A major challenge in the educational system today is improving the quality of instruction for at-risk students in poverty. The majority of urban schools continue to face inequalities that impact learning and achievement. In both articles, “Use of the Science of What Works to Change the Odds for children At Risk" by Susan Newman and "States Confront the Deepest Pockets of Poverty" by Kathy Christie, both authors attempt to understand why our school systems are failing at-risk students and then propose some examples on how to fix the system with innovative strategies.
Christie provides some specific examples explaining why California is in the situation it is in, including the fact that it contains a “hodgepodge of disconnected programs”. The
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We need to focus on making sure that our students are provided with valuable outside resources and services that will guide them in their personal lives. “If we’re truly serious about breaking cycles of poverty, inequality, and limited opportunity that place enormous constraints on our nation’s resources, we need to recognize and appropriately support education whether it is delivered in clinics, childcare centers, community-based organizations, libraries, church basements, or storefronts,” (Newman, p. 2). Just by mentoring a student and helping to take away their negative views can help them to achieve their goals. Students need to be nurtured and given hope. Poverty may be viewed as a bump in the road, but it is nothing a resilient child cannot overcome.
Other risk factors such as homes with single parents or less-educated adults are a direct correlation to poverty. We agree with the author that ending the cycle of at-risk students starts with prevention and early intervention programs. Many times the state and federal government do not have the resources to implement these programs in urban communities. Kathy Christie’s article gave awareness into the problems that many school districts face in funding programs designed to serve disadvantaged
The United States is a country known for its diversity; so when it comes to the diverse classrooms of today many would not think there would be an issue. However, many schools face a multitude of problems that affect pupil’s education. Roughly twenty-seven percent of Hispanic, Latino, and African-American students in the state of Louisiana fall within the poverty level and unfortunately do not obtain a decent quality education. In addition, only seventy-four percent of those Louisiana students go on to graduate high school (Spotlight on Poverty, 2015). The core portion of the issue concerning poverty in relation to education is due to the economy, work availability, and
One major affliction of the American public education system is money, or the lack thereof, and the impact funding inequality has on educational quality. Benjamin Barber, in his article “America Skips School,” says the federal government only funds about 5% of public education (121). Public school funding comes primarily from local property taxes, meaning suburban schools can have up to twice as much money to spend on education than those in urban areas (Barber 122). Increasing federal financial aid in public schools could solve the problem of funding inequality by providing lower income schools with more available resources without taking money from other schools or increasing local taxes. Increasing funds would allow schools to provide better facilities and repair “leaky, broken-down habitats” often found in impoverished school districts. More money would allow all schools to hire better teachers and improve ...
For this reason it is essential to eliminate funding inequalities all students deserve a high quality education especially in the low-income areas. Providing more money to these areas can reduce crime and gang activity, lower the teen birth rate, restore self-confidence, provide these students and opportunity to attend college, also break the cycle of poverty. The President “Race to the Top Program” is a start but more need to be done from the local and state level.
Many people believe that “having an economy that places a greater value on skills and education is a good thing” and that is the thing that is needed to improve people’s lives and futures (Baicker, Lazear). If what our economy is trying to do a good thing they why are so many students still suffering? The main issues are the low-income education that many students have. Many schools are getting money from the government but that is not enough to pay for everything students need. Educational standards have continued to increase throughout the years but that does not help the students who are unable to pay for the better education. These students who cannot pay for the better education are stuck barely getting by with a low education. A low-education can affect many areas of regular schooling. The students who are at low-income schools do not know what type of disadvantage they have compared to other students across the country. These students believe that they are getting the best education, but there are many students who are getting a better education at a school that has the funds to pay for everything their students need. Low-income students are suffering due to the environment they are in at school and they continue to suffer throughout their life due to it. These students will continue to suffer unless something is done about the low-income schools and improve them for the future. Improvement has to come from all areas, not just one aspect of schooling but from all aspects. Although education has improved along with technology many low-income students still suffer from the vast inequalities. These inequalities will take many years to find a way to fix and even more years to actually fix, until this happens the students will...
Especially in regard to educating children in poverty so they will not fall behind. Helping adults to understand how to help these children is vitally important because those in poverty have different needs and require a different means of motivation, “if poor people were exactly the same cognitively, socially, emotionally, and behaviorally as those from the middle class, then the exact same teaching provided to both middle-class students and students from poverty would bring the exact same results (Jensen).”
In many low income communities, there are teachers that are careless and provide their students with poor quality education. These teachers are there just to make sure that they keep receiving their monthly paychecks and act in this way because they believe that low income students do not have the drive, the passion, or the potential to be able to make something of themselves and one day be in a better place than they are now. Anyon reveals that in working class schools student’s “Work is often evaluated not according to whether it is right or wrong but according to whether the children followed the right steps.” (3). This is important because it demonstrates that low income students are being taught in a very basic way. These children are being negatively affected by this because if they are always being taught in this way then they will never be challenged academically, which can play a huge role in their futures. This argument can also be seen in other articles. In the New York Times
School funding is systemically unequal, partially because the majority of school funding comes from the school district’s local property taxes, positioning the poorest communities at the bottom rung of the education playing field. A student’s socioeconomic status often defines her success in a classroom for a number of reasons. Students who live below the poverty line have less motivation to succeed, and their parents are less inclined to participate in their child’s education, often because the parents cannot provide support for their children. Although it’s logical that school districts from poorer communities cannot collect as much funding as the richer communities, persons stuck in these low-income communities often pay higher taxes, and still their school dis...
Education is an integral part of society, school helps children learn social norms as well as teach them how to be successful adults. The school systems in United States, however are failing their students. In the world as a whole, the United States is quickly falling behind other countries in important math and reading scores. The United States ranked thirtieth in math on a global scale and twentieth in literacy. This is even more true in more urban, lower socio-economic areas in the United States. These schools have lower test scores and high dropout rates. In Trenton Central High School West, there was an 83% proficiency in literacy and only 49% of the students were proficient in math. Many of these students come from minority backgrounds and are often from low income families. There are many issues surrounding these urban schools. There is a severe lack of proper funding in these districts, and much of the money they do receive is sanctioned for non-crucial things. Schools also need a certain level of individualization with their students, and in many urban classes, this simply does not happen. While there are many factors affecting the low performance of urban schools, the lack of proper funding and distribution of funds, the cultural divide between teachers and students in urban districts, along with the lack of individualization in urban classrooms are crucial reasons to explain the poor performance in these districts. Through a process of teacher lead budget committees and further teacher education, urban schools can be transformed and be better equipped to prepare their students for the global stage.
Throughout the nation, education inequality affects many minority students that have low-income which reinforces the disparity between the rich and the poor. The amount of children that have a socioeconomic background of poverty in the United States is estimated to be 32.4 million (National Center for Children in Poverty, 2011). Since many of these children are from
Develop an argument on or some ideas of understanding about curriculum as multicultural text by relating the works of Darling-Hammond, French, & Garcia-Lopez, Delpit, Duarte & Smith, Greene, Nieto and Sletter to your experience of curriculum, teaching, and learning as affirming diversity. You could think specifically about the following questions: Is there a need for diversity in curriculum studies and designs? Why? What measures do you think will be effective in incorporating such a need into curriculum studies and designs? What is the relevance of diversity to your career goal, to education in your family, community, and school, to education in Georgia, and to education in general? In which way can you develop a curriculum which helps cultivate empathy, compassion, passion, and hope for citizens of the world, and which fosters social justice?
Family issues, poverty, and homelessness cause students to drop out of high school as it impacts education by placing stressful obstacles in children’s learning path. A National study found, “Overall, 22 percent of children who have lived in poverty do not graduate from high school, compared to 6 percent of those who have never been poor” (National Study). Lack of educational success can also contribute to throwing in the towel on school. Some students may not be receiving the additional supports to give them success in school. Imagine coming home on the bus after a ten hour day and having your ninth grader ask for help on their algebra. If you possessed the skills, which you likely do not, you may be too exhausted to help. In addition there is still dinner to cook and other household chores to complete. It is a daunting request that you may not be able to comply with. “Family poverty is associated with a number of adverse conditions — high mobility and homelessness; hunger and food insecurity; parents who are in jail or absent; domestic violence; drug abuse and other problem…” (Shonkoff & Garner, 2012 as quoted by Rumberger). Poverty is an obstacle to learning even for the brightest children. As a result few can overcome these stumbling
Currently, relatively few urban poor students go past the ninth grade. The graduation rates in large comprehensive inner-city schools are abysmally low. In fourteen such New York City Schools, for example, only 10 percent to 20 percent of ninth graders in 1996 graduated four years later. Despite the fact that low-income individuals desperately need a college degree to find decent employment, only 7 percent obtain a bachelors degree by age twenty-six. So, in relation to ...
More and more people are falling into insular poverty. Insular poverty is rapidly growing, in our nation, into a huge problem today. It’s affecting student’s education causing them to work so much harder than the average American. To get a higher education in a poverty stricken home is almost impossible. Research is showing that poverty negatively impacts students during their educational
To me, equality of opportunity in public education is where every single person deserves and is entitled to an equal chance to obtain a good education, grow and make positive progress throughout their time in school, and be successful in reaching their full potential later in life. These people should be treated identically, not differently due to their gender, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status.
Living in poverty exposes children to disadvantages that influence many aspects in their life that are linked to their ability to do well in school. In the United States of America there are an estimated 16.4 million children under the age of 18 living in poverty (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). “The longer a child lives in poverty, the lower the educational attainment” (Kerbo, 2012). Children who are raised in low-income households are at risk of failing out before graduating high school (Black & Engle, 2008). U.S. children living in poverty face obstacles that interfere with their educational achievement. Recognizing the problems of living in poverty can help people reduce the consequences that prevent children from reaching their educational potential.