Elementary Math Achievement for Rural Development: Effects of Contextual Factors Intrinsic to the Modern World. Working Paper.

Rural development is often presumed to rest on educational improvement, and high levels of mathematics achievement might seem essential to improving the quality of rural life and the viability of rural communities. Efforts to promote math achievement growth are usually limited to curricular and instructional innovations, while contextual factors related to changing economic activity and social organization are overlooked. In contrast, this study focuses on contextual factors such as the increasing importance of social class, declining payoffs for investments in education, families' need for two incomes, widespread use of dubious-quality child care, and the fragility of nourishing institutions (extended families and neighborhoods). The math achievement growth of 305 elementary students in 6 rural and 6 nonrural schools in West Virginia were examined from kindergarten through the end of grade 3. Using a multilevel repeated-measures model, it was found that math achievement growth in this sample was contextually constrained in ways that are rarely acknowledged. Not surprisingly, maturation (time) and socioeconomic status (SES) were important influences. More surprisingly, neighborhood quality (separate from SES) positively influenced achievement growth, while a school's participation in private daycare (as opposed to Head Start) negatively influenced achievement growth, all else equal. Higher school-level SES and participation in Head Start were associated with greater achievement gains over time. Rural locale did not significantly affect achievement. (Contains 100 references) (Author/SV)