The Department for Education Statistics Data

My first awareness of racial identity and diversity occurred when I was in Year 3. Having being raised acknowledging acceptance of people of racial or cultural difference my thoughts of children of colour were positive and impartial. However, one day a boy in my class of Sri Lankan descent got into trouble with another student, but only the Sri Lankan boy was asked to go to the principal’s office. During our lunch break he came over to a group of us and told us that he thought he was the one that got into trouble ‘because he was ‘black’’. I remember thinking to myself, ‘why would he get into trouble just because he was black?’ It was in fact that both boys

Overcoming stereotyping is a challenge educators can encounter when it comes to ensuring that teaching strategies are appropriate for culturally diverse children. Some educators may compare one child to another child that comes from the same cultural background and use the same teaching strategy. One way to overcome this is to make sure that educators know each of the students individually instead of comparing one to another or relying on stereotyping. “To truly engage students, we must reach out to them in ways that are culturally and linguistically responsive and appropriate, and we must examine the cultural assumptions and stereotypes we bring into the classroom that may hinder interconnectedness.” (Teaching Tolerance, 1991) Once they know more about each of the students then they can avoid stereotyping and adjust their teaching strategy to meet the individual needs of the students in the classroom.

Racism in teaching ELLs is the same as teaching students that are not ELLs, based on the nationality of the ELL in question administration and even teacher can fell that it is not worth the time or energy to help a student. This can come into play with children of migrant workers the most. These students do not always finish a school year in the same school, but must travel with their parents as the growing season changes. For this reason, teachers may feel that it is not worth the extra work to help these students based on the fact that they will probably not finish school anyway, but even if they finish school they won’t finish at “THEIR” school so they don’t have to worry about TEST results. One stereotype

An educator who understands issues of diversity and difference will make the classroom a more enriching environment for all of the students in it, and will ensure those students who are adversely affected by such diversity and difference are given the opportunity and encouragement to overcome challenges they face. Socio-economic disadvantage among students has an impact in the classroom in terms of the ability of a child to gain an understanding of the knowledge and skills required to be a successful student. Gender issues can be one of those concerns in a classroom that, unless they are quite obvious, can be almost disregarded because they are not acknowledged as a concern, for example, asking boys to move chairs. Stereotypical roles can be ingrained in an educators psyche. Cultural diversity is becoming more prevalent in our classrooms; it is the educator’s responsibility to ensure the classroom is a welcoming and diverse environment. When considering how to approach these issues in a classroom and incorporating support for students, an educator would benefit from consulting the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) or the Australian Curriculum (AC). These documents provides frameworks for working with diversity and ensuring students succeed within their given circumstances with the support of both their educator and their school. It is imperative educators understand the effects of socio-economic disadvantage, gender issues and cultural diversity when creating an

The United States is a country based on equal opportunity; every citizen is to be given the same chance as another to succeed. This includes the government providing the opportunity of equal education to all children. All children are provided schools to attend. However, the quality of one school compared to another is undoubtedly unfair. Former teacher John Kozol, when being transferred to a new school, said, "The shock from going from one of the poorest schools to one of the wealthiest cannot be overstated (Kozol 2)." The education gap between higher and lower-income schools is obvious: therefore, the United States is making the effort to provide an equal education with questionable results.

As Connell, White and Johnston (1990,p.9) state, 'There is not a “culture of poverty”, nor any key “deficit” that makes poor people different from everybody else and therefore and educational problem'. Teachers and Education Assistants need to adapt into the culture of poverty and be sensitive and understandable to the extensive bar of needs that children of poverty bring to the classroom and they need to consider the cultural values of these children as they arrange their learning. The basis of Groundwater-Smith, Ewing and Le Cornu's opinions in the article is they position readers to view that the teachers dispositions low income students and that rarely the educators offer the same level or enough aid and attention than the other students and they are less likely to succeed in school when compared with the more advantaged children. According to Groundwater-Smith, Ewing and Le Cornu's and Geoffrey D. Borman and Laura T. Rachuba they both state that students from lower income families may not have as high expectations from their parents, teachers or their peers within the school. The students may also not be confident in their own abilities and

Teacher bias towards impoverished individuals could also factor heavily on the academic performances of a child. Disadvantaged students are seen as being " discriminated against by teachers" (Dotts, 53).

There is a common, underlying perception that students from particular cultural and linguistic backgrounds – what is generally referred to as ethnicity - have a predisposition towards educational success in Australian schools (Watkins, 2013). Students from Anglo backgrounds, for example, are often seen as having a cultural advantage whilst others, such as Middle Eastern students, are perceived as culturally prone to underachievement. These claims confine ethnicity to fixed and bound stereotypes, and see educational achievement as a result of the inherent qualities of these groups (Watkins, 2013). However, ethnicity

The underachievement of white working boys in the education sector remains a social problem here in the UK, Why? The reason being, as Sir Michael Wilshaw (Chief Inspector of Ofsted) outlined that these group of individuals make up two thirds of the British pupils which in affect makes them are the largest group therefore the attention should be directed at remedying the issue. PISA outlined that countries such as Finland, Hong Kong, Iceland…. Are all working better to support their disadvantaged pupils in comparison to students here in England receive.

The article by Diane Raey (2009) titled ‘Making sense of white working class underachievement’ provides a lot of information on the problems leading to low academic performance of the white working class children. The article has well-articulated sections and topics, which describe the problem well. In each section, the author provides all the necessary information

“ Historically, low-income students as a group have performed less well than high-income students on most measures of academic success” (Reardon, 2013). Typically low-income families come from low-income parts of the state making a school that does not have as much funding as a higher economic schools does lack in resources for their students. The school then has lower paid teachers and administrators, with lower quality supplies. This results in a school which typically has faculty who do not perform as well as the well-funded schools. “The law fails to address the pressing problems of unequal educational resources across schools serving wealthy and poor children” (Hammond, 2007). Students from low and high income families will not be able to achieve the same education because their education simply is not the same.

If a teacher believes this idea, then when the student fails, the teacher will feel he or she has no reason to fear ‘repercussions’ by a parent or staff member. But, the critical idea is that not all children in this SES poverty category have the same attributes. Payne’s writing does give more information to teachers about students, but it stereotypes them as a group rather than an individual. Another criticism is that children in poverty lack skills and experiences of the other two SES classes.

The students with better teachers that scored better on tests were found more likely to go to college, make more money, live in better neighborhoods, were less likely to have kids as a teenager. The effect that teachers have on their students persist throughout their lifetime and is comparable to the effects that parents have on their

Department of Education, “documents that schools serving low-income students are being shortchanged because school districts across the country are inequitably distributing their state and local funds”. (Education, 2011). Students that come from low income families are not given the equal chance to get the education that students from high income families get. If students are not given the tools they need to be educated, then they will have a poor chance of succeeding in the world.

Our country has many low performing high poverty schools however we do have several high performing high poverty schools. It is important that we look at how these high performing high poverty schools are doing to educate all students especially those students at risk. Barr takes an in-depth look at how teachers in these low performing high poverty schools are doing to achieve radical improvements in learning for the most viable students.