Explaining the Rural-Urban Literacy Gap: Effect of Professional Learning Communities

Abstract

The learning gap between rural and urban schools has been an enduring problem in China. Past years have witnessed remarkable progress in hardware provision in rural schools with limited effects on the student achievement outcomes. Therefore, improving teachers and teaching has become a top priority in the national plan for raising the quality of rural education. The literature offers three competing strategies to improve the quality of education. The first strategy emphasizes providing monetary incentives to attract top talents into the needy schools and retain them in the teaching profession. However, research shows mild effect of material incentives on student achievement especially in developed countries (Fryer, 2011). Scholars argued that incentives are ineffective in improving student learning if teachers are poorly trained. The second strategy values individual teacher’s knowledge and skills. It focuses on upgrading teachers through formal education and training. However, without sufficient school-based support, teacher qualification fails to predict student outcomes in a consistent manner. Formal education and training may improve teachers’ theoretical knowledge and skills, but are inadequate to address local school needs (Darling-Hammond & Youngs, 2002). The third strategy champions teacher professional learning communities (PLCs) as a necessary way to enhance teaching and learning. School-based collaborative professional learning activities can build a professional knowledge base in school by developing, sharing, updating, and preserving professional knowledge and skills (Hiebert & Morris, 2012; Author et al, 2017). A recent study demonstrates pronounced disparities in the quality and the intensity of PLCs between rural and urban schools (Wang, et al, 2017). It fruther indicates that fostering strong PLCs can be a cost-effective way to advance teaching in resource-constrained schools and thereby narrow rural-urban learning gap (Sargent & Hannum, 2009) The current research compares these three competing theories with the aim to examine the effects of PLCs on the rural-urban learning gap. A three-level Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) analysis was conducted on longitudinal data consisting of 4712 students taught by 134 teachers from 26 rural and urban schools in China. Findings reveal remarkable rural-urban gap in literacy achievement, teacher income, teacher qualification, and PLCs. The HLM analysis shows a stronger effect of PLCs on student literacy gap than that of income and teacher qualification. Further, the disparities in PLC between rural and urban schools are rooted in school organizational context. The study suggests that the rural-urban achievement gap cannot be narrowed only by pouring money into rural schools. Instead, building local schools’ internal capacity through school-based PLCs will be more effective in enhancing instruction and closing the learning gap.