Chapter 2: Constructed Space and The Impact of Urbanormativity in Policy on Rural School Reform

Any discussion of rural school reform has an obligation to consider the role state and federal educational policy plays in shaping these reforms. State and federal policy are the lines of demarcation that set or open boundaries for school reform. Any innovations that seek to reform or improve rural schools must work within the confines of policy. This is not a trait unique to rural school reform, however there is a need to consider whether policies are inequitably problematic for rural school improvement.

In considering the impact of educational policy on rural school reform it is essential to recognize that state and federal policies exist in an ontological disconnect. On one level, policies are designed to be placeless. They apply,at least theoretically, equally across geographic areas. All schools under the particular jurisdiction are subject to the same constraints, clarified by the same definitions, and governed by the same consequences. By their nature, these policies are designed to be for anywhere. However, educational policies do not exist in a vacuum. Educational policies can set metrics and definitions for student success, but those definitions are interpreted and applied by actual educators in actual classrooms. As such, although policies might intend to be placeless, they only have meaning when applied in actual settings. The challenge then in understanding what those policies mean for rural schools, as Cavell (2009) would suggest, is not to look at what the policy says, but what it means by how it is put into action in actual schools. That is to say that how a policy is put into place in actual schools is what the policy means, even if the creators of the policy intended otherwise.