The disappearance of “social capital” in rural America: Are all rural children “at risk?”

Abstract

Throughout the twentieth century, continuous waves of school reform in America proceeded under the assumption that the science of teaching and learning, under the control of teachers and administrators and removed from the control of parents and communities, would singlehandedly lead to increasingly better learner outcomes. Furthermore, this belief in the quintessential power of professional technique even now pervades the professional discourse on improving the education for “at risk” youths. Yet, in the last decade, James Coleman (among others) demonstrated the powerful effect that local communities can have for improving educational outcomes, when such communities have been enabled to provide the “social capita!” necessary for so doing. Unfortunately, as many cities and metropolitan areas have begun to discover and utilize stable and progressive community resources for the benefit of their schools and their children, we continue to witness declining economies and unstable communities in rural America. If future schooling outcomes in the U.S. are to be enhanced by renewed partnerships between schools and communities, many if not most students in rural and declining communities will continue to be at risk. The following paper briefly traces this conceptual argument, and illustrates how the erosion of “social capital” has adversely affected children and schools in a West Virginia school system.