Cabot Academy, Sandy Harbour 66
SandyHarbour 66
JohnCabot Academy 68
Te a c he r s ' Perspect ive s 70 Nort he r n Point All Grade School.
BlackwellStrait 72
No r t he r n Point All Grade 74
Teachers' Perspectives 75
Cormack All Grade, JubileeJunction 79
JubileeJunction 79
CormackAll Grade 81
Teachers' Perspectives 82
Daniel' a CoveSchool, De e p ShallowHarbour as
Deep ShallowHarbour 85
Daniel's Cove School 85
Teachers' Perspectives 87
BirchyCov e Ac a de my , Wilson'sBr o o k 88
Wilson's Brook 88
Birchy Cove Academy 89
Teache rs' Perspective s 91
V SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION 93
Introduction 93
Conclusions 93
Backgroundsof Communities 94
percept ionsof Teachers 96
Four Schools With CommonCharacteristics 99 Recommenda tionsforFur t he r Study 10 2
VI BIBLIOGRAPHY 10 4
VII APPENDIXA 112
APPENDIXB 114
ABSTRACT
'lhc general perception insocietyseems10be"biggerisbetter".A reviewofCTBS
scores. however.revealedthat many small rural schoolsin Newfoundland and Labrador scoredat or above the provincialaverageon the Canadian Tests of BasicSkills. b fact, thirteensmallruralschoolsconsistently scored at or above the provincialCTBSaverage.
Thisth~ .:isisaqualitativestudyinvestigating why ten of these smallruralschoolsin Newfoundlandand Labradorconsistentlyscored at or abovethe provincialmeanfor Canadian Tests ofHnsicSkills' scores from1988to1993.
Theteachersandadministrators ofthese tensmall rural schoolswereaskedto give theirperceptionsofwhatfactors they feltcontributed tothestudents' successon the CTBS.
Theteachers andadministratorscompletedonopen-endedresponsestatement.This open- ended approachwas used to give the respondentsanunstructured,unguidedformat to express theirviews.
Schooland communityprofileswer ecompiled fromtherespondents'perceptions,as wellas.fromStatisticsCanada data :md from data retrievedfrom the Departmentof Education'sdatabanks.Thisinformation was combinedin an attempttolind factors common alllong allthe schoolsinthe study.
Thisstudyprovided someinsightinto some of thepossiblereasonswhythese small rural schoolsconsistently scored wellonthe CTBS.Although someof thesesmallrural schoolsshared somecommoncharacteristics.theprevailingthemewasthateachschoolhas a poolof characteristicsexclusivetothat school.Itisthis poolofcharacteristicswhichmakes
each schoolsuccessful.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thisstudywouldnotbe possiblewitho utthe suppc rt,patience,andencourage men tof my wife,Darlene andmy daughter.Bailey.Itistothese two specialpeoplethatIdedicate mythesis.
Iwishto thank all thepeoplewhohelpedme with thisstudy.Iextendaspecial thanksto Dr.Dennis Mulcahywhose adviceand guidancekept Ole focused andhel pedme contrib ute10 1Iworthyarea of research.
Thisstudy wouldnetbepossibl e withoutthe help of Dr.Leno ra Fagan andMr.Kerry Po pe ofthe Department ofEduca tion. Theypro vided me with the accesstoand the retrie val of datafrom theDepartment'sdatabanks.
Finally,Iwould liketo thank Mr.Dan Reardon. whoeditedmythesis,and thestudentsof my CulturalHeritage1200class who cameup withthe fictitious names for the schoolsandcommun itiesinthe study.
iii
Chapter 1 - Introduction
The Debate About SchoolSize
The "conventional wisdom" (She r , 197 7) in education would have us believe that when it comes to school size "b i gge r is better". Big schools are preferred because they can offer a greater number of courses than small schools (Ra mi r e z , 1992 ).
Larger schools can offer more comprehensive courses with greater range and depth (Hall e r, Monk, &Tien, 1993). Larger schools can
"court and sign outstanding" people early in there c r u i t i ng season and later place them in the most appropriate vacancy (Hare, 1991).
From a financial perspective larger schools can also take advantageof economiesof scale. The cost of educationalserv ices is spread over more students low,]ring the Ave r a g e costs per student. Small schools cannot take advantage of economies of scale unless they consolidate. Small schools when consolidated can combineclasses and facilities. Duplication of servic eswouldbe eliminated. With one school only one maintenance person is required. The number of administrators and teachers is also reduced. Sports pr og r ams and other extra-curricular activities flourish (Nelson, 1985).
Galton and Patrick (1990) point out threebroad pe r c e pt i o ns that go against small schools. Because of sc hool size and the limited number of teachers, small rural achoot.s are unable to provide the necessaryrange, balance and depthof curriculumas is found inla r ge r schools. Therefore,the standards of performance
of children in small schools are like ly to be lower than thosein larger schools . Th e r e is less chance for in -servicefor teachers insmall schools. with littleor no in-serviceteachersin small schoolsca nno t get promoted to positions in larger schools. The teachers who do notget promotedstayinthe same small schools for mos t of the i r te a ching careers. Withno newteachers coming into the smallsc hoo ls there is a lack of infusionof newideas. These small schools st a g nate .
Smal l schoolsarealso se-enna limited because they may find it difficu lt to recru it and retainteachers (Haller, Monk, &Tien, 1993). Small schools may find it uneconomical to provide and maintain buildings and facilities such as gymnasiums and laboratories for a small numberof students (Galton & Patrick, 1990). And , small schools are seen as socially limiting because they provide a nar rowmix of children and fewer opportunities to social i ze wit h students of other communities (Bell &Sigsworth, 1987; Storey, 1992 ).
Achievement dataare oftenofferedas further proof of the inadequacy of small schools in providing quality education.
Average achievement scores on standardized tests are higher for students in larger schools (Huang and Howley, 1991) and ru r a l children scorelowe r on standardizedtests (Griffen,Richardson and Lane, 1994).
Supporters of small sc hoo l s, however, are quick to point out that these as s e s s me n t s of sma ll school performance fa i l to take into account such indicatorsassocio-economicfactors, communit y
or family attitudes toward education, occup at i o n s of parents, intelligence quotients, or literacy rates in different areas (Ga l t on & Patrick, 1990;and McCracken & Barcinas, 1991). When th e s e are factored intothe equat ionsmall soh ool.aare often seen as performing as well as or even better than their larger count erparts (Hall e r , Monk, &Tie n, 1 993 ).
Galt on and Patrick(1 9 9 0 ) re v i e we d many studiesattempting to measure achievement standards attainedby smallschools. In thei r review of these studies they found no concreteevidence to support the claimthat size or location (rural/urban ) determines academi c achievement . Barr (1959 )and Mo rri s (19 5 9), in Galtonand Patri ck (1 9 9 0) , foundthat in many early studies of ac hievement levels between small and la r ge schools in t el l i g e n t quo t ients were no t taken into account prior to testing. A Bristo l Insti t ut e of Education study(Ba r r , 1959 ) found thatthe average 10 of the ru:r.al population was 2.91 standard score units below tho s e of urban pupils. Morris (1 9 5 9) foundthat when initial intelligence scores were adjusted for rural students the attainment differences on standardized tests disappeared.
The Plowden Report in1967(Galton and Patrick, 1990)compared readingscores of large and small schools. Large schools tended to have higher reading scores than small schools. The statistical signif icance of this difference disappeared when factors such as parental occupation, school starting age, and other factors were taken into account.
Galton and Patrick'sco n c l usio n , basedon their review of the
lite rat u re , isthatit is di fficu lttoint e rpre t sma ll/la r g eschool echleveme nt;leveldif ferences wi t h any de g r e e of pr e c ision. There are too many factors such ae vertical grouping, tea chi ng sty l e , socialdepriva tion, and initialab i li ty of populationswh i c h make comparison betwepn smalland largeschool sso difficul t.
Smal l SchoolAchievementin NewfoundlandandLabra d o r
The cunent Li be r al gov e r n me n t is dr afting legislation to revamp th e ed ucati on systemin Newf o u ndland andLa b r a d o r. The rea s on statedby ChrisDecker, Ministerof Educa tion, is that the present "Ne wfo und Lan d school system is ine ffi c i ent, with studen t perform.:m c e amongthe wor s t in th e cou n t ry" (su lliv a n, 1995). Mr.
Decke r basesthese chan ge s on :::-e sults fr omthe Ca n a d i anTests of BasicSkil l s whi c h shows a "patternof conti nua lund era chievement, t"}l owth e na tion alnorm". Decke rcon tinuedbystat ingthat because of denominationalismmoresmal l schoolshavere mai n e d in existence despite research showinglower perf o rma n c ele v e l s among stude n t s in small school s, comp aredtolargerschools.
Decker says ther e are always exc ep ti o ns but generally, stude n ts have a bett ercha nceinabigsch ool than a large school. These exc eptionsare just "g l itc hes "th a tocc u r from ti me to time
(Sullivan, 199 5 ) .
Ac cord i ng to CTBS scores,Newf o u n d l a n d and Labradorranks in the 35 t h to 45th perc entileon CTBScompositesc o r es,which is well be l owthe nationalaverageof th e 50t hpercen tile IOy r Childre n OUr
~, 1993, p.38).
Achievement scores receivedon the Ca na d i anTe s t s of Basic Skil l s (e TBS) showth a t stu d e n t s in small rural scho ol s do no t perform as we llasst u d e nt s in lar ge urban scho ol s (Gov e rnm e ntof Newf oun d La nd, 199 1; 1993 ;andWarr e n, 197 3 1 . Whe n onelooksat the pr ov ince ofNewf o und landand Lab rador the r eisa wi degap between ur b an an d rur a l areas wi t h res p ectto ac hievement .
The Reyal Commiss ion (Our Ch ildren Our Futu re, 1993,p.381 fo undthe rel at ionsh ipbetween scho ol size and achievement tobe sign ifi c a nt. The ':TBS resul t s "p r ovide evidence of lowe r performan ce in smal lschools,at least in tiroae skills mea s u redby theCTBS" (p.39). The Roy a l Commi s s i o n also points out that mo s t la r geschool s are fou nd inurban area s .
In 19 8 9, the Ta s k Force on Mathematics and Science wa s co mmi s s i o n e d to ide nt i f y the reasons for Newfoundland and Labrador's poor succe ss in mat hemat ics and science . Thro ug h a compr eh e n s i v e ana l ys is of CTBS resul ts, the Task Fo rcecon cluded thatstudents fr omla r g e r sch oo lsand scho o lsinurba nareastend ed toachieve at higher level s than those fromsmall rural school s . The Task Force pointed ou t , however, that th e differences were qui tesmal l comp a r e d toth e differen ceswhich existedat the school district le v el.
Warren(1 97 3 1 shows mean ach ievement sco r e sbytyp eof sc ho o l, regional (urb anI and cent ral (r u r a l) . Theraw achievementsco res in reading compr e h e n sion and English express ionare much higherfor th e regio nal sch oo l s thanthe central schools {sign if ica n t at the
.01 Leve l ) , Warr en attributes thistothe "in f e r i o r exp e riences- of the rural students. "Very likely . the richer cul tu r al environment tha t is the privilegeof the city st ud e nt cont r ibutes to this highel educational leve l- (p.40 1 .
The rel a t i o n s hip between sch ool size and ac hie ve me nt is si gnif i c a nt. Smallerschools perfo rmlower than large r schoo l s on the CTBS. Mo st of these large r schoo ls are in urbanareas wh il e moat; of the smal l erschools belong to the rural areas . Smal ler rur al schoo l s , therefore,arethelowe r achieve r s in this province . Atthenationallevelthen , ruralNewf o und l an d andLabr a d o r schools rank nearthe bottomwithrespect to CTBSsco r e s.
The case against~mallsc hoo l s is madethr ou gh test score s , especi a lly the CTBS. The s e te st resul ts are co nst antlyused as evidence of poor ach i ev e me nt in smal l ruralschool s. Suc h scores canbeusedto make thegeneralca s e . However ,an ana lys is ofCTBS data on Newfoundlandand Labrado r sc h oo l s reve al s thatthere are always exc eptionsto thisgen e r alrule. So me small sch oo l s each year match or exceed the ir distri ct , pro vinc ia l , and na tional Thi r tee n of thesesmal l rura l school s ha ve cons ist en t ly scored at or abo ve the pro v i n c i a l CTBS meanover the si x ye ar periodfr om1988 to1993 . These 13 sc hool s can n o t be considered glitches .
Th es is Ques tion
This the s i s will focus on th os e small rural primary and elementary schools in Newfoundland and Labrador thatcon s i s t e n tl y scoredat or above the provincial ave rag.:::on CTBS scores from 1988 to H93.
The thesis questionis: Why do these particularsmall rural schools contradict the norm in terms of prov incial achievemen t?
Oth e r questionsmay alsobe answeredin the proces s . Whatdo thes e thirteen small rural schoo ls hav e in co mmo n?
consistent , id e n tifi ableset of fa cto r s at workher e ?
Purp os e of Thesi s
Is th e re a
In an effort to understand the factors that may have contributed to the success ofthei r schools on the CTBS, th e staff of each of the schools were contacted. They were asked what factorsthey thoughtcontributed to the success of their schools. The purpose of this thesiswill beto present theirperceptions of why they think their schools are successful .
Other data will beus e d in this thesis to provideadditional background when comparing each school in the study. This would include data onth e communitiesandth e schools. Communitydata wi l l in c l ud e socia l, economic and educational attainment factors. The accumulateddataof the communities andte a c he r s ' perceptions
will be analyzed to determin e if a common set of fa c t o r s characteristicsexist among all or some of the schoo ls.
Significance
Little research has been done on effective small rural schools. Ho r n (19 9l ) points out that,
seldom, if ever, has cb e r e been a conscious effort to developa comprehe nsiveameliorationofper cep t i ons among admin istratorsand teachersabout the expectations of qualityand effe c t iven e s s of schools and the degre e to which smal l/rural schoolsfulfil these ex pectations .
The findings in this thes is would contribute to ane e ded area of research in rural educationwo rld wid e.
This research wi ll have a particular significance fo r Newfoundlandand Labrador. Be ca u s e of its geog rap hy , the pro v i nc e wil l always have a significantnumberof small ru r a l schools. The resultsof thisthesi s may provide some guidance as to howth e y may be strengthe n ed and impro ved. Sinc e th e results are based on teachers' perceptions, some usefu l guide lines may be identified.
Li mitat ionsof Stu dy
This study will be basedon teachers' pe rceptIon a as to why these schoolswork. The perceptions of teachers from different communities may vary considerably and make it difficult, i f not impossible tomake generalizations about all the schoolsin this study.
The schools were selectedbased on their performance on the norm-referencedCanadian Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS) and on the fact that they are small and rural. Although there areproblems relyingsolelyon standarrHzed tests (Wild e mut h , 1965), the CTBS waa used because i t is a recognized measuring deviceused by the Newfoundland Department of Education.
The author also recognizes that many schools in Newfoundland and Labrador are successful, eventhough their CTBSacor-e a may be low. There is no in tent ionto infer thatlo wcrBSscoresreflect non-er rect Lve or unsuccessful schools.
No othercr i t e r i awe r e used in the selection.
Def.inition of Ke yTerms
Small School. School where the mean elementar.y grade enrolment is twelveor less, (EducationSta tistics,1993),
"Sma l l " is a relativeterm. Wh en referring to a small school in New York State, smal lmayrefer to schoolswi t h totalpop ul a t i o ns
10 of less than1000. Since th is stud y involves small pr i maryand eLeme nt a r-y schools in Newf o undl an d and Lab ra d o r , the de f in i t i on used istheoneused bythe Departmentof Education in Newfou n dl and and Labrador.
Rural. communities outside urban census me t r op o l i t a n districtswi t h populationsbelow 5000 people. Thisis derived from the Newfoundland Depart ment of Education 's definitionof urban (Education Statistics, 1993). It does not tak e into account the distance from urban centersor the degreeof geographicisolation of a community. Sher f19??) points out th a t rural implies both small communit ies and low po pul a tion de n s i t y ra t i o s. It is, however , a relative term an d may be interpreted differe nt l y dependingon a person' slocationor perspecti ve. Bec a u s e of this vagueness in defini tion, the author has chosen wh a tis not urban, in the Ne wf ound l a nd and Labradorcontext, to be th e definition of rural.
Achieveme n t. For the purpose of this thes isachie vementis defined as scores onth e CTBS .
Canadian Test of Ba sic Skills (e TBS ). An exte nsive no rm- referenc e d, standa r d izedte st that measuresstudent pe rf or manc e in fiv e basic ski l l areas. The skills teste d are : vocabulary, re a d ing, lang uage, workst udyandma thema t ic s . It isadmi n i s tere d to studentsin Grades 4, 6, an d8 in allsc hools in Newfou n dla nd
11
and Lab r adorand in ma n y otherprovinces in Canada. It is rotat ed year lyso tha t only one gr ade writes th e CTBS inany gi v e n year. Periodica lly, a grade 12 form of the eTBS is administeredto ,1 sampleof studentsin the province (Profile'93).
~. The averagescorecalcu l a t ed basedona numberof subtest score s on the eTBS.
12 Chapt er 2 - Me t hodology
:In t r o d u c t i o n
Th epurpo e e of thischapter isto outline the theory us ed, and thE!procedur e followed in colle cting and repor ti ng thedat a.
Qua~:i t llt iv eRe s earch
'Qu alita t i veresearch " is an umbrellaterm,cov e ri ng avariety of re search appr o ac hes. These includer phenomenology.
hermeneutics . ethnogra rliy . symbolic in te ra c t io:1ism, ct hnomet hodo l ogy,sociolingu istics.feminism, crit icaltheory,and post lllOder n is m. Qualitat ive res earch, therefore , is a gene r a l ca tegor y to fa cilit a t e the discuss ion of impleme nt a t ion tha t tr a ns ce n d sapart i cul ar par adigm (Gr e enandCh a ndler,19901.
Quantita t ive res earche r s acknow l edge the pre sence of in d iv i du a l fluc t uations in human behavi our,but theyalsobelieve therear egene ral laws tha t hol d acro ss individual s. Qua n t ita t i ve researchersare lik.e l yto s tudy a popu l a tion orsa mp le of peopl e, rat h er thana fewind ividu als(Bo r g and Gall , 1989).
Qualitative re s e ar ch e r s are more li ke l y to study the in div i du a l case. Eachind i v idu a l , each sch ool,each cul ture is likel y to have an idi osyncratic set of va l u es , feelings, and bel iefs tha t canon l y be discoveredthrough in t ensiv e,in t e r ac t i ve
13 studyof thatind i v i dua l , schooland cul ture (Bo r g and Gall, 1969) Hopkins (1976) makes adistinc tion between qualitative and quantita t iveresearch. Qualitativeresearchis basedon describi ng an obs ervat i on on anonn u me ric al scale. Quant itativeresearchis based ondescribingan observation ona nu merica l scale. Wiersma (1991) states th at quanti tative research rel i es heavily on statistical res ults represen tedwith numbe rs while qualita t i ve research relies heavily on narrativedescri pt ion. Qualita t ive rese a rch is donefo rthepurpos eof under s tandingsoc ial phenomena.
Quantitat ive res earchis done tode te rmine relationships, effects and causes.
Firestone (1 9 93) says that qual itat i v e meth odsar eusefulfor unde r s t andi n g the perspectives ofstude nt s. teachers, parentsand oth ers , for clarifying processes tha t take place inclassrooms and schools,duringprogram implementation ,andin otherareas .
Tayl or and Bogdan (1984) point ou t that in qualitat ive methodol ogy the researcher:
a. looks at set tingsandpeoplehol i s tica l l y; people and groupsarenot reduced to variables.
2. tr ies to understandpe opl e from theirownfr a me of reference,to experienc ere ality as others experienceit.
3. andsus p e nds , orse t s aside, hisorherown belie fs , perspectives, and predispositions.
Withinthis qualitativefr a mewo rkan emphasiswill be placed on the phenomenological approach. AccordingtoWie r sma (1995) the phenomenological approach emphasizes that the meaning of reality
14 is, in essence ,in the "eyes andmindsof the beholde rs,·theway the indi vidua ls bei ng studied perceive their exper i e nce s. In phenomenological research:
1. priod assumptionsabout phenome non areavoid ed.
2. data collection pro cedur es and ins trument s, al t hough ha v i ng some structur e,should havelIi n i muminfluenceon the pheno mena under s tudy .
3. an dther e is anopenne s s to alternativeexpla nationsof the phenomenon, which ma y lea d to alt e rna ti v e and changin g conc ept sof reali ty.
As Gre e n and Chandle r (199 0) st a t ed intheirde finitionof qualitat i ve res ear ch,quali tat ive re s e ar chis a ge neral termthat encomr-anaea awide rangeof para digms. These paradigms may be eeen in isolationor combined withother para digms . Inthecaseof this study thephenomeno l ogica l perspect ivewillbe combined ..,ithan et hnogra phi c approach. Ethnogr aphy in volv e sthe collect ionof data on lIa n y va riables ove r an extended period of time, in a naturalistic setting. Theterm -natur a listi c set ting" refersto the factth atthe variables beinginvestig ated are st u diedwhere theyactuallyoccur, not ina laboratory or unde r a contro lled environ ment (Gay, 1987) .
Theunit ofobse r vationin an ethnographi cstudyineducati on is typically aclas s r oomor everr a school. Theethnogra phe r wor ks inducti v ely byobserving manyaspe c t sof th e le a r ning environment andatte mpt i n gto identif y factors associ a t edwitheffective and in e f f ec e.i ve environment s (Gay, 1987 ).
15 Research design in qu alitativeresearch, when appliedin a specif ic stud y; is less structuredandgenerallyconsidered to be more flexL ble thanresearch design inquantit a t i ve research. Thi s has nothing to with whether designsare good orbad, or whet he r some ar e betterthan others. Research designs differbecause of the contex::t,purpose, andna t ur e ofthe research (Wi e r sma , 19951.
To qualitative researchers, what is to be lea r n e d does not inv a ri abl y necessi tate aparticularstUdydesigninv o l vi ng theor y.
hypothesis, or generalization. It necessitatesa ju dgeme n t that lea d s them to decide what research designs they should frame to produce one or more imagi ne dand, as yet, unimagined outcomes
(Pe s hk in . 1993).
When bein g introduced tore s e a r ch methodsthe r e is a strong tendency to focus on techniques and procedu resfor gettingth e researchdo ne. Thisis fine, but i t is important to realizethat quali t at i v e research isIllOr e than techniques, itis an approach to research which has somewhat different underp inning s than quantitativeresearch (Wie r s ma , 1995).
According to Riat (~9 77), with qualitative resear ch the researche r is en cour a g ed to get close to the data, to de v elop an emphatic un d e r s t a nding of theobserved, to be ableto interpretan d descr ibe t.heconstructionsof real i tyas seen by the subjects, and to be abl e to arttcutace an inter-subjectivity wit h rega rd to phenomenon bei ngstudied. Rist goes on to sa y that itis fr om an int e rpr eta ti cn of the worl d throug h thepe rs pect i ve of thesub j ec ts that reality, me a ni n g,and behaviourareanalyzed.
rs The r e are avari e t y of data gat he r ing techniques th a t canbe used: intervi ews; questionnair es; surv eys ; participan t and non p art ic i pa nt observation; and case stud i es . 'I'he qualitat i v e na t u r e of the information sough t ma kes itnecessaryto us e open - form que stions. Most res earchers employ intervi e ws ratherth an question n a i r e s togatherqualitative dace IBo r g and Gall. 19891. Becaus e of the longtravellingdi stance tothe elevenschool s, in thisst ud y,and the limitedbudgetof the author ,a"q ue etLo nna dr'e "
approach was used. Since a que st i o n wa s not aske d , the
"q u e et.Lcnrraire" ha s taken the form of an open-e nd e d res pon s e st a t e me nt .
The open-e nded response stat e me nt does not infl ue nce the teachers' perceptions by including pri or assumptions. Th e par ticipa n t s can freel y express th eir views and beliefs . Th is open-ende d nes s mayalso le a d toalternativeexplanati onsas to why the se sma l l rur a l sc hools ac hieve wellonthe crBS.
Eisne r (19 9 1)de v e lops ananalogy compari ng tea c h ers withwinc con noiss e urs. The wi ne co nn oisse ur has develop ed a discerning ta s te forwi ne and candi s t i n gu i s h among the various ingredie nts and can comment, with a certain senseof expertise, on th e quality of the wi n e. The purpose of th i s thesis is to find out what ingre d i ent s make these elevensc ho ol s so successful on th e CTBS.
It seems approp r i a t e then, to seekthe views of the -co n no faseura"
of educat ioninthese elevensc hoo l s. Wiersma(19 9 5) po i n t s out that it is the perceptions of those being studi e d that are impor tan t . and to the extentpossib le these percep tion s are tobe
17 captured in orderto obtain an accuratemeasureof reality.
Based on CanadianTe s t s of Basic skills te s t scores, eleven (on l y ten wer e used) schools were selected fo r this study.
Quantitative data shows that the s e eleven schools consistent ly scor e d at or above the prov i ncialmean for CTBS test scores. The data , however, doesno t re ve a l why these echooLc ar e successful.
These el e v e n schools are located throughout the island of Newfoundland coming fr omeight different school boards and from three ofthema i n religious deno mi nati on al systems in Newfoun d l a nd - theRomanCat hol i c ,the Consolidat e d , and the Pe nt e c os ta l schoo l bo a r d s. Qua n tita tiveanalysis ena bl esus topos e the qu estio n : why are they su ccessful? But th e answer cannot be derived from quantitative analysis. A.qualitative approach may answr.r the questionsinceeachindividual, school and communityis likely to have an idiosyncratic set of values, feel ing8andbeliefs. It is throughqualitative enqu i ry, theint e l lig ent apprehension of the qualitative wo rld, that we make se:nse lEi s ne r, 1991} .
Ide ntificationofScboo l s for :InclusionintbeStud y
In May, 1994 Dr. 'Leno r a Fag an, Director of Eval ua t i o n, Res e a r chand Planningof theNewfoundland and Lab rado r Departm en t of Ed ucat ion was approached. At that t imethe aut ho r of th is thesis aske d Dr. Fagan for information concerning small rural sc hoo l sand ach i e v e men t (Appe ndi x AJ. A.reviewof theliteratu r e,
18 readby the author indicated that basedon rawstandardizedtest scores large urban schools achievedhigherresults thandid small rural schools. This question was then posed to Dr. Fagan: Are the re some smal l rural schoo lswhi c hdo not follow the norm and actually ac h i e v e "hi gher than ave rage " scores on standa rdized tests.
Dr. Fagan fe lt thiswas aus eful ques t i on and ar r ang e me nt s were made for the author to gai n access to the Department's dat abaee to inves tiga t ethis question.
Dr, Faganint roducedtheauthortoMr.KerryPop e .Measurement Analystwit htheNewf o u ndl a ndandLabr adorEducationalIndicators Project. Mr. Popeoutlinedthevarious funct i o ns of thedatabase retrieval syste m wi t h the Depart ment of edu c at i o n . He also discussed thekeywords that could be us edto assi s t in a data search .
since the focus of this stud y is on smal l rura l ecbccte in Newf ound lan d and Labrad or "higher thanaverage"was defined as - sma ll rural Newfoundland schools that score d at or above the pr ov i ncial mean on thecanadi anTest ofBasic Skill sin1993. Mr. Po~e ente redsev eral variabl es into the Depar tment' s comp uter - small, rural,CTB Sscore sat orabo vethe provincia laver age. Mr.
Pope wasable to retrieveth e da t a base d on composite scor e s for the CTBS.
The database produced a list of small rur al sc hool s that rank ed at or above theprov i n cial averageonCTBS scores . Th e data for ~993showed that 46smal l rural school s ra n k e d ator above the
19 provinc i a lavera ge forcras scores . Th islist.was muc h lar ge rtha n aneic 1pa 1;.ed.
Mr. Pope the n ge ner at e d aLd et; of smal l rural schoolsthat scored at or abovetheprovinc ial ave r a g e for CTBSscores fo r each year fromHBS to19 92. The data showe d that. the r e were anywhere fo m 31 to46 school s Bcoringat orabove the prov i ncial average forCTBS score s foreachye arfrom 1988 to199 3(t h e 1993 I1s twa s re t ri evedpre v i o usly) .
Th e data on the CTBS ecoz-e e of the se lected small rural schoolswas analy zed . Fi rs t , the top tenschoo1e on eachlis t,fo).- eac h year from 1988 to 19 93, we r e cros s-r e f ere nced to se e i fany schools scoredinthe topte n regul arly . only twoschools appeared morethan twic e over thesixye ar period. The top twenty schools from ea c h list were then cros s- re f ere nced. Onl y four sc hoo l s appeared inthe top twent y moreth a nthreetimesfrom1988to 1993. Allschools on each list we r e cross-re ferencedin totality. By cross-re f e re nci ng ea ch school on each list over the si x year peri od, th i rtee n schools consiste ntly(a ppearedon liststhr eeor moretime s) score d at or above the pr o vi nc i a l average on C'I'BS scores from19S 8to 1993 .
·Cons i s t ently" was define d as sc o r ing at or above the pro vinc ial era s averagethree ormore ti mesoverthe period 1988 to 199 3for se ve r al reasons. Onlyone sch o ol sco red atorabovethe pro vinc ia l crBS averagesi x ti mes out of six. The research base wa s br oa d ene d to inc l ude at least tenschools. Thedecis ion touse three as the cut off mark was not made arbitrar ily. Sever al
20 schoolsin the study are strictlyelementary schools. In198 9 and 1992 grade eight students wrote the eTBS tests. Since elementary schools only teach students up to Grade VI, elementary schools would not appear in the Department of Education's databanks in 1989 or in 1992. As you will see in Chapter IV, these elementary schools in this study scored at or above the provincial average, three outof four times over the six year period from 1988 to 1993.
As well, some small schools may not have had any students in the particular grade writing the eTBS tests in a particular year.
Also, it is reasonable to assume that a school may score poorly from time to time onthe CTBS tests for any number of reasons.
Mr. Pope retrieved statistical school profiles on twelve of the thirteen schools from the Department's databanks. The computer was unable to output one of the school profiles. Mr. Pope suggested that the school may either be closed or amalgamated thus causing a change in the retrieval code for that particular school. After reviewing the twelve schools one school was dropped from the study. The school dropped was a Grade IV to XII school from 1988 to 1989. In 1990 i t was changed to an all grade school until 1993 when it was again changed, this time to a Graded VII to IX.
The s e changes in grade structure may have produced unforseen complications in this study so it was dropped. The remaining eleven schools were contacted to participate in the study. Ten of the eleven schools responded to the response-statement. This thesis, then, is based on the data collected :':rom ten schools.
The respective school boards of the eleven schools were
21 contacted to gain permission to administer a survey to the princ ipalsand teachers of the eleven schoolsin question(Appendix B) . Permission wa s granted by each of the respec tive sc ho o l boards.
Data Collection
Th e purpose of this study was to determine teachers' and administrators' perceptions as towhy their small rural schools consistentlyperform well on the CTBS. As pointedout earlierthe best means for retrieving this informationis through qualitative inquiry.
One of the tenets of qualitative research is that it uete aside the researcher's own biases and assumptions (Aa r o n and others . 1993). The qualitativeresearc herparta kesin a stud ynot knowi ngwhat theoutcomewill be. Astructure dquestionnairethen, wo u l d serveno pu rp osein thisqualitative study. The beat means to this end thenis an open- e nd ed"questionnaire".
Wiersma(1995)pointsout that qualitativemethodology is less structuredand more flexible tha nquantitativemethodology. wi t h such leewayin qua litative research,the aut horis extendi n gthi s flexiblelib ertyin the designof the "quest i o nn a i re ". Itwi ll be in the form of a res ponsestateme nt.
Consiste ntlyscoring well on the eTBS is considereda sign of success by the Provincia l Departmentof Education. The author has taken thenepaxtment 's viewat face valueand hasinc o r p o r a te d this
22
as sump t i on in the res po ns e stat e ment to be comp leted by the teachers of the respect ive small rural schools. The response statementwasprese n t ed inan open-ended forminthefirs t person.
I believe the followi n gschool an d / o r communi t y fa c t o r s have contributed to the success of our school:
By giving no guidelines 1 ho p e d to get ho n e s t,pe r s on a l responses from the teachers, ma y b e even responses that wo ul d not have occurred to me and wo u l d have been exclude d in a guided response questionnaire.
Co l l e c t i onof Data
The data collect ing method of choice for partici pan ts' perceptions wasan open- endedquestionnaire . The dist ancesbetwe en eachschooland the dista ncesof eachschool fromat.John ' smade it impossible to conduct pe rson al inte r v iews . As well the questionnaire ga v e the partic i pants time to th ink ab o u t thei r responses.
To mak e the responsestatementa l ittl e morein v it i ng itwas limited to one in c o mp l e t e statement , to be completed by the teacher. Aswe ll , Mr.Popesupplied ali s t of theteachers' names in theel e v e n schools in the study. Each of th e 90 lette r s and question na ires was personal izedand sent to th e each te ac he r and each admin istra t or in the eleven school s in the surve y (S ee
23 AppendixBI.
Of the 90 surveys sent out to the teachers of the eleven schools 40 individualsu rve y s were ret urn ed from nine schools. One school fel t the study was veryimpo r t a n t and helda st a ff meeting to discuss why they felt the ir sc ho o l wa s successful. The principal of this school sent ba ck one survey representing the views of the five teachers on staf f. By combini ng the group respo ns e wi ththe fo r t y indivi du a l re s po n s e s the re was a re tu r n ra t e of50\"fromten of the eleven sc hools. Furt h e r effort s to ob tai n answered questi onnaires fr om the elev e n t h school we r e unsu cces s f u l.
Othe r DocumentarySource s
Qualitative research may als o be supplemented wi t h other documents and ar c h i v al materia ls(Aa ro nan d others, 19 93; Wolcott, 1992; and Ei sner, 1991). Thisthes i s usestwo othermainsources to addbackgroundto the teachers ' perc e p t ions. 'rneeetwo sources are the 1991 Cana dian Census and Sc hool Profil e s from the Newf o u nd l a nd and Labrador In d i c ato r's Project.
The Canadian cens us presents dataontheecc Lo- eccno mi c stat us of communities , l it eracyrat e s and otherdemogra ph ic inf o r ma ti o n.
The In dicator's Proje ct provides data on sc hool demographics, achieveme n t score s and que stion na i re respon s e s oneach scho ol in Newfoundland andLab r a do r (Se e Append ix C) .
24 DAtaAnalysis
Upon receipt of thequestionnairesfrom the schools,the data cross-referenced to find common themes as we l l as unique characterist icsof the schools.
This information was then incorporated with the documentary evidence to develop school/community profiles for each school/community. These individual profiles were then cross- referenced to find commonthemes and develop asingle profile ofa successful small rural school.
25 Chapter3 • Reviewof the Lite ra tur e
Introduction
The purpose of this chapter is to investigate studies and writings whi c h have focused on issues re l a t i ng to small rural schools an d achiev e me n t . Although the amount of li t eratureon smallschools haabeen increasingover recent years thereis none focusing on teachers ' perc eptions of why they t.h Lnk their small rural schools consistently achieve above average scores on standardizedtests. 'rhe literature, however, does refer to views on small ruralschools and success, and small rural schools and achievement.
Aswe l l, achievement andsuccess have be en linke d. Re f ere nc e wi ll be made to characteristicses s e n t i a l to successful sma l l rural schools. Some of these char ac te ris t ics may be similar to the contributingfactors perceivedby theteachers inthis study.
Throughout this review of the literature reference wi ll al s o be made tomulti- g r a d e schools, ruralschools, and smal l schools.
Si nce mo st small schoo ls andmul ti-gr a de schoolsare loca ted in ruralare a s their success, or lack thereof. is releva nt to thi s study.
ae
l.chievement
The perception of society. in general, is that la r g e r urban schools are better thansmaller ru r a l schools. This claimhas some statisticalbackingbut,in ma nycases the perceptionis based upon th i ng s that smal ler schools cannot provide (Ga lt on & Patrick, 19 9 0) .
Galton and Patrick (1 9 9 0 ) point out three ma i n groups of cri t i c i s ms of small schools. The first group of criticismsasserts that smallsc h o o l s are unableto provide enoughteaching staff to provide the necessary range, depth and balance of curriculum as largerschools. As a result the performanceof children in small schools will be lower than the performanceof children in larger schools. These problems may be compo unde d by th e tea c h i ng dif fi c u l t i e s associated wi t h various agelevelsand abilitylevels withina particular class. Aswe ll small schools findit difficult toof f e r teache r in-service. This reduces the opportunit y for teacherpromotionsto larger schools . The s e teachersthen remain in the same small school receiving no new trainingor new ideas, resul ting in thestagnationof the school.
Thesecondgroupof criticis msfocuson the economicviability of small schools. I t is une c on omi c to provide fa c i li t i e s for mu s i c , phys ical educat ion, drama an d othe r spe cial t y are a s for small numbers of students to use only pa rtofth e time. For the same cost the facility could be built in a larger school to accommod a t e hu n dredsof stud e ntscontinuously . Many critics of
27 small schools argue that it ischeaper tobus thestu d e n t s fro mthe out lyi ngareas tothe largerschool.
Th e third grou p of crit i ci sms sees th e smal l school as soc i a l l ylimitin g. in tha t, there is a na r rowmixof chi ld r e nand fewer oppo rtun i tie s for students to engage in extra-curr icul a r acti v i t ies.
Thereare those inruralareaswho would st i l l opt fo r small schoo ls evenif larger schools werereadilyava il a b l e. In othe r rural areas, howeve r,the teachers, the stUdent s,andthe community have bough t the con s o l ida t i onmes s ag e:sm3ll isba c kward,small is poor, small is decrepit (Dun ne, 1977).
Dunne (1977) says this le ads to a self-fulf illing prophecy . Onceeveryone in the ruralco mmu nity perc eives tha t smallschoo ls are inadequate, it does not take themlo ngto bec omeso . Pare nt s co me tobelieve tha t thei r children are -missing too muche, and they communicate that feel i ng to the ir children. Bright yo ung teachers, emerging from training programs where they have been ta ug htt.ha t largerschoolsare superi or, will se e k employment in bigschools, leaving thosewho could not -do better- to staf f the sma lle r schools.
Manyeducators,sta teboard of educationmembers, legi sl a t o r s, andthegeneralpub licbel i e v etha t students from smal l er andrura l schools receive an in f er i o r educat i o n from that of stud e nts in suburba nor urba nschools (Edi ng tonand Koehler, 1987) .
There ha s been some empi rical evidence to suppo r t this perception. Downey (1 980 ) re p ort e d that in a Kansas study , ACT
28 (Th e high school profile report fo r small, mid d l e, and large schools) scores for rural studentsweretwopointslo....erthan urban stu d e n t s ineach categoryof th e Acr. The categorieson the ACT incl ud e: mat h , Engli s h , natura l science and social studies. An exam i natio n of studentperformance inHawaii publicschoolsfoun d subst an d a r d achieve menttobe a pattern in ruralareas (Mc Clee ry, 1979) . Rese archon achievement in socialstudiesfor 13 yearaIds po int ed out that rural studen t s did wel l on ob je c tive tests focusingon skill s.bu t no t aswell onob j ectivete sts focus i ng on factual learning (Easton and El l e r b ruc h , 1985 ).
NNo mat t e r wha t tes ting system or assessment programs are emp loye d, researc hers ha v e fou nd tha t rural scho o l ch ild r e n consisten t l y ra nk lower tha n their met ropolitan counterpart s"
(She r. 1977 a. p. 4). According to the National As ses s men t of Educational Progr e s s (19741, rur alchild renscored sign i fi c a n tl y lower tha n the U.S. average in almosteverysubjectar e a (sber, 1977al.
According to Edington and Ma rtella r o (198 4 ) the general cons ensus on the part of education profession als was that con s ol ida tion was the panacea foralmo st all the rura l and small schoo l s ' problems. Thepublicwas told tha t th e ve ry small schools were notcost effe ct i veandco ul dno t providequa lityeducat ion fo r their children;howev er, co ns o lid a t i o n of thesma ll e r schools and di st ricts could overcomeboth the cost and qua l ity aspect s and provi de a better educat i on 1;'1" all children. Because of thi s pe r cept ion of sma ll schoo l s, ma ny sta te s in the Uni t e d St a tes
29 elected to consolidate the smaller schoolsand districtswhenever possible.
In the 1970'e the viewof ~biggeris better" began to lose steam but many educators stil l do u b t e d that small schoolscould academically prepare students as we l l as larger schools. Eve n after no relationship between school size and qualitywa s found, the Wa s h i n g t on State Temporary Special Levy Study Commission concluded that" ... it is generally agreed thatve r y small schools cannot compete favourably with larger schools" (He s s and others, 1978; inEdington andMa r t e lla r o , 1984).
Edington and Martellaro (1984) conducted a study to determine whether a relationship could be found between school size and academicachievement. Ac a de mi c achievement was measured by using a school averag e total scale score on the Comprehensi ve Tests of Ba s i c Skills. (ThisCTBS is not tobe confusedwi t h theCan adian Tests of Basic Skills). The sampl e for thisstudywa s limit e d to grade!'!five, eight. and eleven inNewMe x i c o pubk Lc schools fro m 1978 to 1981. Two major questions were examined: is there a relationship between school enrollment size and student achievement? and is therea rel a t i o n sh i p betwee nschool enro llment sizeand studen t achieve men t when corrections have beenmade for certainot her predicto rsof aohde vemerit?
Eding ton and Marte llaroconcluded fr o m their stud y that there wa s no reason to believethatsc hoo l enrollmentsize is related to aca demic achievement. Th ey recommend that since aca de mi c ac h i e v eme n t does not seem to be related to sch ool size . then
30 fa ctors other than achi e vement shou l d be cons idered whe n consolid ati on is bei ng contemp l ate d .
Edington and Marte llaro di d fi nd, however, th at aca d e mi c achieve mentappears tobehighl yrelate dto ecctc-eccnonuc fac t o rs and seco ndarilyrelatedto culturalor ethnicfactors.
Herriott (19BO) , in Edi ngto n (198 0 1, say s tha t rural ind i vidu al s in comparison to their urban counte rpa r t s, are more li ke l y to be class ified a~ functionalilliterates , scor-elo weron na ti on al assessment te s t s, attend publ i c sc hoo ls thatexpe nd le ss for in str uc t i o n, firs t enroll in school at anolde r age,progre s s through schoolmore slowl y, and complete fewer years ofec ncct .
Child reninur banareasseem to be exposedtoformal sc hoo l ing sooner thanchildrenin rura l are as . Edington (1980 ) poi n t s out that therearemoreva rie d curri cu lumopportuni t ies in urb an ar eas tha n in rural areas. Thereare fewerpr e s c hoo l faci lit iesin non- met ro polit a n regi on s of theu.s . than the r e ar e in metropolitan regions. The followingtab le lists the percen t ag e of ch ildre n age d th r e e to five yea rs of age in the u.s. whoattendschoo l or pres chool tsner, J. andRos e nf e ld, S., U17 ).
Table3.1 Child re nAtte nd i ng School inthe U.S.
Ages " Me t r o po l i t a n "Non-Me t r o po lit an
Schoo l s Schools
3 15.2\ 8.9 \
4 33 . n 18.5\
5 73. n 61.2\
3 5 41.5\ 30.2 \
31 Edington (1980)goes on to sa ythatother educationalprograms are geared more to urban areas. A prime exampleof this is the Sesame Street program producedfor television.
The small staffsat rural schools lack thevers a ti li t y and flexibility that larger school staffs have. Only seven percent of rural schools have a psychologist on staff, while seventy-six percent of urban schools have a psyc hologist on staff. Although most schools have libraries, only58%of the rural schools have a librarian whereas 98% of all urban schools have librarianB (Eding t o n , 1980).
Although a dismal picture of small rural schools has been painted over the years,morere ce n t research and more sophisticated research designs showthat smallrur a l schoolsar ejuat as "goodH as larger urban schools, if not better. In fact,over timewhen factors such as socio-economic data ar e factored into the achievement equationsmall rural schoolsare foundtobe as goodas or better when it comes to achievement (Riggs, 1987; Sher, 1977;
McCracken and Sarcinas, 1991 ; Reck, 19 B7 ).
The few studies available suggest that only trivial differenc esexistbetweentheattainment leve l ofpupils inla rge and small, and urbanandrura l schools;those wh i c h havebe en found invariably favoursmall rural schools (Nash, 1980).
InanAl bert a study of gradetwelve examinat ionresul tsthe percentageof stude nts,pa s singdepart mentalexaminationsin c reases with the size of the school (Har r isonand Downey, 19 6 51 inRi ggs (19B7). I t La not conclusive thoug h. These resu l ts could be
32 at t ri bu te d tofa c t o r s other than size. Beckner and O'Nea l (1980) in Rig g s (1987) list fat h er ' s occupation , family attitudes, or socio-economicsta tus aspossible factors.
Huang and Howley (1991) studied the ef f e c t of small scal e schooling on lowsocio-econom icst atusstudents in Alask a. The stud yshowed that disadv an t age dstudentste nd to do betterin small schools than in larger schools. The small school pr o v i de s a setting for instructionallyeffective contact. Small sch o ol s reduce the negative influen c es of lowsoc.Lo-economi.c st atus on student ac h i e v emen t. Huang an~ Howley also point out tha t achievementlevelsarehigher in large schools bu t disadvantaged students tend to do better in smallschools.
In many studies, smallrur a l schools app e a r tobe inferior to larger urban schoo ls ba s ed on their "limited" definition of ech Ie v ea.e n t; . Usuall y, their definit ion is based on standa rdi zed test scores. Other stu d i e s usea broa der defin i tion.
Horn (1991) stu diedsmal l sch oo ls inru r al areasof Kansas. He determined school effectiveness by stude nts'
standardize dtests, attainme n tof collegesc holars hips , perce n ta g e of students at t e nd i n gpo s t- s e c o nd a r yedu c a t i o n a l inst i t u tion s, and particip ationinextra-c u r r i c ul ar activities. In hisdefinitionof ach i e veme nthe als o includ ed developme nt of higher-ord er thinking skil l s , so c ial i zatio n , dev e lopme nt of good wo r k ethi c s , and preparationof students for good ci ti zen s h ip. He fo u nd tha t in smal l school s in Ka nsas: students participat e d widely inextra- cu r riculars; ov ersev e nty perc en t of student s int e nd e d to pursue
33 post-secondaryeducation;over seventy percentof studentsrepo rted receivinggr ad e s ofAor B, with only 1.4 % gt!ttin g0 or F; over eighty percent of adult respondents believed extra -curricular activities to be important; all groups questionedperce ivedthat qualityindicators werepresentin theirschools; and that those schools had a very low drop-out rate. Question naires we r e circulated to hi g h school and junior high school students, teachers.building administrators. district superintendents.school board members, an d adult community members. He concluded by stating that "students in small/rural schools performed above the state average on all areas of the Kansas competency test, and students pursuepost-secondaryeducationat a ratehi g he r than the av e rage for the state" (p.2S). He also stated that there is no evidence to indicate tha t those schoolsar e doing an inferior job, and evidence points out thatthey are doing amuc h better job than ave r a ge.
Advan t a ge sof Sma llRura l School s
The perception of small ruralschools being inferiortola rge r ur ba n schoolsstill exi s t s inma ny peo ples' minds toda y . Many studies conductedover past few ye a rs , however, refute any cla ims of aca demic superiori ty of larg e r urbansc hool s. In fact. many writershave ope n ly ex pre s s e d the virtuesof sma llrur a l school s . Some of these advantages wi ll be summarized he re because they
34 r-efIect; some of the responses and views of the teache rs in this study.
Some of Ame rica'sgreat e s t intellec t uals -Jefferson,Thor eau, and Emerson • wrote about the nationa l importance of a hea lthy r-ur-al, society. For them, the urbanwo rld was no t h i ng but a place ofpu r p o s e l e s s noi s e , commotionand filth (Shi, 19 85 in Theobald, 19921. only in the countryside could the be s t qualities of humankind flourish.
Amon g the very diverseru ral systems aremany ruralschools tha t compare favourablyin termsof educational qualitywi th their larger and wealthi erurban and suburbancounterpar ts . The broad statistics mas kthese successes andtendto divert researchers awa y from studying the charact e ristics of outstanding sma l l schools.
Much of wha t is unique about rural schools and rural school dist rictsdefies quanti t ati ve ana l y s i s or statistical description
(Sher, 1977a),
Rural school dist rict sprovide a senseofcommu n i ty that is usuallymissing in urban dis t r i c t s . The te a ching st a f f usuallyhas more opportunity to exe r c i s e leadership, and ad mi nis trators are more visible. Ev i d e n c e indicates that students in small rural schools score better on standar dizedtests . Stud en t part ici p at i on in extra-c u rricul ar ac t ivi t i e s , student sa tis f action, and attendancewas higher in sma ll e r schoo ls (Grif fe n, Richardson, and Lane; 1994l.
Dur',;1o,; (1977) stated th a t a amili l sc h ool is much ea s ier to administerthan a largersch oo l. It isals o muc heas i er for th e
35 entire community toge t inv o l ve d with theopera t i o n of the school . Renihan and Renihan(1991)also pointed out the easewit h which the communitycan get in vo l ve d with smaller schools. Beckner and O'Ne a l (1980 )contended that small schoolsha v e: closer relati ons be t....een faculty and administration; less red tape;
parti cipationin dec is i o nma k i ng by teachersand studen tf' ;easi e r change processes; close r par-enteteache a- relations ; and more par ental involvement in the school. Levin and Marshall (1980) contended tha t small schools havemore sense of community, closer relations h i p s be tw e en stude n ts and te a c he r s , gre a t e r student pa r ti c i pa t ion inext ra-cur ricula rs , lessdisciplinepr ob l e ms. and morehuman contact. Sher and Tompkins (1977 ) stated that small schoolspro v i d e such advantages as,"loc a l control;close relations among professionals, parents, at.udent e, and community; and the opportunity for many mor e students to participate in school activit iesat a more meaningful level- Cp. S7) . Brimm and Hanson (1980)agreed with that listof advantagesof the smal lschool. It seems reasonable that those condit io n s would exist in smal l sc ho ol s, with smaller numbe rs of teachers and stud ents. Close r relationshi ps and ease of communications should fa c i li t a t e a closer, morefa mily ·or i e nt e d atmosphere. Suchanatmos p he reshould be good for theovera l l developme nt of students (Vin c e nt, 19 9 4 ) .
Miller (1 99 1) sa ys thereare many advanta g es to multi -g ra de school s. Th e r e is indi v idualized instr uc tio n , tutor i a l sbyolder students, and agrea teroppor t u n ityfortea c h ers tobe inno va tive. Kearney's (1 9 9 4) re v i e w of the li ter a t ure shows many
36 adv an t a ge s of a small rura l school. Smallrural schools:
1. ha vegreaterstude n t pa rticipationinext r a - c u r r i c ul a r activities
2. ha ve more interactionand cooperationamong students, te a c he r s , administ ra to r s, paren t s and co mmunities 3.ha ve less re d tape andaremore in tunewit h community 4. typically ac h i e ve at higher levelsth a n counterpa rtsin
la r g e schools
5.boost achievementof at-riskstudents
6.have practiced neweduc a t i o n refo rmmeasures: low student/te ache r ratios; cooperative le arn i n g methods;
student centered instructionalmethods ;crossage grouping;
non-gradedclasses
7. showteacherand student morale as being higher, teacher stressas being lowe r
fl. place a gre ate r emph asi son the "basics "
9. act as communit y and eervIce centers
Pos itive sc hoo l envi ronment is a majorcontri butorto student success (Conrath, 1986) in (Griffin,Richardson, andLane ; 1994). Griffin,Ri chardson, andLan e (1994) fo und , intheir studyofat- risk youths' percept i o ns of theireducationa l envi ronments, tha t studentsdesire a non -threate ningschoo lenvironment. Thi s canbe eff e c t ivel y promoted by mos t rural high schools (Griffin, Richardson, andLane; 1994).
Mr-.k and Haller(1986)des cri bema ny attri butesofsmall rural
"
schools. Sma ll ruralecnccre are the focal pointsof cotlVlluni t y activityand pri de. Small rural schoo l s are usually de void of disciplineproblems. Students in small rural schools learn the basics just as well as students in larger urbanschools and many times even better than aver ag e. There are far greater opportuni ties to develop lea d ers hi p potential and no n - academi c skills in sma llruralschools than in larger urban schools.
Barker (1987) points out many contributions of the small school, moat of whi c h are locat e dinruralar e a s. The smallschool is cred i t ed with theori g inat i o n of man ypre s e nt day educat i on a l techniq u es, stra t e gies , and lea rni ng approaches. The list includes:thenon·gradedclassroom , ind i vi d ual ize d instruc tion, low student-tea cherratio.crcee- age group ing,peer tutoring , us i ng the community asaresource, mainstre aming, and emphasi zi ngthe basics.
Reck 11987) adds to the listofadvantages of small schools.
He claims th e r e is much more commun ity evp po r t; than in larger schools in largerce nt e r s. Theschool setting is more relaxed and personalized. Students of diffe rent age s can associate with each otherwithout seeming out of place.
Des pi te theadvantagesof smal l rur a l schools, consolida t i o n of man y smal l schools continuesinma nyregions of Nort hAmerica today. Many Eur opean cou n t r i e s, however, hav e end e d or reve r s e d this tr e nd. In Ir eland, the gove rnment is now committed to ma intainsmall country sc hools and in Norway and Fi nland seve ral sc hoo lsclosed inthe 1960 ' shave been reopened(Nel se n. 1985).
New Zealand has also reversed it s polic yof co n solida ting
"
rural primary schools. In these count r iesit hasbeen realized thatthe educ ationalbenefitsof larger sch oolsare illuso ryand th at thepolicyhilsca u s e drealhards hi pt.o individua l s andact ual
da mag eto theviabilityandst ruc t ure of ruralcommun i ties (Nash, 198 0).
Kearney (1994) points out that the dollar saving on con solidati on is not always there . Transportat i on costs can be significa ntly higher than anticipated when consolidation is complete. Bussing reduces extra-curricu larparticipation by bus stu de nts and reduces paren ta l invol vem ent in sch o ol. The se oppo r t un i t y cos t s coupled wi th incre a s ed transportation costs greatlyreduces any savings fr om conso.'.idation (Hallanan, 1992 in Kearney . 1994).
The adva ntages and disadvantages of small rural schools depen ds onone 's pcd.r. t;of vi e w. Many of the advantagesof rura l schools are qualitative ch a r a c ter istics that are diffi c ul t to ana lyze such as"e enaeof commund.t rye, The ll\lant i t a t ive aspect s of sma l l rural schools seemstobelacking . They do not have: large cl a ss sizes, widese l e c tionof courses,many specializedteachers or as much red tape asla rg e urban schools.
39 Ch apte r 4- Profil es
In troduction
The purpose of this chapter is to compile profiles of each school in the study. The profiles are created from data collected from three sources. The community data has been extracted from Canadian Census statistics compiled in 1991. The school information has been renrfeved from the databanks ofth e Department of Education. The information on teachers' perceptions was received from response-statements completed by the teachers from the ten sc:hools in question.
The names of the communities and schools have been disguised to protect theanonymity of the students, staff, and schools.
Census data for three of the communities was eitherincomplete or non-existent. Income levels for Tickle Cove andWilson's Brook are not ac c e s s i bl e to the public. Since their populations are below 250. accessto this in f o r ma t i o n may disclose the identities of familiesin the respectivecommunities.
Deep .shallow Bay poses a different problem. The community is considered to be an unincorporated census district. This means the census boundaries are undefined and the demographic data ia consolidated with that of a another district. This seems only fitting consideringthe topic of this thesis.
'0 Say. i deAll Grade. Swmnerville
SumDlervi.l1e
SUlMIerville is made up of46 5 English speaking Prot estants livingin 140households. Tenpeoplein Summerville have French origins wh ile the rest. of the community come from Brit i s h backg rounds.
The adu lt population (ov er age15) ofSummervi l le is 375.
These adult s have achie ve d various le ve ls of educat ion. One hundredsi x tyof the s e adu ltsha vele s sthan agr ad enineleve lof educa t io n. This is roughl y 41\ of the adult popul a tion. One hundr e d for t ypeoplehad reac h edhighschoolbutdidnotgra dua te.
Fifty adul t s in Summe r v i lle have a high school di pl omaas their highest leve l of educational attainmen t . Twenty-f ive ad ul t s pursued post-secondary studies. Ten re s i dent s received certificates from institut io nsothertha n a trades college or a univers ity . The re ma.in i n g fifteen adul ts attendeduniversityand have gradua t edwith eithera certifica te or a degree.
Sunvnerville's labour force is made up of 160 ma l es and 60 females. 57. 6t of themale labourfo r ceis unemployed while 33.3t ofthe fema lela bour forceis unemployed. Thi sbri ngs the overa ll unemployment rat e ofSummervill eto 52.2%.
The emp loyed and unemployed la bou r force is spread over several ind us tries. Onehundredten peo pleareinv ol vedinpri mar y indust ri es, 55 are invol ved in manufactu ri ng, 1.5 are in const ructio n,2S are in tradesand1.0 are in education.
41 Of the male labour force, 140 men work part-time earning average income of$13,686. The average income of the 20full~time male workers is $21,940 annually. Women of Summerville are only employed in the workforce on apart-timebasis earningan average salary of $5260.
Viewingthe householdin c ome s of the residents of Summervf L'le , theaverage annual householdincome is $34,937 . More than half of the households earnmore than $35,629.
Bays i de AllGrad e
Bayside All Grade is with the same integratedschool board as Birchy Cove Academy in Wilson'sBrook. Bayside All Grade is K• 12 school with 79 students, 40 males and 39 females. The thirteen grades are divided up among nine teachers.
The studentpopulation of BaysideAll Grade hasbe en steadily decliningsince 1986 when 126 studentswe r e in attendance. This decline is expected to continue into the next century.
Looking at Table 4,1 one can see that Bayside AllGrade has scored abovethe provincial and national means for CTBScomposite scores four out of the last sixye a r s (1988 - 1993). BaysideAll Grade scored higherthan its district's meanCTBScompositescores five out. of six years,
"
id All b1
Ta e 4, 1 CTBSScores or Bays
,
ore eYe a r Grade School District Provi nce Canada
1988 6 80 50 45 50
1989 8 23 43 40 50
1990 4 70 35 43 50
1991 6 58 33 37 50
1992 8 35 31 40 50
1993 4 59 J9 43 50
OntheGrade six Element aryScienceAssessment Tests,aayetde All Grade fared we ll over the three tes t. yea r s 1981, 19 90 , 1993.
In 19B?, Baysid e All Gra descoredab o ve the prOVincial aver a geon the Earth sciences subteat of the Grade six Element ary Science Assessm ent Test. In 1990, Ba ys i de All Grade scored above the provincial average on all Bubte s t s. In 1993, Bayside All Grade scored lo wer th a n the provincial aver a g e on the Life Sciences subtest but beat the provincial ave r a g e on the other thr ee subtests.
In June1993,the grade th r ee st uden t sof Bayside AllGrade scored 88. 4%on theGrade Th ree Math Criterion Reference Te st. This score surpa ss ed both the dis tric t 's and the pr ov i n c e ' S averagesof 78.7\and 74 . ] \ respe cti vel y .
43 Te a c h ers' Per s pect i ves
Five of th e seven teachersat BaysideAl l Grad eresponded to the responsestatement. The principal's viewson why Ba yside Al l Gradeis successfulwi l lbepresentedfir st. He feelsthete a c he rs are very dedicatedand committed. As a principal he doesno t take an aut horitat ive leadership role; he includes the staff in the decision- mak ingprocess. The staffworks togetheron schoo lpolicy and in settingup the curricu lum. The principalalsopoints out that the teachers "t ake" responsibi lity for the students' performance. Th e teachersalsoattempt innovative approaches in the cl assroomto improve student performance.
No school ca n be successful wi t h ou t support and po s itive communication amo ng the variousgr o u p s thatarepart of the schco L communi ty . AtBa y s i deAll Grade, the teachershavea good wo rk i n g rela tio nship with thestud ent s, thepare nts and thecommunity. Th e parents support school initiatives bothmoral lyand financially. The school isalsousedex t en sively bymembe r s and groups in the communit yas well as by thechu r c h.
Fina lly , th e principal saysthe stude ntsare averyclose-knit groupwhoare supportiveof each other.
Man y of the teachers attribu te the st ud en t s ' suc cess toth e ben e f i t s ofasmallsc hool. With lowen rolme nts there is more one on oneintera ct io nbe t we e n th e te a cher andea c h stud ent. Te ac he rs then get anopportunity to become famili a r witheach student and his/her problems. The smal l cl aso size provides a "fami ly
4 .
closeness" where st ude nts intera c t more and wa nt to help each other . Above avera g e students ta k eon a hel ping role as peer tutors.
Teac hers in this multi~grade school ar e multi-subject teachers. By teaching manysubjects to the students the teachers get abe t ter overallviewof student performance in severalsubject
Sinc e thecommunityisals o small. te ach e r s meet the parents on a regularbasisatthestore or atth e communi ty centre . This provides an opportunity fora teac h er andapa r en t to discuss a student's status on an infor ma l basis. This gives the teacher further insight into a student's ba ckgro undand the teach ercan build supports fo r individual stude ntwe a k nes s e sand for missing home supports.
All the te a c he r s agree tha t the r e is an exce l l ent rappor t between teachers and students. In fact, one tea c her said.
"Teachers and students are what I would considerbuddies". The teachers are always availabl e to giveex trahelpto the students after school.
Al t ho ug h therearemany informalmeet ings wi t h theparents, the schoolsendshome monthlyrepo rt s on eac het.udent. The repor t s commenton stude ntgrades ,studentbehav iour, and studentattitude. The school makes a greatefforttoke ep the pare nts wel l informed onschool mattersandput s th e resp onsibi litybackon pare nts fo r theirchildr en's statusin ecnoot .
Theteachers alsomee tregula r l yat staffme eting s todis cus s
