Connecting Rural African American Families with Differentiated Home Learning Instruction for Their Preschoolers

Abstract African American preschoolers living in rural areas are potentially at greater risk for entering schools less well prepared than their white counterparts. This article examines the importance of family involvement and engagement and dimensions of cultural competence needed to work with African American rural families to develop culturally responsive strategies for both home and early education school environments. Recommendations for rural service providers to improve African American preschooler learning outcomes also are shared. Devon's Story Devon is a 5-year-old kindergarten student in a rural elementary school. He did not go to preschool, and received no schooling at home. Having had very few literacy-related experiences, Devon knows none of his letters, letter sounds, numbers, or how to count beyond five. When he started kindergarten, he barely knew what a book was or that the symbols in the book represented words to be read. Devon's academic deficiencies are quite pronounced, and he is one of the lowest-performing students among the 25 in his kindergarten class. Nevertheless, he enjoys school, looks forward to attending each day and is eager to learn to read. Among his classmates, one-third of the students have had fairly good preschool experiences and are clearly ready to learn in kindergarten. Another third have had some exposure to readiness activities and are trying to keep up with the lessons presented by the teacher. The remaining students present a state of unreadiness similar to Devon's. Their teacher, Ms. Keys, describes them as her a clueless" group, and she is not certain what to do with them. Devon's lowperforming group consists largely of boys and, although they display a desire to learn, they are very active and appear to be in perpetual motion. Ms. Keys constantly reprimands these children, particularly Devon, urging them to sit quietly and to pay attention. Because of excessive movement, Devon and some of the others in his group are often removed from the learning activity and put in time-out. This means they are missing valuable harning time, causing them to fall even further behind their peers in academic, cognitive, and social development. It is a third of the way through the school year, and Ms. Keys is seriously questioning whether Devon and a few of his ?roup mates will make enough progress to move on to first grade the following year. Ms. Keys feels that she does not get much support from the families. Tor example, she called Devon's mother, Ms. Matthews, many times without much success. Ms. Matthews works long hours and on her days off is not able to get transportation to come to the school. Ms. Keys is extremely frustrated about students such as Devon and some of his peers. She feels there is not much else she can do (Cardedge & Lo, 2006, p. 7). Needs of Rural Families Over 13 million American children live in families with income below the federal poverty level and 34% of African American children live in poor families (Fass & Cauthen, 2008). "Poverty rates for rural families are higher across all categories and more enduring than for their urban counterparts" (Pruitt, 2008, p.l). Although many rural places were once racially and ethnically homogeneous, diversity in rural America is on the rise (USDA Economic Research Service, 2007) and persons of color are disproportionately poor (Churilla, 2008). In 2006, 16% of low-income children in rural areas were African American compared to 32% in urban or metropolitan areas (Churilla, 2008). Children living in rural communities face similar conditions and issues as their urban counterparts (e.g., poverty; parental unemployment; poor health status; high mortality rates; cigarette, alcohol, and drug abuse; and low levels of education achievement) (Barbarin et al., 2006). Isolated environments, limited job opportunities and lack of support services for families living in rural communities exacerbate these problems. …