Rural Math Talent, Now and Then

This article interprets inequality evident at the intersection of three realms: (a) mathematical talent (as a cultural phenomenon); (b) rural place and rural life; and (c) future economic, political, and ecological developments. The discussion explains this outlook on inequality, contextualizes interest in rural mathematics education, presents the conventional view of rural mathematics achievement as deficient, and then elaborates an alternative perspective. Illustrating the alternative, the essay embeds an analysis of a national data set to derive comparisons of the equality of math talent across locales (rural, suburban, and urban), demonstrating the greater equality of math talent in rural places. The essay concludes with principles for (a) making mathematics instruction more responsive to rural context, and (b) reorienting the instruction of gifted teachers in rural schools to an educational purpose that exerts better stewardship over local mathematical talent.

[1]  C. Howley,et al.  Challenges for Place-Based Mathematics Pedagogy in Rural Schools and Communities in the United States , 2023, Children, Youth and Environments.

[2]  John Lewis,et al.  Getting It Wrong from the Beginning: Our Progressivist Inheritance from Herbert Spencer, John Dewey, and Jean Piaget by Kieran Egan (review) , 2014 .

[3]  Daniel A. Showalter,et al.  Why Rural Matters 2013-2014: The Condition of Rural Education in the 50 States. , 2014 .

[4]  W. Grossman.  Is algebra necessary , 2012 .

[5]  N. Castree.  The power of place: geography, destiny and globalization's rough landscape – By Harm de Blij , 2012 .

[6]  Navin Kumar Singh,et al.  Review of Diane Ravitch Book, “The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education.” New York, NY: Basic Books. , 2012, Poverty & Public Policy.

[7]  Peter A Kindle.  A Revolution Down on the Farm: The Transformation of American Agriculture Since 1929 , 2012 .

[8]  Lois A. Stoehr.  The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education , 2012 .

[9]  M. Corbett.  A Companion to the Film, "Putting Mathematics Education in Its Place". Working Paper No. 41. , 2011 .

[10]  Jerry Johnson,et al.  On the Use of Locale in Understanding the Mathematics Achievement Gap , 2010 .

[11]  L. Beaulieu,et al.  Social Capital, Place of Residence, and College Attendance. , 2010 .

[12]  G. Israel,et al.  The Influence of Family and Community Social Capital on Educational Achievement , 2009 .

[13]  T. Strayhorn.  Different Folks, Different Hopes , 2009 .

[14]  P. Carr,et al.  Hollowing Out the Middle: The Rural Brain Drain and What It Means for America , 2009 .

[15]  Martin Jacques.  When China Rules The World: The Rise Of The Middle Kingdom And The End Of The Western World , 2009 .

[16]  J. Smerdon,et al.  Climate Change , 2009 .

[17]  J. H. Sandholtz,et al.  Constrained Professionalism: Dilemmas of Teaching in the Face of Test-Based Accountability , 2009, Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education.

[18]  Julia Wright,et al.  Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security in an Era of Oil Scarcity: Lessons from Cuba , 2008 .

[19]  R. Eller.  Uneven Ground: Appalachia since 1945 , 2008 .

[20]  P. Conkin.  A Revolution Down on the Farm , 2008 .

[21]  D. Gruenewald.  Resistance, Reinhabitation, and Regime Change , 2006 .

[22]  Linda Darling-Hammond,et al.  Constructing 21st-Century Teacher Education , 2006 .

[23]  Gert-Jan Hospers,et al.  Dark Age Ahead , 2005 .

[24]  C. Bowers.  Revitalizing the Commons or an Individualized Approach to Planetary Citizenship: The Choice Before Us , 2004 .

[25]  D. Gruenewald.  The Best of Both Worlds: A Critical Pedagogy of Place , 2003 .

[26]  C. Howley.  Research about Mathematics Achievement in the Rural Circumstance. Working Paper. , 2002 .

[27]  Frank Smith.  The Glass Wall : Why Mathematics Can Seem Difficult , 2002 .

[28]  Gregory A. Smith,et al.  Place-Based Education: Learning to Be Where We are , 2002 .

[29]  Leland S. Cogan,et al.  Who Takes What Math and in Which Track? Using TIMSS to Characterize U.S. Students’ Eighth-Grade Mathematics Learning Opportunities , 2001 .

[30]  Tyrone C. Howard,et al.  Multicultural teacher education for the 21st century , 2000 .

[31]  L. Jamieson.  Migration, Place and Class: Youth in a Rural Area , 2000 .

[32]  J. Stigler,et al.  The Teaching Gap: Best Ideas from the World's Teachers for Improving Education in the Classroom , 1999 .

[33]  James C. Scott,et al.  Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed , 1999 .

[34]  Vincent J. Roscigno.  The Black-White Achievement Gap, Family-School Links, and the Importance of Place , 1999 .

[35]  D. Dennis,et al.  Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed , 1998 .

[36]  William F. Tate,et al.  Race-Ethnicity, SES, Gender, and Language Proficiency Trends in Mathematics Achievement: An Update , 1997 .

[37]  Nidhi Khattri,et al.  Students at Risk in Poor, Rural Areas: A Review of the Research. , 1997 .

[38]  J. Hennen.  The Americanization of West Virginia: Creating a Modern Industrial State, 1916-1925 , 1997 .

[39]  P. Salstrom.  The Americanization of West Virginia: Creating a Modern Industrial State, 1916–1925. By John C. Hennen. (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1996. xvi, 217 pp. $32.95, ISBN 0-8131-1960-X.) , 1997 .

[40]  Alexander Seeshing Yeung,et al.  The Distinctiveness of Affects in Specific School Subjects: An Application of Confirmatory Factor Analysis With the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 , 1996 .

[41]  R. Pittman,et al.  Home, Family, and Community: Ingredients in the Rural Education Equation. , 1995 .

[42]  John Owen King,et al.  The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations , 1981 .

[43]  R. Ehrlich.  The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations , 1979, Telos.

[44]  Anja,et al.  Finnish lessons : what can the world learn from educational change in Finland ? , 2015 .

[45]  Daniel A. Showalter,et al.  Why Rural Matters 2011-12: The Condition of Rural Education in the 50 States. A Report of the Rural School and Community Trust Policy Program. , 2012 .

[46]  B. Chang,et al.  Mathematics Course-Taking in Rural High Schools. , 2011 .

[47]  N. Gilman,et al.  Deviant globalization : black market economy in the 21st century , 2011 .

[48]  T. James,et al.  THE COUNCIL OF CHIEF STATE SCHOOL OFFICERS , 2009 .

[49]  P. J. Matthews.  The other Greeks: The family farm and the agrarian roots of western civilization , 2008, Economic Botany.

[50]  J. Kunstler.  The long emergency : surviving the end of oil, climate change, and other converging catastrophes of the twenty-first century , 2005 .

[51]  J. Williams.  Cross-National Variations in Rural Mathematics Achievement: A Descriptive Overview. , 2005 .

[52]  H. W. Castner.  Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong , 2004 .

[53]  Robert E. Reys,et al.  Assessing the Impact of Standards-Based Middle Grades Mathematics Curriculum Materials on Student Achievement. , 2003 .

[54]  P. Ramsey,et al.  Multicultural Teacher Education , 2003 .

[55]  Beverly A. Burnell.  The "Real World" Aspirations of Work-Bound Rural Students , 2003 .

[56]  Gene Bottoms,et al.  Factors Affecting Mathematics Achievement for Students in Rural Schools. Research Brief. , 2003 .

[57]  Barbara Benham Tye.  Hard Truths: Uncovering the Deep Structure of Schooling , 2000 .

[58]  W. G. Mcintire,et al.  Interstate Variation in the Mathematics Achievement of Rural and Nonrural Students. , 2000 .

[59]  Z. Bauman.  Globalization: The Human Consequences , 1998 .

[60]  Paul K. Theobald.  Teaching The Commons: Place, Pride, And The Renewal Of Community , 1997 .

[61]  Otis Dudley Duncan,et al.  A socioeconomic index for all occupations. , 1996 .

[62]  Craig B. Howley,et al.  Rural Scholars or Bright Rednecks? Aspirations for a Sense of Place Among Rural Youth in Appalachia , 1996 .

[63]  Alan Deyoung,et al.  The Life and Death of a Rural American High School: Farewell Little Kanawha , 1995 .

[64]  J. Hektner.  When Moving Up Implies Moving Out: Rural Adolescent Conflict in the Transition to Adulthood. , 1995 .

[65]  D. Orr.  Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment, and the Human Prospect , 1994 .

[66]  Ole Skovsmose,et al.  Towards a philosophy of critical mathematics education , 1994 .

[67]  Christopher Lasch,et al.  The True and Only Heaven: Progress and Its Critics , 1991 .

[68]  J. Seager.  The State of the earth , 1990 .

[69]  Raymond Williams,et al.  The Politics of Modernism , 1989 .

[70]  R. Cobb.  Vocational and Educational Aspirations of High School Students: A Problem for Rural America. , 1989 .

[71]  Wendell Berry,et al.  The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture , 1977 .

[72]  Raymond Williams.  The Country and the City , 1973 .

[73]  James B. Conant,et al.  The American High School Today: a First Report to Interested Citizens , 1959 .

[74]  T. L. Scheid-Cook,et al.  A Sand County Almanac , 1949 .