There are many environmental and contextual factors that can affect the teaching and learning process within an educational community. This school is a small school within a rural community. The school consists of four--- students the majority of the students are white and black with eight percent Hispanic population.
Environmental factors need to be taken into key consideration by teachers, the community, school, and district, as well as the classroom and students. There are multiple environmental factors that can affect a school. In the case of this school the main environmental factors include geographic location, socioeconomic status, the support of the surrounding community and the stability of the community.
In rural schools lack of parental involvement was found to be a key factor that might have an effect on the quality of education. This school is located in a rural community in central Florida surrounded by orange groves. The majority of the families make their living either working in the orange groves, working at the juice plant or their families own the groves. This leads to a large diversity in socioeconomic status. The majority of the population is living below the poverty line. These families are struggling to put food on the table and keep up with the necessities of housing, running water, and electricity.
Many of the families do not have a vehicle so they cannot get to the school for parent conferences. Therefore, sometimes it’s hard to get the parents help with motivating their child. This leads to teachers making a considerable amount of home visits. During many home visits parents are uncomfortable with inviting the educator into their homes. Due to this many conferences are held on the families front porch or front lawn. To begin the conference in a cordial manner the educator will have everyone introduce him or herself and explain how