Take Care When Cutting

Five Approaches to Disaggregating School Data as Rural and Remote

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3776/tpre.2020.v10n2p63-84

Keywords:

rural schools, remoteness, place-based research methods, educational equity

Abstract

Education research that omits or insufficiently defines geographic locale can impair policy formulation, enactment, and evaluation. Such impairments might be especially detrimental for communities in rural and/or remote areas, particularly when they pertain to gifted education programs that struggle to operate at large scale (e.g., Advanced Placement). To enhance researchers’ precision when analyzing school-level data, we developed five statistical approaches to operationalize rurality and remoteness using the Urban-Centric codes from the National Center of Education Statistics. With national data, we found important variations across these statistical approaches in (a) percentage of schools identified as rural and/or remote, (b) effect sizes, and (c) characterizations of schools’ relative disadvantage in the breadth of opportunity to learn Advanced Placement content that they provide. These findings challenge prevailing practices of classifying communities dichotomously as nonrural or rural. The authors demonstrate several ways to address policy makers’ and practitioners’ needs by incorporating geographic locale into analyses of school data, operationalizing geographic locale precisely in theoretically sound ways, and avoiding dichotomies that can obscure meaningful variation.

Author Biographies

Michael Thier, Department of Educational Methodology, Policy, and Leadership, University of Oregon

Michael Thier, PhD, uses multiple and mixed methods to aid implementation and measurement of global citizenship education (GCE), compare GCE possibilities and constraints internationally/cross-culturally, and discover opportunities and conditions that enable students, especially in rural/remote schools, to participate in GCE. He has won awards from the American Educational Research Association, English Journal, and the University of Oregon, where he recently completed a concurrent PhD in educational leadership, specialization in quantitative methods, and a master’s in public administration. He is an editorial board member of the International Journal of Education Policy and Leadership. Most important, he is the proud father of two inquisitive and strong daughters.

 

Paul Beach, Department of Educational Methodology, University of Oregon

Paul Beach, MPA, analyzes policies and evaluates programs through advanced quantitative analyses, case studies, and systematic literature reviews. His research focuses on school accountability, college and career readiness theory and practice, and factors that enhance educational equity during school improvement initiatives. At Inflexion (a nonprofit education consulting group) he has conducted research for the AVID Center, California Department of Education, International Baccalaureate, National Assessment Governing Board, and William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. He is a PhD candidate in quantitative research methods in education at the University of Oregon, completing a dissertation that explores effects of accountability policy and predictors of state-level Advanced Placement exam performance.

Charles R. Martinez Jr., College of Education, University of Texas

Charles R. Martinez, Jr., PhD, is professor and dean of the College of Education at The University of Texas at Austin, where he holds the Lee Hage Jamail Regents Chair and Sid W. Richardson Chair in Education. His scholarship focuses on identifying factors that hinder or promote the success of children and families from vulnerable, underserved populations. He has led numerous federally and internationally funded research projects examining education and behavioral health disparities among immigrant Latino children and families and developing culturally specific interventions for at-risk families in the United States and Latin America.

 

Keith Hollenbeck, Department of Educational Methodology, University of Oregon

Keith Hollenbeck, PhD, is codirector of administrative licensure programs for the Department of Educational Methodology, Policy, and Leadership in the University of Oregon College of Education. His teaching and administrative experience ranges from primary education to collegiate teaching and from general education to special education. His doctorate is in special education with an emphasis in curriculum design and assessment. Besides curriculum design and assessment, he has interests in administrator and teacher-leader training, large-scale statewide assessment research, district-wide curriculum-based assessment, and institutionalizing empirically validated effective educational practices.

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Published

2020-10-30

How to Cite

Thier, M., Beach, P., Martinez Jr., C. R., & Hollenbeck, K. (2020). Take Care When Cutting: Five Approaches to Disaggregating School Data as Rural and Remote. Theory & Practice in Rural Education, 10(2), 63–84. https://doi.org/10.3776/tpre.2020.v10n2p63-84