JOImJaI of Research in R.,m f Education. Spring. 2003. Vol . 18. No. 1. 52-58

A Research Agenda for Improving Science andMathematics Education in Rural Schools

Hobart L. HannonTimberville. VA.

Stephen A. Henderson and Wimber ly C. RoysterAppalachian Rural Systemic Initiative

We present the outcome ofa conference supponed by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and conducted by theAppalachian Rural Svstemic Initiative. The purpo.le of this conference k'{l \ to e,~tdbli~h a research agenda for .Iw dyinl?fl/c ton that impac t the student learning process and student achievement in mathematics and ,~f'ience in rural w'hoo/.l'.The 47 conference participants included rural, science, mathematics. and techllology I'ductJIors frolll (1("".1'\ the countryrepresenting umvrrvnirs, public schools. and ]I/SF-spolliored Rural S.n/emic tnuiauves. Researchable questions thatemerged from l'onjerf'1ICf' discussions are grouped into .\ 1'1"1''' categories: community support. instructional rrsourrrv.leade rship and school reform- prof ess ional development, preservice and induction. curriculum and instruction. and data­base.

The No cuu LI1t Rebind Act 0/2001 (f'\;C LB. 20( 2 ),HRI . provides billions of dnl lar~ in fede ral aid for cduca­lion. Unli ke o ther major federal legt slauon for educat ionpac-ed pre\iou~ly b)' the U_S. Congress. HRI mandatesthai education poli cy and practice be "scientificall y based."In re~pon~e In IIR I. leadership in the U,S. Department ofEducation (USDE) i~ striving to strengthen the quality ofeducational research. Goal -l in the US DE"s 2002-2003annual plan seeks 10 "tra nsform educat ion into an evidence­based field" rp. 5). Many researchers are not certain whether10 rejoice or to recoi l. notes Feuer . To wne. and Shavelso n(20G:!). a~ such a mandate coul d inc h the field "toward aprescription of meth od s and a rigid definition o f rese archquality" rp. ol).

HR I reauthorizes the Elementa ry ami Secondarv Edu­calion Act and contains I I I references to sciennficattv

ARS lleat.!ef'>hip .... i ~he, 10thank the conference participantv.... ho contributed ~ Ie. da~, of their time antI exccpnonal e~JICr­

the and profcvciona lism in developing the "revcurchablc I{uc,­none" prese nted in Ihi' article. On behalf of ARSI and con fere ncepanicipams. a 'l'ICcial thank, ,11", i, extended 10 thl: :"ationalScience Foundation lilT funding the conference. UndervtandingAchievement in Sc ience and Mall\cmdtil" in Rural S;;honb. Forcopies Ill'the confere nce proceedings. con tact Stephen Ilcndef'l ln<It the e-mail aJ dre" h..:ltlw.

C{~pondern:c corn:cming t hi~ anidc ,hould be addressed10 Hotoan L Hannon, _' 699 Ric h<lrJ'oOn ROdJ. TimhcT\'illc. VA22K53 ( hharmtln(it~hcntd.nl·1) or Stephen A. Hendcf'lln. ARSI.P~C Bank 1'1<l /.a . 2lXl We'l Vine Street, Suite ol20. l..c\ ington.Ky .f0507. (,hender,on@'ar,i.orgl

based research, Th e law requ ires stale~ and loc al schooldi strict s 10 dcmonstru te that they plan to 'rend the fu ndsauthorized in HR I on prog rams with a scient ific trackrecord. As Feuer ct al. 11002. p. -l) note: ..After year. ofen\')' fo r federal support received by their compatriots inmedical.technological. agricultu ral. and physical research.educat ional researcbcrs can now rejoice: Researc h is in."

Rural Educa tion Li teratu re

If research i-, in. the n a leg itimate conce rn of poli cy­ma ker-, and leadc:n. in rural school dictrictv is how futureed ucation research agenda-, will ac knowledge the uniquec trc ums tanccv of ed uca ting stude nts in rural comnum ities.Or in some minds. wi ll the need 10 find solurionv to prob­tern , of "urban schooling" drive research agenda~ that . albest. hold only prom ise fu r application 10 rura l cchoob.

Sherwood (2000l found tha t dc-cripnon-, o f researchprojectv available on the weh~ites of national educationresearch centers revealed only one vtudy that focused onrural i"ue~ and few that con tained any mention of rural ata ll. Lack of adequate research and impar t evaluatio ns.coupled with definition al incons istencies. severely limitpohcymakers" ::abilily to know either the effect of fede ral.state. and loca l program!' o n rural schools or whe ther ru rali l1 le re~ts are bei ng et.juilah ly addressed (S tem. I!Noll.

Scholar~hip on rural educalion in the Un ilcd Slate~ isre lat ive ly 'pa~ (DeYoung, 1(87). Rural educat ion i~,ues

rarely altraCI the altenlion of ed ucalion pru fesM'lr, al pn.',­tigiou, uni \'e rsit i e ~ (De You ng. 199 1l. 1\1orcnver, of the 196doclOral dissenal ion s wrillen hc:lwl~n IYM9 and 199 3 on

A RE SEAR CH AGEN DA 53

the topic of rura l education (Harmon , Howley. & Sanders,1996), the topics were lim ited 10 addressing the FederalInteragency Co mm ittee on Education's six prior ity top icsand related ques tions for research and development on ru­ral schoo ls (Federal Interagency Committee , 199 1).

Most of the usual solutions provided by educa tio nalpolicymakers fa il to recognize the uniqu eness of rural set ­tings (Harmo n. 2003a; Larse n, 199 3). Clear ly, if ruralschool educators are to adopt educational imp rovementinitiatives that arc su pported by "scientifically based re­search," then research age ndas that refl ect the ru ral co n­text must be pursued .

Research agendas that focus on rural sc hools and the ircommun ities have bee n o ffe red in the past (Ba rke r &Stephens. 191:\5; Carter, 1999 ; Dobson & Do bson . 19X7;Harmon. 2(KI2; Heigl', 19X6 ; Howley. 20(Kl). This paperdescribes another. more recen t. effo rt to create a researchagenda. one that would advance our unders tandi ng of teach­ing and learn ing scie nce and mat he matics in rural schoo lenvironments. It is ou r hope tha t thi s agenda will gui deresearch efforts toward the end o f pro vid ing scie ntificallybased evidence o f "what works" for impro ving studentachievement in rural sc hools and the ir co mmu nit ies.

ARS I Research Co nference

Funded by the National Science Fou ndation (NSF )since 1995. the Ap palachia n Ru ral Systemic In itiative(ARSI ) has been worki ng with economical ly disad van tagedrural K-12 publ ic schools in centra l Appalachia to improvethe teaching and learn ing of science and ma thematics. O nesignificantlesson learned during the project per iod was thelack of research \ 111. and understandin g of. the teaching andlearning of science and mat hematics in poor. ru ral sc hoo lenvironments. Consequently, ARS I leadership successfullysought NSF suppo rt to hold an invita tional conference forrural educators and those wi th experience in mathematics.science, and technology. Th is conference was held on May21-23.2001 in Lexi ngto n ( K Y). Th e con ference's 47 par ­ticipants included scie nce , mathemat ics. and tech nologyeducators from across the country representing un iversi­ties, public s(:hoo!s. and NSF-sponsored Rural SystemicInitiatives (Heenan, St. John , Broun. Howard , & Becerra.2(KI I).

Entitled "U nderstanding Achieve ment in Science andMathematics in Rural School Settings: ' the genera l goa l ofthe conference was to establish a research age nda regard­ing science and mathematics achievement in rural schoo ls.This was acco mplished through deliberative discussions in­volving rural education experts and persons experiencedin mathematics and scie nce ed ucat ion.

The conference was divi ded into two phases. Phase Iinvolved the Research Project Ad visory Cou ncil. whichcomprised a small group of leaders in mat hematics and

science ed ucat ion and rur al educa tion. Th is cou ncil met ina worki ng sess ion to discuss issues and questions re latedto improv ing ma thema tics and science educat ion in ruralschools with the exp ressed purpose o f deve loping a pre­liminary set of researchable ques tio ns. Fo ur co mmissionedp'lpers focus ing on current issues. written by leadi ng pef'ionsin the fie lds of science , ma the ma tic s. tec hnology. andrural ed ucat ion, provided direc tio n for this discuss ion andthe dev elopment of the researchable questions (Henderson ,20(2),

T hese initial researchable ques tio ns de veloped by theresearchers and educatio n leaders in Phase I were co m­piled as a draft 10 guide disc ussion and further develop­ment by practitioners invited 10 participate in Phase 2 ofthe conference. Phase 2 consisted of overview presenta­tio ns focusing on both rur al and scie nce/mathematics is­sues, a general discuss ion of the prelim inary draft of theresearchable quest ions. sma ll-grou p ana lysis and refinementsessi ons, and a final general sess ion to clarify the final drafto f the researchable questio ns.

The researchable question s were edi ted and distributedto the Research Project Advisory Council for final revi­sion. These q uestions were organized into seve n catego­ries: commu nity support. instructional resources. leade rshipand school reform, pro fessio nal develop ment. prescrviccsand induct ion. curricu lum and instruct ion. and dat abase.

Communi ty SIII/I)(Ir/

Many confe rence parti cipants arg ued that the "com­mu nity school" is the primary focus of rural educatio n.Rural sc hoo ls may be the last bastion of the traditiona l com­munity and the only place tha t brings the entire commu­nity together regardless of age or socioeconomic status.Research ab le quest ions in this ca tegory would guide in­vestigatio ns regarding how mathematics and science ed u­cati on is perceived and supported in rural communities.

I. What do sc hoo ls and dis tricts nee d to kno wabo ut ru ral communities in order to providere le vant sc ience and mathematics learnin g?

2. Ho w do parents and com mu nity mem bers inrural areas define quality science and mat h­ematics education as co mpared to urban andsuburban parents and community me mbers?Docs this perception vary from the percep­tions o f students. teachers, and administratorsin each env iron ment'?

3. What mathe mat ics, scie nce. and tec hnologysk ills are judged relevant by people in ruralcommunities?

54 IIA R~10N. HENDERSON. ASD ROYSTER

-I. Do science and mathematics know ledge andskills used in rural communities differ (rumthose u.....-d in urban and suburban area s?

5. What are success ful ways that schools haveinvolved rura l communities in science andmathematics curriculum development . teach­ing. and learning?

6. What are the implications of information tech­nology in rural area.. with respec 10 math­ematic.. and -c icnce learnin g?

7. 1I0w do rura l community nnu udcs abou t sci­ence and mathematics impact instruction andstudent achie vement?

lnstructional Resources

Having adeq uate reso urces h. an issue in all schools.but instructional resou rces in rural schools are most oftenthe central i ....ue for delivery of quality mathemat ics andscience instruction. With the advent of the computer andavcociatcd information technologies. the issue of resourceshas become even more acute in mo..t rural areas. Arguably,it may hold the most promise for increasing learnin g ()~

portumttes in such areas. Researchable que... tion, in thiscategory address how the disadvan tages of rernorcnc-..... cost .lack of infrastructure . and lack of accc..... might beaddressed.

I , what is the accessibility. availabiluy. use. andeffectiveness of advanced dig ital technologyto leach math ematic... and science in ruralschools ?

2, How docs the selection. purchase, and imple­mentation of inst ruc tional materials. text­books. and instructional technologic.. differin rural schools compared 10 other 'iChools?

3. How docs the school ' s selling impacnhe costpcI' graduate of advan ced mathemati cs andscience courses in rural sc hool-, compare tothe cos t per graduate in schools in other -et­ting..?

4. How can the teach ing and learning of scienceand mathem atics in rural scbcols beimprovedthrough the effective integration of technol­ogy '!

5. lI ow ca n the effecti ve use of re...ourr cs. in­cluding techn ology, for mathematics and sci-

cnce instruction in rural settings hereplicated','what are the indicators of the successful useof this technology'!

6. What are the differences or incquitic.. in stu­dent opportunities to use instructional resourcesfor mathem atics and science instruction be­

cause of racial. gender. or socioeco nomic sta­IUSin rural areas'!

Leadership and School Reform

The impro vement of science and mathemar icv educa­tion in any setting depe nds on leadership and the pressure sfor school reform. Reform ot mathemauc- and science cur­ricula in rural sening-, is problematic if school and di..metleaders lack adequate knowledge and unde rstand ing ofmathematics and science reform moveme nts in general.Developing this leadership for both initiating and sustain­ing reform in science and mathem atics educ ation is a criti­cal issue. Another issue is how to maintain and supportreform-mind...rd leader ship in rural schools. Lasting reformtakes time 10 develop. The follo w ing are researchable qucs­tions in this category :

I. To w hal ex tent do leader-hip expecta tions.levels of support, and encouragement impactteachers' use of innovative strategies in math­ematics and science in rural schnoh comparedwith other \e lling...?

2. what are the factors that contribute to teachersemerging as leaders fur science and math­ematicv program reform in rural school envi­ronmems"

3. What experiences prepare teachers 10 ser..-eas change-age ntleaders for the improvementof scie nce and mathematics education?

4. How can technology beused 10develop lead ­ers for science lind mathematics educationreform in rural school environments?

5. What leader ship acti ..uie... enco urage the in­tegranon of technology into science and math­ematics etas..rooms in runal schools?

b, What are the unique situations that promote aculture for inno vative practices in rnathcmat ­ics program s in rural school sclt ings? Arcthese ' Irdlcgics different in o ther schoo l en­vironmenrs?

A RESEARCH AGENUA 55

7, What ..trale!!ie.. arc mo..t effective for devel­oping successful science and mathematicsprogram .. in rural school setting ..'! Arc these..uategic.. different in orher whool environ­mcm..'!

K. whar are the relation..bip-, of mathematics andscience standards, content frameworks, anda....c....mcm to ..ucce....ful implementation of..umdards-based mathematics and science inrural -.cuings?

Prof es sional Dcve topmeru

There arc many i....ucs ..urroundiug the profc....ionuldevelopment of mathematic.. and science teachers. Manymathematics and/or science instructors arc teaching in a..ccondary teaching area or ou t-of- field a ltogether. And forthose who haw appropriate certification and sufficient co l­legecouoework. their conrenvpcdagogical know lc..dge maybe outdated [Heenan cr al.. 2001; Henderson. 2(02). This..tate of atfa irs is particularly acu te in rural areas. where in­service opportunitie.. for mathematic.. and science teachersarc often inadequate or unavailable (Harmon. 2n03b). Re­searchable questions in this category focu .. on the cbarac­teri..tic.. of rural-school reachers and the environments inwhich the) teach.

I. What i.. the relationship between teacherqualification ..rcharacreri ..tics and ..tudentlearning in mathematic.. and science in ruralarea... and how doe .. thi.. compare to the rela­tion..hip reponed in other settings?

2. What charac teri..tics of rural mathematics andscience teachers are related 10 their percep­tion and use of instructionaltechnologie s?

3, 1I0w do the resources that rural science andmathematics teachers use when they need helpdiffer from the resources u-cd by teachers inother scumgs?

4. What are the characteristic.. of highly com­petem mathema tics. science, and technologyteacher-, that predict persistence in a teachingcareer in rural school settings"

5. How do career path!'> of advanced matbcmat­il"s and science teachers in rural schools dif­fer from teachers in other ...euing!'>'!

fl. What form' of profe...siona l development areeffective for improving the conrcnv pedagog i-

cal knowledge of scie nce and mathematicstcacbc rs in rural areas?

7. What state and local policies encourage ruralmathematics and science teachers to continuetheir content/pedagogical training beyondtheir initiallicensure program?

Preservirr Gild Induction

Conference participant ... believed that few, if any.preservice teacher ed ucation program!'> prepared reachersfor teaching in rural areas. Although many of the co nven­tional and alternative licensure program ' place cand idate..in rural sch(xlls for field experience.., there is lin le ev idencethat these programs incorporate speci fic experience ... relatedto tcaching in ...uch ...chools. particu larly those hav ing highleve ls of pove rty. Researchable que..nons in this categoryare a.. follows:

I. What are the cha racteri..tic ... of successfulteacher education progr.J.m!'> that arc designedto prepare mathematics and science teachersfor teaching in rural scbools"

2. What are the rran..ition-mto-higber-educationactivities that college.. should conduct foren tering high scbool graduate.. with intere ..tsin majoring in mathematic... and science or inpreparing to become mathematics and scienceteache rs?

3, What mot ivates one to become a ..cicncc ormathematics teacher in a rural area in co n­trast to other settings?

4. What strategic ... arc ...uccc...... ful for recruitingand retaining mathematics and science teach­er.. in rural area ...? How do the..e ..trutcgicscom pare to tho...c found 10 he succe,..fu t inother settings"

5. what factors are related 10 the ..ubsequenrutiliza tion of presen ice knowledge and ..killsby f rvt-year mathematic.. and science teach­ere in rural areas, and how do thece factorscompare 10 those that pertain to comparableteachers in other "Cuing!'>?

e . What are effective uscs of technology andvirtual learning in preparing and supportingmathematics and science teachers for assign­menrs in rural com munilie!'> ".'

56 HARMO:\'. IIEl'DERSO~. AND ROYSTER

7. What factors encourage females and malesfrom rural areas 10 pursue higher educationin mathe matics. science. and technolog y?

Curriculum and lnsuuction

What is taught. how it is taught, and the student learn ­ing that rc..ults arguably are the primary concerns fo r ed u­carers. rural or otherwise. In large part. suc h considerat ionsdetermin e whether a student will become proficient in math­ematics and science. Th e follow ing are researchable 4UCS­lio n.. in this category :

I. How arc content ..tandards in mathematics andscience translated into curricula and instruc­uo n in rura l schools in cnmpar i..on to othersettings?

2. 110\\1 do the science and mathcmaucs cuniculathat art' taugtu compare to textbook curriculaand d istric t cu rricular guidelines in rura l set­tings. and how docs this com parison differfrom that found in other settings? Does a simi­lar picture emerge \\. hen o ne focu ses on ad­vanced courses?

3. lvi nformal education in mathematics and sci­c nce more influential in rura l school-, than inother ceuingv?

4. How ca n teOll·hers in rural schools make math­ematics and science more relevant to the livesof their students?

5. What prote..cional development opportunuie..he ..l add re ..!'. the need 10 hel p ou t-of-fie ldteachers become profi cient in teaching a ..tan­dard..-ba..ed curric ulum in mathematics andscience?

6. Ho w do traditional gender role .. impact math­e mat ic.. a nd ..cience achievemen t in ruralschools" Do tradi tional rural ge nde r ro lesimpac t the co ur..cs chosen in sc ience andmathcmmics?

7. what instructiona l st raregte ... promote math­ematics and science ac hievement in ruralschools . and are the...c stra tegies similar tothose found in other scumgs?

s. How do the mamcrnancs and science as'>Css­ment strategies used by rural teachers di fferfrom the -e u-ed by teachers in other -cning...?

Database

There are federal. state , and local databases ttuu are ofpotential use toward the Improvement o f mathematics andscie nce in...truction in rural setting... Howev er. these data ­bases are not symhe..ized and available in usable formats.Once cynthesized and easily accessed. these data wou ldpermi t analyses that speak 10 the cond uio n of ma thematicsand scie nce instruct ion in rural co mmunities. School pro­files wou ld pro vide helpful background information forstudyi ng teac hing and learni ng in such ..ellings, Each pro­file ..hould incl ude teacher and princ ipal tenure . studentdropout rate. teacher rete ntion rate. cia .... and schoo l size.and other information deemed of potentia l relevance forthis purpose. Commnnitv profil es would also he helpful a...back ground info rmation . Th ese might include asse ts map ­ping te.g.. businc..vcs. organi zations...crvicc v).communityview-, o f inno vation, communication i....ues. ethnicity. anddemographic variables that may impact mathe mat ics andscience in..truction.

The researchable que..tio ns for this category wouldcon tribute to the ge nera l knowledge ba-c of teaching andlearning science and math ematics in rural schools.

I. What arc the soc ioeconomic i....ucs related 10instruction and ..tudc nt achievement in math­ematics and science in..trucnon in rural set­ting .. a, co mpared to urb an an d suburba narea..? 1)0 these ..arne socioeconomic pancms..urfuce in ad vanced mathematics and scienceco urses?

., How i....uccess in mathematic.. and sciencedefined in rural areas compared to other set­tings '! Ho w do parent... stude nts. the commu­nity, the ..late. and the nation defin e successin mathematics and science"!

3. Ho w do ca pacity i....ues te.g .. leadership,teacher turnover. instructional resou rce-a in­Iluence mathematic.. and science achievementin rura l schools"

4. What factors distingui sh rural school s thatexcel in rnuthemat ics and ..cic ncc from ruralschools tha t do nof!

5 . what fac tof'> con tribu te to our-of-field teac h­ing in scie nce and mathematic.. in rural ~I­

rings" Are the se fac tor.. d ifferent in other..cltings?

A RES EA RC H AGENDA 57

Other Issues

Conferen ce parti cipants raised other issues, wh ich re­sulted in significant them es fo r cond ucting rural educationresearch. One theme was that resea rch o n math ematics andscience education in rural sc hoo ls should not be res tric tedto the rural circumstance only, Rather, these findin gs shou ldbe compared to what is kno wn abo ut mathemati cs and sc i­ence education in suburban and urba n settings.

The hete rogeneity of rural settings surface d as a sec­ond theme. For example, the edu ca tion ci rcumstan ces inruralIowa differ substantially from those in the delta South.on a Native American reservation. or in the mountains ofAppalachia. Conference partic ipants noted that cven withina rural county. the ci rcumstances in the major popu lat ionarea are very di ffere nt from the experiences in the moreremote areas of the co unty. Co nsequent ly, cross-site st ud­ies in rural areas could provide illuminating differences,particularly in terms of the implem entation o f new curric ulafor mathematics and science.

A third the me was gender . For example, in some ruralareas girls traditionall y may not be expected to completehigher level mathematics or sc ie nce compared to bo ys.Moreover. differences in teaching and learnin g math emat­ics and science may be linked to the ge nder role s trad ition ­ally associated with their antici pated life ' s work after schoo lin the rural area. Boys also may be a victim of the socio­econom ic realities that placed max imum value on trad i­tional blue-collar jobs requi ring litt le education. lifewaysthat honored physical labo r ove r scholarship (Hee nan etul., 2(XlI ).

Finally, technology emerged as a fourth theme. Whileapplica tions of technology have con nected remote ruralareas to the entire worl d. the potential of technology forimproving teaching and learning of mathematics and sci­ence in rural scho o ls rema ins largel y unkn own (cf.,Coladarci,1993).

Conclusion

HRI requires that school-improve me nt strateg ies begrounded in scientifically based research in order for statesto receive funds authorized in the Act. Num erous writershave ca lled for a resea rch agenda that is responsive to rura lschools and their communities . Still . the current researchbase for mathematics and sc ience education in rura l con­texts is extremely lim ited. resu lting in few ed ucation re­form effo rts that are tailored for rural school s. In short, it islargely unk nown that "what works" in urban and suburbancontexts will work in rural sc hools.

It is our hope thai the research age nda pro posed at theARSI conference will gu ide both short- te rm and long-termempirical investigations related to math ematics and scie nceeducation in rura l schools. HR I provides an unprecedented

call for scientifically based research . By enac ting the re­search agenda we have outlined , rural educat ion research­ers will be ta king a sig nificant ste p fo rward to wa rdide ntifying the important-and po ssib ly uniqu e-intlu­cnce s on student learning in mat hematics and science inthe rur al co ntext.

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