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Clayton Ridge High School:

An Investigation on Communication in a Rural School

Sabrina Groth
Department of Education, Manhattan College
EDUC 360: Language and Literacy
Sister Maryann Jacobs
April 22, 2022
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Clayton Ridge High School: An Investigation on Communication in a Rural School

Clayton Ridge High School (CRHS) is a public high school in Guttenberg, Iowa. The

school has about 200 students for grades 9-12, with a student to teacher ratio of 12:1. Only 4% of

enrolled students are minorities and 38% are economically disadvantaged. The school is ranked

as one of the #1 schools for graduation rate in the state of Iowa with a graduation rate of 100%,

though they are in the bottom half for math and reading proficiency, both on a state and national

level. From my observations there was very little “teaching up” happening in the classrooms.

The seniors were treated and taught the same way freshmen were, as well as a lack of

engagement from all students, both with the content and their peers.

There was a significant lack of academic vocabulary in the classroom. Lessons often

seemed rushed and unplanned. Students didn’t engage with the lessons, their peers, or the

instructor. There was an overall lack of language function in the classroom and students seemed

to have only a vague understanding of the topic, if any understanding at all. Even when told they

could work in groups, or explicitly told they were going to, students worked independently,

minus a few here and there.

There was no noticeable difference in discussion and language between the

upperclassmen and underclassmen, though the upperclassmen were a little less reluctant to

answer questions. Most communication in the classroom was virtually, either through pear deck,

google classroom, or kahoots. To force participation among students, they complete short check

for understandings in the form of pear decks, a Google Slides-based program in which students

can answer questions on their laptops anonymously during a presentation, or Kahoot, a quiz style

game with points, which also allowed students to remain anonymous. Students also participated

in an introductory discussion every class period for the “science journal” as they called it. On the

board there is a riddle, fun fact, or question and students must guess the answer. The same
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journal was used for all biology, physical science, and anatomy classes, and seemed to never

relate to any of the lessons. Only the upperclassmen seemed willing to put guesses forward, the

underclassmen acted as if they were having teeth pulled.

The biggest problem I noted in my time at CRHS was a lack of communication and

discourse in the classroom. Students didn’t talk to each other or their teacher, significantly

reducing their levels of understanding. I discussed my observations with Mr. Brown, my

cooperating teacher, and he noted that this year in particular students seem to be extra avoidant

of each other. If this were any other school, I might have attributed this anti-social behavior to

students having been separated by the pandemic, however CRHS was only closed for a few

months during the pandemic and students have not been required to wear masks since the spring

2021 semester. In my observations, it was clear that the pandemic was not on the minds of these

students, and it seems it hasn’t been for quite some time. Mr. Brown attributed the behavior to

bullying among the underclassmen and unresolved social tensions among the upperclassmen.

Mr. Brown also noted that he attempted to encourage communication in the classroom last

semester by increasing the amount of group work in his classes, though, apparently, it had the

opposite effect and created even more tension in the classroom.

The silence in the classroom throughout the week was nearly deafening, especially when

students were working on projects and discussions. One class period, however, had the opposite

problem. The 5th period physical science class took nothing seriously and Mr. Brown had a hard

time keeping them under control. The class was still tense, with very clear divisions between

students, though at least there were discussions happening. Once the class settled themselves

down, they generally stayed on task when working in groups, though some groups were better

than others. One group seemed to have one girl doing all the work while they joked around or
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were on their phones, which Mr. Brown noted but did nothing about. This class period seemed

especially hard to control on Friday when they had a test on their science journals for the quarter.

Students finished the test relatively faster than the other class periods but, rather than staying

quiet and respecting their peers who had yet to finish, students got up and moved around the

room, some even using yard sticks as swords. The lack of communication in the fifth period class

seemed to be mostly between student and teacher, compared to the other classes where peer

discussion was lacking in addition to teacher-student communication.

The lack of communication and collaboration in the classroom could possibly be

attributed to the fact that this is a rural, agricultural community. Most students are fourth or fifth

generation farmers, who have been with the same peer group since they were born. There seems

to be no emphasis on the importance of education, both from their teachers and their parents.

There is little to no rigor in the classroom and little motivation among both students and teachers.

There are no AP or honors classes in the curriculum, and, according to the principal, there never

have been. I experienced career day in my time at Clayton Ridge and was a little surprised that

there were only a handful of careers presented: law enforcement, blue collar/construction,

farming, and nursing. Every nursing session only had girls, with all the boys choosing one of the

other sessions. It seems these children believe their futures to be limited to the town of

Guttenberg. Upon finding out I was visiting from New York, several students were astonished,

asking “Why would you come to Iowa?” and, when I responded that my dad was from

Guttenberg, they looked shocked and one student quietly asked, “How did he get out of here?” I

realized that these kids genuinely thought they would live and die in this town, and they had

never given thought to going elsewhere, or maybe they assumed it just wasn’t possible, so they

stopped thinking about it. In a town like Guttenberg, with a population of 1,500, everyone knows
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everything about everyone. Secrets aren’t long kept in places like this, which is probably why

classroom tensions are so high, everyone assumes their secrets aren’t safe.

In the journals I read about the rural classroom, they all listed the miniscule size of the

school and the unchanging population as a strength. In practice, this is rarely true. Many of the

tensions a result of these students growing up within 10 miles of each other from birth, some of

them stemming from conflicts dating back to the first grade. A small part of these tensions also

comes from the fact that rural schools are underfunded and underrepresented (Sayeed, 2018).

Clayton Ridge High School has nearly been shut down four times in the past decade, simply due

to low enrollment, which would have resulted in students going to school in the next county,

almost an hour away from Guttenberg. The lack funding for the school isn’t just an issue of

keeping the school open, it’s also limiting the resources students and teachers can use in the

classroom. Teachers have had to learn how to use virtual resources in the pandemic, but that was

almost impossible in Iowa. Part of the reason CRHS did not shut down for long during the

pandemic was because a large portion of students didn’t have internet or computer access at

home. In addition, the government program that worked to bring computers to low-income

schools did not reach Guttenberg until halfway through the first semester of the 2021-22 school

year. By that point, many students had already missed out on months’ worth of learning, and the

situation hasn’t gotten much better. In a report by the Iowa Governor’s Office, 35% of all Iowan

households lack the benchmark internet speed and Iowa is 45 th in the nation for internet access

and second slowest internet speed in the nation. The report also shows a map of the unserved

counties regarding internet, and the majority of these areas were rural, farming communities.

But why are economically disadvantaged students in rural America not receiving the

same attention and resources as inner-city students? The answer is not a simple one. Many claim
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that inner-city students require more reforms, often citing the school-to-prison pipeline,

deteriorating infrastructure, and city violence. Rural schools have a 3% larger population of

economically disadvantaged students (Sayeed, 2018) and crime rates seem higher in urban areas

because there are more people and many sources advertise misunderstood statistics, when, in

reality, urban and rural juvenile crime rates are nearly identical (Kokoravec, Mesko, & Marshall,

2014).

Seeing as the issue does not appear to be in literacy but rather a lack of camaraderie in the

classroom, the approach to the problem is not a simple one. However, the lack of communication

between peers and teachers may be hurting their speaking and listening skills, so the approach

must encourage active listening and communication. The first step in approaching this problem

would be to truly understand how to encourage effective communication in any environment, not

just the classroom. Encouraging effective communication in any environment requires everyone

involved to feel a sense of belonging and security. No one wants to participate in discussions

where they do not feel welcome or do not feel as though they can state their opinions or ideas.

This classroom is riddled with conflict and tension, which has been met with apathy and

indifference. Students need to know that the tensions have been acknowledged and to know

someone cares about it. Mr. Brown lacks control of his classroom and his students, which seems

to have worsened the tensions between students.

According to Shipside (2007), conflict is inevitable, but, if handled correctly, can lead to

a productive discussion. He states, “it’s how we react to it that decides whether or not it is a

healthy influence” (56). He lists three main points to maintaining a healthy conflict: be positive,

keep control, and keep the balance. The first thought when someone says “conflict” is negative,

when conflict can draw people together and add depth to peoples’ understandings. Maintaining a
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growth mindset when dealing with conflict is the first step to ensuring things don’t get out of

hand and the situation does not turn into a full-on confrontation. The second point, keeping

control, involves simply not letting anyone get too hot-headed and that any debate does not turn

into personal attacks on either side. Keeping the balance is similar in practice, though focuses

more on encouraging people to speak up, setting time limits for certain discussions and points,

and setting rules beforehand, especially those that state the discussion must remain on-topic and

there should be no opinions regarding the individual.

In the few discussions I observed in my time at Clayton Ridge High School, almost all of

them tended to get off task. Some of the groups didn’t even discuss at all, rather sitting in silence

and avoiding eye contact with one another. The situation seems to be less conflict and more a

worry that a conflict will happen if they break their silence. In much of my research humor was

offered up as an ice breaker to create a more welcoming environment (Shipside, 2007). Mr.

Brown did attempt to humor the kids with jokes and fun drawing activities at the beginning of

the lessons, but the tensions were too high for students to even crack a smile. Another tip, offered

by the article How to Get Students to Talk in Class, encourages cooperative learning groups and

round robin groupings (Cox, 2019). This seems like reasonable advice, though, in practice, only

made tensions worse in the classroom, according to Mr. Brown.

All in all, theory is much more effective than practice. Studies and theories of adolescent

psychology suggest forcing collaboration, using humor, and encouraging differing opinions. In

the classroom I observed at Clayton Ridge High School, all these techniques were used, though

they failed to provide any results. The tensions in the classroom create a hostile learning

environment, making it virtually impossible for these students to gain any meaningful knowledge

and removing any chance of the transfer of this knowledge into their lives and future education
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endeavors. The largest factor in the creation of these tensions is the rural environment these

students have grown up in, creating long lasting conflicts that generally go unresolved, some

lasting over a decade. Another factor is the lack of funding for the school and the fact that the

school is constantly at risk of being shut down and many of these students risk the entirety of

their education experience being uprooted and having to move an hour away. These students

need just as much support as inner-city students are receiving, especially in terms of counselling

and financial support, so now we must determine how to get it to them.

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References

Cox, J. (2019, November 13). 5 ways to get students to talk in class. ThoughtCo. Retrieved from
https://www.thoughtco.com/getting-students-to-talk-in-class-3860770.

Creating Universal Broadband Access for Iowans. Office of the Governor of Iowa. (n.d.).
Retrieved from https://governor.iowa.gov/basic-page/creating-universal-broadband-access-
for-iowans.

Sayeed, D. (2018, December 27). Rural education: Addressing a tension point in the Great
American Divide. EdSurge News. Retrieved from https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-01-12-
rural-education-addressing-tension-point-in-the-great-american-divide.

Shipside, S. (2007). Effective communications: Get your message across and learn how to listen.
Dorling Kindersley.

Kokoravec, I., Mesko, G., Marshall, I. (2014, January 14). Juvenile Delinquency and
Victimization: Urban vs Rural Environments. Revija Za Kriminalistiko in Krimilogijo
(Translation: Journal of Criminology and Forensics). 74(4). 323-336.