Outreach Appalachia

When artist John Haywood moved to Louisville a few years ago from the rural mountain town of Prestonsburg, Ky., he did several paintings dealing with what he calls “the static depression I was feeling.”

For the teaching assistant and graduate painting student at U of L, the move to the city had brought a profound change in his perceptions and attitudes about his home.

Saint of Electricity (2003) by John Haywood, oil on Masonite, 24" x 48."

“As I got more into the city, I started realizing what that change was,” says Haywood, his curly dark hair falling from under a black stocking hat. He is sitting in a home studio cluttered with paintings, prints and musical instruments.

“It was my growing identity with Appalachia,” he continues, “which seemed strange because I spent much of my life trying to get away. My number one goal it seemed was to get out of the hills.”

But as he settled into the city and made a home in Louisville, the more Appalachia called him back. It wasn’t until Haywood was living in the city that the long-time rock ’n’ roll guitar player became interested in the banjo, even recently constructing one of his own. And Appalachian themes started materializing in his painting.

“In a lot of ways, I guess I was trying to get back home.”

As a graduate student, Haywood was pushed to develop a consistent theme in his art and come up with a thesis. He found that theme in his bond with the Appalachian region of Kentucky.

The result is The Saints, a series of paintings and prints inspired by Haywood’s observations and emotions related to his move to Louisville. It shows how he has embraced many aspects of this new culture and spurned others.

“I feel that being here has and will be beneficial for my career as an artist, but I also feel a little closer to hell for having left the quiet and peaceful nature of the mountains,” he admitted in an artist’s statement for an exhibition last fall.

One of the paintings featured in the series is Saint of Electricity (see page 10), a composition that began as “just sort of a picture of coal miner,” Haywood says. “But I ended up molding it after my grandpa. It’s sort of a portrait.

“He quit school when he was in the sixth grade to be a coal miner.”

While his grandfather represents a big part of the history of Appalachia—coal mining and lack of education—Haywood is an example of modern trends in the region. He came to U of L to improve his skills as an artist and further his potential. But he’s always reaching back to the hills. At the same time, U of L also is reaching into the region, trying to be an engine for improved education and health for its residents. The examples are as diverse as they are numerous.

A Better Teacher

When faculty member Bill Bush came to U of L from the University of Kentucky in the summer of 2001, he established the Center for Research in Mathematics and Science Teacher Development. Since its formation, the center has garnered more than $4.3 million in funding, with $1.35 million of that coming from federal money secured by Sen. Mitch McConnell.

Saint of Louisville Roadways (2003) by John Haywood, oil on Masonite, 24" x 48."

Part of the jump-start funds was $960,000 from a $10 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to create the Appalachian Collaborative Center for Learning, Assessment and Instruction in Mathematics (ACCLAIM).

U of L is working with UK, the University of Tennessee, Ohio University, Marshall University and the Appalachian Rural Systemic Initiative to better prepare mathematics teachers in the Appalachian regions of Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio and West Virginia. The center will do this through a combination of advanced degree programs in mathematics education throughout the region and research connecting mathematics and rural education.

“The problem is that the mathematics and science training that teachers received in college does not always mesh with what they have to teach their students, whether at the elementary or high school level,” says Bush, who is ACCLAIM’s project director. “Teachers need to go through the same exploration of the subjects that they put their students through.”

Through the program, administrators from Appalachia have worked toward doctoral degrees in mathematics education from U of L by combining distance education courses from the university with summer courses at UT. U of L also has co-hosted summer institutes with UK to give math educators from Appalachia leadership training.

The center has also been identifying weaknesses teachers may have in their content areas and then recommending college courses or professional development programs to eliminate those deficiencies.

Another recent U of L outreach into Appalachia also involved teaching. Ellen McIntyre, professor of teaching and learning in the College of Education and Human Development, and Diane Kyle, co-director of the college’s Nystrand Center of Excellence, recently used a $500,000 grant to study teaching methods that improve the literacy and mathematics abilities of at-risk students.

For four years McIntyre and Kyle followed 10 teachers and 56 children at five elementary schools in Jefferson, Oldham, Bullitt, Shelby and Spencer counties. They focused on two groups of children: those from inner-city neighborhoods and those whose families had recently moved from the Appalachian region.

They visited homes as many as 14 times each during the four-year study period to learn how to blend family knowledge with school curricula.

“Contrary to popular perception, these parents hold the same goals for their children that middle class families have,” McIntyre says. “They want their children to be able to support themselves and to have stable, happy lives.

“Some families often need help in knowing how to support their children at home. And teachers often don’t know families well enough to learn from them.”

The researchers and teachers made the home visits together. From those visits came ideas for classroom lessons with which the children and families were comfortable.

“We found that teachers who are able to incorporate family experience into their curricula achieve the best results at closing the gap,” McIntyre says.

When the students’ literacy achievement was assessed at the end of the study, McIntyre and Kyle discovered that out of the 56 students, four were “leapers” who made more progress than expected in narrowing the gap with middle class students, eight maintained above-average achievement and 27 progressed as expected. However, 17 had regressed in their reading and writing skills.

The students performed much better in mathematics. Most progressed and only eight fell behind.

“While we are pleased with some of the results, we didn’t think that we would have any students on the low end of the spectrum,” McIntyre says.

“I have always believed that good teaching makes a difference, especially if the children have good teachers for multiple years—which they did in this study—but I guess in reality other factors are more powerful.”

The researchers say more studies need to be done to understand those factors.

The study did not find any significant difference in the children’s achievement when race and geographical location were considered.

Both McIntyre and Kyle add that no one curriculum or instructional approach is guaranteed to help at-risk children learn.

“Helping children succeed always is a multifaceted challenge,” Kyle says. “Students need to feel known by their teacher and feel they are meaningful. This is best achieved by high engagement, whether in or out of the classroom.”

Better Health

Many areas of the Appalachian region are dubbed “medically underserved.” Each year, several U of L programs venture into the area to help improve both the mental and physical health of its people.

Scores of U of L students spend a big chunk of their summer providing free health screenings in the region and in other parts of the state. In the process, they learn a lot about themselves and their abilities to deliver health care via teamwork.

The approach garnered a national award last spring.

The Kentucky Interdisciplinary Community Screenings (KICS) program unites U of L students and faculty from social work, dentistry, medicine and nursing with the Area Health Education Center (AHEC) liaisons in various regions of the state. KICS is designed to improve access to health care in rural areas and provide an opportunity for students to have unique experiences in rural settings.

Last summer students performed screenings in Campton, a town in eastern Kentucky, as well as other underserved communities around the state including Louisville’s Portland neighborhood, Sebree in western Kentucky and Tompkinsville in south central Kentucky.

More than 200 U of L students have participated in KICS since the program’s inception in 1993. KICS has served more than 3,000 people from 39 counties across Kentucky. The KICS team approach earned the interdisciplinary group recognition last May at the annual meeting of the National Academies of Practice, an organization that promotes quality health care through interdisciplinary practice, education and research.

AHEC offices serve as the on-site coordinators for the traveling KICS team, helping in the planning, screening and referral process and arranging for student lodging and board in local motels or schools.

Screenings can take place in family resource centers, schools or local clinics, depending on what is available and accessible in each community.

The eastern Kentucky site this summer will be in Letcher County, where a team of students and faculty will work from June 28 to July 1.

Separate from the KICS program, the U of L School of Dentistry has provided a community program and free clinic since 1999 in Smith, Ky., which is in Harlan County. The school partners with a missions’ group based in Martins Fork.

This past fall, U of L social work students traveled to eastern Kentucky to learn more about social work in Appalachia. Some 25 Kent School of Social Work students who were enrolled in or had taken the graduate-level “Human Behavior and Social Environment” class traveled to Knott and Floyd counties.

The students toured a school and attended a panel discussion about Appalachian social work services. The group stayed in cabins in Prestonsburg and attended a bluegrass music concert at the Mountain Arts Center.

The Kent School’s practicum program, in which students receive social work experience by working in various agencies and programs, also has a big presence in Appalachia. Practicum director Martha Fuller says there are eight students this academic year in practicum sites throughout Appalachia.

“These are students who live in Appalachia and come to Kent School in the weekend program,” Fuller says. “That’s quite a trip for some of them. It’s a real commitment.”

Several students are working with the newly renamed state Cabinet for Health and Family Services in programs such as foster care, domestic violence and child protection. Some are practicing with the Department of Juvenile Justice in programs to help delinquent youths in day-treatment programs. Others are working with local agencies doing mental health care ranging from child and adolescent therapy to substance abuse programs.

In the past, Fuller has overseen students working in substance abuse programs in Appalachia as well as residential programs for youths with severe behavioral disorders and shelters for abused women.

A Statewide University

U of L President James Ramsey says the university will continue to cultivate and enhance initiatives in the Appalachian region of Kentucky as well as all other corners of the state.

“As a statewide university, it is important for the University of Louisville to reach out across all of Kentucky,” Ramsey says. “Our efforts in Appalachia are just one very important example.”

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