ED398040 RC020708
Title:
Schools as the Center of Rural Communities: An Ethnographic Study.
Author(s): Allen, Sharon M.; And Others
Author Affiliation: South Dakota Univ., Vermillion. School
of Education.(BBB04640)
Pages: 42
Publication Date: April 1996
Notes: Paper presented at the National Meeting of the American
Educational Research Association (New York, NY, April 1996).
Sponsoring Agency: Department of Health and Human Services,
Washington, DC. (BBB18571)
Available from: EDRS Price MF01/PC02 Plus Postage.
Language: English
Document Type: Reports--Research (143); Speeches/meeting
papers (150)
Geographic Source: U.S.; South Dakota
Journal Announcement: RIEDEC1996
An ethnographic
study examined school-community relationship and its effect on program
implementation in six rural South Dakota towns serving as sites
for the South Dakota Head Start/Public School Transition Demonstration
Project (SDTP). SDTP is part of a national project to test whether
providing continuous comprehensive services to Head Start children
and their families through third grade can maintain and enhance
the early benefits attained by the children. Family service coordinators
(FSCs) act as liaisons between state agencies, community agencies,
schools, and parents; make routine home visits; and ensure that
families receive services in the areas of health, education, social
services, and parent involvement. Data collection included participant
observations in elementary schools and communities while "shadowing"
FSCs during their work days; formal and spontaneous interviews with
FSCs, principals, teachers, and parents; examination of school documents;
and analysis of FSC journals. Preliminary results suggest that only
two of the six elementary schools were at the center of community
life, and identify community characteristics that influence the
school-community relationship and program success. These characteristics
include sense of community, community size, community norms, heterogeneity
of the community, and level of parent involvement. Contains 40 references.
(SV)
Descriptors: Community Attitudes; *Community Characteristics;
Context Effect; Demonstration Programs; Educational Change; Elementary
Education; Elementary Schools; Ethnography; Family Programs; *Parent
Participation; Preschool Education; *Program Implementation; *Rural
Schools; *School Community Relationship; Transitional Programs
Identifiers: *Project Head Start; *Sense of Community; South
Dakota
