The Challenges Of Poverty In Education

When relating poverty to the achievement gap, one can see the correlation. The achievement gap is the discrepancy in academic performance between groups of students, it is more often used to describe the troubling performance gaps between African-American and Hispanic students at the lower end of the performance scale. Many students who are living in poverty fall within these backgrounds and it is understandable why their grades and school performances are suffering. Abraham Maslow’s pyramid of hierarchy needs show that before a child is able to learn or perform any kind of activity, the basic needs must be met, food, shelter, and water (Shaffer, 2014, pp 158).

What is the main argument the author makes and how does it apply to contemporary education?

The American student experience is much different depending on a variety of factors. Students living in poverty or low income households are not receiving enough support in their education to end the perpetuating cycle that is poverty. First, noting that a student living in a household with a parent or guardian with less education will be more likely to live in a poverty stricken area. Rank and Hirschl (1999) argue that if the head of the household has less than 12 years of education, the student has a higher chance of experiencing poverty compared to a household with more than 12 years of education. With these students living in poverty stricken areas and attending schools that do not have the funding to provide support, it is much more difficult to get the education that they would need to get out of poverty.

This category is primarily characterized by students who are struggling with time management, and therefore, are constantly having difficulty getting to class on time. Despite the fact that they may be occasionally tardy, these students often have excellent attendance and show a willingness to learn. Unlike the high school students, it appears that these students show less of a concern with social interaction and are more concerned with getting to and from their classes.

There are many people throughout the world that are born into different socio-economic status. In the United States there are 3 typical socio-economic statuses, upper class, middle class, and working class. The majority of people are born into the working class and try to make their way up. The main way people believe to go up a class in America is through education, but how does socio-economic class play a role in the amount of education one will receive in their future?

Many students have jobs, family matters, or extracurricular activities, keeping them away from home late at night. Because of this they go to bed late and are exhausted the next day. Most administrators and adults think that teens complaining about school starting at 7:45AM is just classic teenage laziness, but it would benefit Saltillo High School to start school later. Many students choose to skip first block because of how exhausted they wake up feeling, and, consequently, they fall behind in their work and their grades show as much. Students that come to school on time, while they’re counted present, often learn as much as the ones who stayed at home. They either fall asleep during class or don’t pay attention to anything the teacher says.

Studies show students that go to school before 8:30 a.m. are not learning to their maximum capabilities. However, students attending schools that have delayed their start times are showing an increase in academic performance and standardized test scores in English, Math, Science and Social Studies. Many studies show that even the lowest scoring students are showing tremendous improvement after-school start times were delayed. Students are also more willing to learn if school starts later because they get more sleep the night before. Waking up to go to school later in the morning is making it possible for students to be more focused during the day and work to their full potential. Also, tardiness and absenteeism has decreased in school with delayed start

Poverty is something that significantly impacts the lives of many people. Cuthrell, Stapleton, and Ledford (2010) stated in the article Examining the Culture of Poverty: Promising Practices that the number of children in the United States living in poverty is nearing 13 million. Cuthrell et al. (2010) also stated this means one of six children is poor. These statistics justify that poverty is a pivotal issue educators need to understand to benefit those students that are living in poverty. In the article The Importance of Making the Well-Being of Children in Poverty a Priority it states, “children from low-income families are more likely to suffer from preventable illnesses, fail in school, become teenage parents, and become involved in the justice system” (Prince, Pepper, & Brocato, 2006, P. 21). This shows that there are many obstacles and barriers that people living in poverty will have to face and overcome. It is very important that both people living in poverty and those that work with individuals that live in poverty become educated on how to conquer these obstacles. School Counselors are going to play a large role in helping students that are being raised in poverty. They will not only help the students that are living in poverty, but the school staff and parents as well.

Educators are perhaps the best super humans out there at this point in age. They constantly have to change and adapt new skills to keep up with new technology, psychological upgrades and environmental traumas that impact students. In Eric Jensen’s Teaching with Poverty in Mind provides new techniques future and current educators should use to combat the impact that poverty has on students, mentally, emotionally and physically. Jensen’s text has strengthened my opinions on education as well as added new views towards my future career as a high school educator.

You are getting ready for work when you notice the strangely quiet house. You wonder what is wrong, and then it hits you: your teenager is not up yet. You storm into their room, shaking them awake and yet the only response you get is a groan and a “just five more minutes” and a “leave me alone.” You notice homework and projects throw in a pile on the floor, evidence of the late night. But yet your teenager is not doing too well in some of their classes, which is confusing. The clock reads 7:27, meaning your son or daughter will be late for school if they do not get up now. After another attempt and another “leave me alone,” you leave, flipping the light on as motivation to get up. Parents all over the country are dealing with the same issue with their middle or high school students. Students in grades six through twelve need later school start times due to the change that occurs in their biology during puberty and the academic and health benefits that can come with delayed times.

When it comes to education, it is one of the most essential pieces to having a successful life in today’s society. And for this reason, there are a large percentage of emphasis placed on schools for this reason alone. In society, people feel that school and education should be taken advantage of and every child should attend school daily with no excuses. It’s a known fact that students who miss consecutive days out of school, tends to fall back in grades as well as learning the classwork at hand. County government, state government, and the federal government has made laws for states all around the globe pertaining to the number of days students should miss school within a school year’s time. In doing this, it will ensure that students will be accounted for and help them to be successful throughout the school year. By state law, attendance in a public school, private school and home school program is required for children at the ages of six to their sixteenth birthday (Gwinnett Public School, 2017).

In many poor households, parental education is substandard and a parent’s ability to help is limited. In a 2001 study by Jerald, standardized intelligence tests showed a correlation between poverty and lower cognitive achievement. The effects of poverty create a cycle of low expectations and low self-esteem. Additionally, high-poverty students receive significantly less state and local money than do more prosperous schools, and students in such schools are more likely to be taught by teachers who are inexperienced or teaching outside their

Poverty and inequity in education intersect one another while also relating to Tozer’s analytic framework, which consists of the social phenomena of schooling, political economy, and ideology as the corners of a triangle. This three-part structure is a way to represent the factors influencing the educational system. To be specific, education inequity is defined as the unfair treatment in education to students due to aspects such as gender, ethnicity, and family background. Poverty is unfortunately synonymous with educational inequity in that the struggles of living on a meager amount of income are often due to low levels of education, and poverty usually results in less access to good education for the next generation.

Failure to go to school regularly heightens for minorities living in disadvantaged households. Impoverished, low-income, and Title-I minority learners benefit the most from being in school. An effective strategy for providing a way out of poor quality conditions is to incorporate adequate resources, such as school bus transportation, to get students to and from school (Morrissey, Hutchison, & Winsler, 2014).

This research explores the relationship between school tardiness in high school students. School personnel, school boards, and parents who examine this data will have a better understanding of school tardiness, related school deviant behaviors.