Study shows students adapt to consolidation of rural schools better than teachers do

Much of the conversation about rural school consolidation has centered on its effect on community and small-town identity. Now a study looking at the impact on four rural Arkansas schools districts has identified different effects for students and teachers. The study revealed "students in rural districts readily adapt to the life changes imposed by school consolidation while teachers—especially veterans—struggle with new relationships," Mary Schulken of Education Week reports on her Rural Education blog. The study, conducted by Keith A. Nitta of the University of Washington, Marc J. Holley of the University of Arkansas and Sharon L. Wrobel of UA-Little Rock appeared in the most recent issue of the Journal of Research in Rural Education.

Researchers interviewed students, teachers, and administrators about the impact on their everyday lives and found nearly all students and teachers reported some benefits from consolidation, including wider course offerings and having to teach fewer subjects. "The study offered no recommendations about whether consolidation is helpful or hurtful," Schulken writes. "Yet, it did make this important point: The narrow, cost-versus-community-impact focus of research and debate has ignored the effect of consolidation on students and teachers. In turn, decisions have discounted that critical factor."

"When it happened it ranked with the death of my mother and our store burning," one teacher, who moved from a tiny district to a larger one, told the researchers, who used pseudonyms for the schools to protect anonymity. "I had been at Cherry all my life. I had done my student teaching there, and went to work there. We live there and have a business there," one teacher said, but acknowledged that the negative effects of consolidation eventually decreased: "Now I’m happy as I’ve ever been, so it’s worked out OK," she told the researchers. "The initial shock of it was a little overwhelming… As bad as it is at first that in the long run they have to remember that it’s for the kids." (Read more)