EFFECTS OF POVERTYON

SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN

Deleasa DoCourse:

Introduction:

When speaking of poverty, it will in the context of and terms of economics and/or socio-economics. Public education system’s social

structure that generally has not changed over time.

Effects of poverty on children and family and, ultimately education.

How the Culture of Poverty myth supports the policy debate.

Terms to Know

Social Structure/Structure What it is not:

Not synonymous with culture Although all cultures have social structure to varies degrees.

What it is: Social Structure is the relationships between different entities or groups in

relatively stable patterns of relationship … grouped into structurally related groups or sets of roles, with different functions, meanings, or purposes.

Child Poverty Families or orphans being raised with limited, or in some cases absent,

state resources. Children that fail to meet the minimum acceptable standard of life for the nation where that child lives are said to be poor.

Culture of Poverty The view that the poor have a different value system that contribute to

their poverty. Coined by Oscar Lewis, 196. It is said that later in his life he recanted, but died

before he republished his work. Supported by Ruby Payne (Aha)

Structural Causes of Poverty

Geographers, sociologists, [anthropologists]and historians have studied and uncovered structural causes of poverty and related discrimination and segregation:

Suburban sprawl as a means to avoid residential and school integration; federal public policies that encouraged suburbanization [contributing to] structural causes of discrimination, segregation, and the concentration of poverty (Lassiter).

Racial inequality in employment: local labor markets affecting blacks and whites differently, differing rates of participation and thus income. Structural factors affecting labor market participation, such as ethnic/racial divisions of labor and discrimination in employment, wages, and occupational structure (Ellis and Odland).

Racial and ethnic segregation interact with structural socioeconomic changes: urban decentralization, the shift from manufacturing to service industries, and growing income inequality) to determine “the spatial concentration of poverty” … isolating the poor “ … especially severe for African Americans already highly segregated by race (Massey and Fischer). Segregation and socioeconomic status strongly determined Academic preparation.

Discrimination in the housing market and other structural changes in social and economic conditions prevents access economic, social, and educational opportunities (Ellis, Wright, and Parks).

High levels of segregation leads to concentrated poverty, results in higher levels of family stress because of the violence and disorder in segregated neighborhoods. Students often respond by devoting more time to family; thus, their academic achievement suffers (Charles, Dinwiddie, and Massey).

Years a Child can live in Poverty

Groski’s speaks with Teacher Janet Teacher Janet: "I love these kids. I adore

them. But my hope is fading." Groski:"Why's that?" Teacher Janet: "They're smart. I know

they're smart, but . . . They don't care about school. They're unmotivated. And their parents—I'm lucky if two or three of them show up for conferences. No wonder the kids are unprepared to learn."

Gorski’s and Rogalsky’s Analysis

Teacher Janet is determined to create an environment in which each student reaches his or her full potential. Despite overflowing with good intentions, Janet has bought into the most common and dangerous myths about poverty.

The "culture of poverty" myth—the idea that poor people share more or less monolithic and predictable beliefs, values, and behaviors.

The educational system will not improve if there are still millions of teachers and administrators buying into the idea of the culture of poverty.

Ruby Payne (Aha) claims to want to eradicate class inequalities that pervade U.S. schools [by] by “fixing” the poor … teaching them the “hidden rules” of the middle class, rather than focusing on systemic economic, political, and social issues (Gorski 2006).

Educators need to be informed about the structural causes of poverty … (Rogalsky, Jennifer). [Teachers] need reach a deeper understanding of class and poverty (Grosky).

Quote by Stephen Krashen

There is no evidence that school itself needs to change dramatically. There is no evidence that teachers these days are worse than they were in the past, that parents these days are more irresponsible than they were in the past, or that students these days are lazier than they were in the past.

From KrashenPoverty Stressors / A Proposal

More likely to suffer from "food insecurity," which means slower language development as well as behavioral.

More likely to lack medical insurance or have high co-payments, which means less medical care, and more childhood illness and absenteeism, which of course negatively impacts school achievement.

Poor schools are more likely to have no school nurse or have a high ratio of nurses to students.

More likely to live in high-pollution areas, with more exposure to mercury, lead, PCB's (polychlorinated biphenyls) and smog, all of which influence health and learning, and often impact behavior.

Have little access to books at home and in their communities, with less access to good public libraries and bookstores.

More likely to attend schools with poorly supported classroom/school libraries.

It's never a good idea to make a proposal in education without talking about how to pay for it and Krashen has a suggestion: Drop all standardized testing, with the exception of one

test, an improved NAEP. For those who argue that we need national standardized tests, we already have an instrument for this, the NAEP.

The available evidence indicates that the massive amount of standardized testing currently done does not do any good and may be doing real harm.

Increased testing does not improve achievement. The NAEP is administered to small groups who each take a

portion of the test every few years. Results are extrapolated to estimate how the larger groups would score. No "test prep" is done, as the tests are zero stakes. Our efforts should be to improve the NAEP, not start all over again, and go through years of expensive fine-tuning with new instruments.

If we are interested in a general picture of how children are doing, this is the way to do it. If we are interested in finding out about a patient's health, we only need to look at a small sample of their blood, not all of it.

High school grades were a better predictor of college success and that adding SAT scores did not improve the odds of college success.

The judgments of professionals who are with children every day is more valid than a test created by distant strangers.

Moreover, teacher evaluations are "multiple measures," are closely aligned with the curriculum, cover a variety of subjects, and are "value-added," that is, they take improvement into consideration.

Finally, the money saved by vastly reducing standardized testing can be invested in improving libraries in high poverty areas: If we do this, we will be investing in solving the problem, not just measuring it.

U.S.A vs. Everyone Else

The main evidence that our schools have failed is the fact that American students have not done especially well on international tests of math and science.

Studies show, however, that American students from well-funded schools who come from high income families outscore nearly all other countries on these kinds of tests.

The mediocre overall scores are because the United States has a very high percentage of children in poverty, over 20%, compared to Denmark's 3%

College Attendance

US Americans comparatively have more access and opportunities to attend college.

Conclusion

If given a choice, one would be hard pressed to find any parent how would choose to raise their children in poverty and all that entails.

In the United States, all children from 6-19 (21 if disabled) have a right to a free public education.

All students have due process of the law. No child can be denied an education

based on any criteria. This cannot be said for other “competitive”

countries!

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Introduction_to_Sociology/Social_Structure

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00221340903344953

www.questia.com Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning.

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_chi_poveconomy-child-poverty

http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_ice.