Poverty: The Enemy of Children and Families

Some Findings of Low Income Parents•Hispanic and African-American parents were more likely to consider going to college very important, compared to white parents: 90% of Hispanic parents and 92% of African-American parents consider going to college very important compared to 78% of white parents.•Parents with high school degrees are more likely to believe that what children have to learn today to compete in the workforce is much different than it was 20 years ago when they were students than better educated parents: 70% of parents with a high school degree believe this is true, compared with 52% of parents with a college degree and 49% with a graduate degree.•85% of parents at low-performing schools think it is important for parents of high school students to be involved as advocates for their children compared to 78% of parents of students in high-performing schools.

After hitting a record high in the 2011-2012 school year, the number of homeless students enrolled in American public schools jumped dramatically again last year.In the 2012-2013 school year, there were 1,258,182 homeless students, according to newly released data from the National Center for Homeless Education. That’s an 8 percent increase from the 2011-2012 school year, when the 1,168,354 homeless students marked a record high. The number of homeless students has increased 85 percent since the beginning of the recession. Most of these students are “doubled up,” or living in someone else’s home — 75 percent, or 936,441, were in this situation. More than 190,000 were in shelters, while another 70,000 lived in hotels or motels. Unsheltered students numbered 41,635, and while that is the smallest share of living situations, it’s still a large number of children without anywhere to sleep at night. There were also 75,940 students who were homeless and living without a parent.

Nationwide, public schools are becoming more racially and economically diverse. This school year, most public school students are racial minorities, and more than half come from low-income backgrounds, living in or near poverty, according to federal data.A new report from the Southern Education Foundation found that on average 51 percent of student across the country were low-income in 2013, with half or more students in 21 states qualifying for free or reduced-price lunches. The states with the highest percentages of low-income students were concentrated in the South and the West. Mississippi had the highest percentage of low-income public school students, at 71 percent , while New Hampshire had the lowest percentage of low-income public school students, at 27 percent.

• First, work to make the connection between what happens in your classroom and the home lives of your students as strong as possible. Move the information from textbooks to useful skills that students need now and in the future.• Make the bond between school and home a strong one. Reach out to the families of your students. Don’t wait until a problem occurs to contact them.• Build your students’ pride and confidence in their school work. Celebrate successes and keep aiming higher.• Don’t allow students to just get by. Maintain high expectations for all students.• Teach basic skills. Make sure students know what to do and how to do it well.• Teach reading. Students should read in every class every day.• Work to make sure that students have the financial support they need when you arrange field trips and other extracurricular activities so that no one is left out.• Focus on school work as the way to a brighter future. While many students see celebrities with great talent as role models, they tend to overlook the role models standing in front of the class. School work, not dumb luck, is the way out of poverty.

Build relationships. At-risk learners are often lacking long-lasting, stable relationships in their lives. They may also require more assistance in developing the full emotional range to respond well to various kinds of stimulation. He states that "discipline" issues sometimes emerge when teachers expect more than what students are currently capable of, on an emotional level. Jensen suggests that classroom teachers help students develop a healthy range of emotional responses in order to build healthy, stable, trusting relationships as a foundation for learning.Understand and control stress. Jensen defines stress as "a physiological response to a perception of a lack of control over an aversive situation or person", and notes that at-risk students are likely to have more stress in their lives than other students. Teachers can help increase students’ perception of control by encouraging activities like peer mentoring and student jobs in the classroom, as well as offering more opportunities for students to make their own choices throughout the school day.Develop a growth mindset. Children who are raised in a poverty-stricken environment often need help developing a " growth mindset," which places more importance on attitude, effort, and strategy than on luck, genetics, and socioeconomic status. Since developing a growth mindset is teachable and free, Jensen challenges educators to rise to the responsibility of this important part of teaching.Build executive function. Working memory, the ability to retain fresh information long enough to do something with it, is a component of executive function—a term which generally refers to a collection of cognitive processes of the brain. According to data presented in the webinar, working memory at age 5is a far greater predictor of student success at age 11 than IQ. It is also a more reliable predictor than reading scores, motivation level, math scores, or attitude. Jensen advises that if educators focus on building their students’ working memory, they will get significant improvements across the board.Boost engagement. Students from poverty often need more help engaging in the classroom. To help students become truly engaged, he suggests the use of physical activity, music, drama, social work (cooperative groups, teams, partners, etc.) and positive affirmations.