An Ecological Perspective on Supporting At-Risk Readers in Rural Elementary Schools

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

It is difficult to overstate the value of being literate in modern society; the ability to read has enormous personal and professional implications (Feister, 2010). Yet for more than two decades, U.S. elementary students have demonstrated alarmingly low rates of reading proficiency (NAEP, 2019). In order to address this national crisis, developmental research is needed that critically examines the varied contexts in which learning – including literacy learning – occurs. Enrolling more than nine million U.S. children annually (Blad, 2019), rural schools are important but understudied (Autio & Deussen, 2017) contexts.

This panel will take an ecological approach (Bronfenbrenner, 2005) to studying the literacy development of diverse K-5 learners in rural schools. Presenting authors will explore microsystem influences of student-teacher relationships and instructional quality on rural children’s literacy outcomes. One research team will describe the creation of “community classrooms” that leverage the cultural and linguistic diversity of rural English learners as access points for literacy learning. At the level of the mesosystem, panel members will discuss two professional development (PD) models that address the challenges of providing ongoing, intensive PD within resource-constrained schools, while also capitalizing on assets, such as low turnover and strong collegiality among rural educators, to build sustainable models for lasting change in professional practice. Finally, one research team will present a unique teacher residency program that actively combats macrosystem influences of structural inequalities within rural settings. Together, the panel will offer diverse perspectives on addressing one aspect of our national reading crisis – increasing reading achievement among rural students.

Sub Unit

• Education, Schooling

Chair

• Karen Flynn Kehoe, University of Virginia - Charlottesville

Individual Presentations

• Targeted Reading Instruction Certification and Coaching Processes to Increase Capacity for Sustaining High-Quality Reading Instruction - Presenting Author: Mary Bratsch-Hines, University of Florida; Non-Presenting Author: Heather Aiken, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Non-Presenting Author: Cheryl Varghese, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston; Non-Presenting Author: Eleni Zgourou, Kean University

• Rural English Learner Literacy Development: Results from a 4th Grade “Community Classroom” - Presenting Author: Maria R. Coady, University of Florida; Non-Presenting Author: Rebecca Childs, Florida State University

• Translating the Science of Reading Into Classroom Practice in Rural K-1 Classrooms - Presenting Author: Karen Flynn Kehoe, University of Virginia - Charlottesville; Non-Presenting Author: Anita McGinty, Innate health research

• UDL and Discrit: A Joint Path Preparing Rural Teachers to Teach Underserved Students - Presenting Author: Bryan Mascio, University of New Hampshire; Non-Presenting Author: Beth S. Fornauf, Plymouth State University