The Statistical Picture of Poverty Some researchers believe that the poor adopt belief The Rural School and Community Trust In 1964 President Lyndon Johnson declared “war on systems that make their lives tolerable while living in The Rural School and Community Trust is a non- poverty.” Almost simultaneously the U.S. poverty an affluent society. These beliefs become inculcated profit organization whose mission is to improve threshold definitions and formula were established. The in the society uniting its members and preventing rural schools and strengthen the relationship definitions and formula were established by Mollie them from seeking a more middle class lifestyle. An between schools and the communities they serve. In Orshansky of the Social Security Administration. The example of such a belief is having many children and 1999 Georgia participated with three other states, formula calculates the income needed to provide the having them young. Another belief is that money is an Montano, Ohio and Texas, in a study to determine if least expensive, nutritionally sound diet for everyone in expression of one’s personality and should be used for smaller schools could reduce the damaging effects a household and multiplies it by three. Each year the In Georgia, the statistics are: entertainment and relationships and not for of poverty on achievement. The researchers, Craig formula is adjusted for inflation, but the method has Low-Income Families: emergencies or to improve one’s economic status. Howley of Ohio State University and Robert Bickel remained virtually unchanged for over 40 years. 34% (382,754) of families with of Marshall University analyzed 29 different http://aspe.os.dhhs.gov/poverty/papers/hptgssiv.htm children are low-income (National: 34%). Significant Barriers Associated with Breaking the standardized test scores from 1, 626 of the Families in Poverty: 14% (157,390) of families with Cycle of Poverty approximately 1,800 schools in Georgia. The data The statistics cited are based on this formula. children are poor (National: 14%). National Center for One of the most significant barriers associated with showed strong evidence that smaller schools had a Children in Poverty, Columbia University, Mailman breaking the poverty cycle is a student’s attitude and positive impact on reducing the effects of poverty More than one-third of children in the United States School of Public Health. www.nccp.org/pub_cpf04.html beliefs. Low personal expectations and low self on achievement, i.e. the lower the income of the live in low-income families meaning their parents earn efficacy perpetuate low achievement and failure. community, the more student achievement was up to double what is considered poverty in this country. Teachers have an unconscious middle-class mindset benefited by smaller schools. www.ruraledu.org/ The federal poverty level (fpl) for a family of four Income Level of Families with about how students should talk, behave and dress. docs/sapss/nat_sum.html (2004) is $18,850. Any departure from that paradigm reflects negatively Children in Georgia • 16% of American children—more than 11 million— on the student’s ability and potential. High mobility, Traditional New Thinking lived in poor families in 2002, meaning their parents’ low education level of parents, job instability, number income was at or below the federal poverty level. of persons in the home, and lack of basic necessities Learner A child who is poor A disadvantaged and belongs to an student’s experiences These parents are typically unable to provide their result in students being detached from learning and ethnic minority has may have gaps, but build families with basic necessities like stable housing and 20% focusing their thoughts on survival. The school 66% deficiencies. on the foundation and reliable child care. culture is viewed by students as being unsupportive expand the repertoire of • 37% of American children—more than 26million— and uncaring. Students do not feel they are wanted skills and competencies. lived in low-income families in 2002. Their parents and valued in the learning environment. Bamburg Curriculum Reading, writing and The curriculum is to be made less than 200% of the federal poverty line suggests that new thinking is needed to educate 14% mathematics is taught focused on meaning and (FPL). These families often face material hardships children of poverty(J. Bamburg. NCREL in fixed sequence from understanding. Routine and financial pressures similar to those families who Monograph: Raising Expectations to Improve Student simplest to most skill learning should be are officially counted as poor. Not Low Income Near Poverty Poverty Learning, 2000). www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/ complex concepts, and balanced with novel and educatrs/leadrshp/le0bam.htm. mastery is achieved by complex tasks. Clear After a decade of decline, the rate of children living in linear progression reasons for learning low-income families is rising again, a trend that began in Perspectives on Poverty Additional research suggests that high levels of through the sequence. must be established and 2000. A different and interesting approach to characterizing poverty within the community can adversely affect skills and concepts children from poor homes is that children from poor children’s development regardless of the quality of the related and interrelated. homes lack four types of social capital. They do not individual family’s life. In a study conducted in Role of Direct teacher The most effective have a sense of academic initiative, knowing, Georgia and Iowa on 10 and 11 year old African Teacher instruction has been learning occurs when a connectedness, and well being. American children, it was found that children who the predominant mode balance exists between of instruction. teacher-directed and lived in disadvantaged communities, whether urban or student-directed rural, were more likely to associate with antisocial instruction Social Capital Explanation peers than children of more affluent areas, even when the children came from supportive nurturing families. Classroom Classroom The basis for order and Academic Many students lack a school work ethic, good study management has classroom management Initiative habits, and a high level of self discipline. Academic Management (G. Brody & et.al., The Influence of Neighborhood stressed the need for should emanate from success is not perceived as relevant to their future and Academic Disadvantage, Collective Socialization, and Parenting establishing a academics and the lives. on African American Children’s Affiliation with Work classroom climate with establishment of learning Sense of Students do not have a solid foundation upon Deviant Peers. Child Development, 72 (4), 1231- clear routines and atmospheres rather than Knowing which to build success in schools. They do not have 1246). consequences for generic rules and opportunities to thrive, which include pre-school disruptive behavior. consequences for attendance, travel, summer camps, home Another study examined how community poverty behavior. computers, tutors, music lessons, exposure to the affects high school completion rate. The data showed Classroom The traditional Flexible and temporary arts, and visits to colleges. that African American students were more adversely Organization patterns for grouping heterogeneous Sense of Students feel alienated and do not have a sense of affected by high poverty environments than Caucasian students for groupings, integration of Two out of three children in low-income families live Connectedness belonging to their community, neighborhood or or Asian American students. African American instruction are ability, supplemental services in either the South or the West. school. They do not feel that they belong at their students in high poverty areas had a graduation rate tracking and group- into regular classroom schools and do not perceive schoolwork to be of based supplemental activities and maximizing great value of 50%, the lowest level among the racial and ethnic • In the Northeast and Midwest, children in urban groups studied. (C. Swanson. Who Graduates? Who services. individual help to low- areas are more likely to live in low-income families. Sense of Well- Students feel emotionally and psychologically performing students Doesn’t? A Statistical Portrait of Public High School holds more promise for • In the South and West, children in rural areas are being insecure. Worries about the future, little hope and Graduation, Class of 2001, Washington, D.C. The more likely to live in low-income families. low levels of self confidence and self respect at-risk learners negate a feeling of well-being. Urban Institute, 2004). http://urban.org/ Look under left hand section, Most Downloaded Reports, Who Graduates? Who Doesn’t? J. Bamburg (2000) NCREL Monograph: Raising Expectations to Improve Student Learning. G. Maeroff, “Altered Destinies: Making Life Better for Children in Need” Phi Delta Kappan, February, 1998; 424-432. Public School: Key to Breaking the Cycle of Poverty understanding of the many dimensions of poverty, Poverty is one of America’s most persistent its effects and be trained in techniques and skills to problems and impacts learning and achievement help high-risk students achieve and free themselves in school perhaps greater than any other single from the limitations of poverty. Requiring all Issue Brief factor. Success in raising achievement in high children to learn has been mandated by the U. S. Professional Association of Georgia Educators diversity, low income, low-achieving schools government, but most of all, it must become the Vol. 7 No. 2 May 2005 and school systems can be accomplished if it passion and the voice of conscience for school is acknowledged and understood that students administrators and classroom teachers because the must learn even though poverty is present and public school has been and remains the most persistent. For schools and school systems available and inclusive means for helping children to break the cycle of poverty, it means that break the cycle of poverty. Breaking the Cycle teachers and administrators must have some of Poverty

Further Reading Douglas-Hall, Ayana and Koball, Heather. Low Income Children in the United States, National t has been 50 years since the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) was signed into The publications and websites below Center for Children in Poverty, Columbia University, Ilaw for the purpose of offsetting the disadvantages students from poor or impoverished contributed to the information presented in Mailman School of Public Health, 2004. neighborhoods and families bring to the classroom. Since the 1960s a variety of federal and state this issue brief and provide additional www.nccp.org/pub_cpf04.html programs have been designed and implemented to help the slow learner, the high risk student and the information to readers. low socio-economic student to have more equity in the classroom. Title I, the major program of ESEA, Fisher, Gordon M. The Development and History of has shown some decrease in narrowing the achievement gap between students from higher income and Bamburg, Jerry D. Raising Expectations to the U. S. Poverty Thresholds-A Brief Overview, lower income families, but the gap remains too wide. Improve Student Learning. North Central Newsletter of the Government Statistical Section and Regional Educational Laboratory Monograph, the Social Statistics Section of the American 1994. www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/ Statistical Association, Winter 1997, 6-7. http:// New technology and statistical poverty. Poverty does not mean that generational poverty creates a belief educatrs/leadrshp/le0bam.htm. aspe.os.dhhs.gov/poverty/papers/hptgssiv.htm methods are providing data to students can’t learn, but it does in children that they cannot change school systems that will be mean that teachers and schools their circumstances. Moreover, they Beegle, Donna. Overcoming the Silence of Holloway, John H. How the Community Influences beneficial in targeting funds, must do more and do it differently become comfortable in their culture Generational Poverty, Talking Points, 15 (1) Achievement, Educational Leadership, 61 (8), May designing instructional activities, to help these students achieve. and do not want to change (Victims October/November 2003, 11-20. 2004, 89-90. and tracking progress. Data of Generational Poverty May Use systems are now improving which Poverty Hidden Rules of Conduct, California Behrman, Richard E. (ed.) The Children of Howley, Craig and Bickel, Robert. School Size, will help schools systems track Poverty is a generic term for Educator, 8 (8) May, 2004. Poverty, The Future of Children, 7 (2) Poverty, and Student Achievement, The Rural School achievement by school and by describing many conditions in which www.cta.org/CaliforniaEducator/ Summer/Fall, 1997. and Community Trust, February 2000. subgroups. Census data are also students and their families live. It v8i8/MTC_1.htm. Donna Beegle, www.ruraledu.org/docs/sapss/nat_sum.html available to help define the level usually means that a person or author and lecturer on poverty and a Bempechat, Janine. Learning from Poor and and scope of poverty in the family has insufficient income and generational poverty product, says Minority Students Who Succeed in School. Renchler, Ron. Poverty and Learning. Eric Digest 83 community. resources to sustain healthy living. that poverty creates a student that Harvard Education Letter, May /June, 1999. May, 1993. http://eric.uoregon.edu/publications/ Poverty can predictably be teachers don’t always know how to www.edletter.org/past/issues/1999-mj/ digests/digest083.html The research on the effects of identified when there is a teach. (Donna Beegle, Overcoming learning.shtml poverty has also become more coalescence of factors such as low the Silence of Generational Poverty, Swanson, Christopher B. Who Graduates? Who sophisticated and is helping educational level among significant Talking Points, 15 (1) October/ Brody, Gene H. & et.al. The Influence of Doesn’t? A Statistical Portrait of Public High School teachers and administrators adults, significant number of November 2003, 11-20). Neighborhood Disadvantage, Collective Graduation, Class of 2001. Education Policy Center, understand the effects of poverty minority/racial group(s), lack of job Socialization, and Parenting on African The Urban Institute, 2004. http://urban.org/ Look on learning, achievement and skills, one-parent homes, and low Situational poverty is the decline in American Children’s Affiliation with Deviant under left hand section, Most Downloaded Reports, behavior. Poverty is the strongest income. These factors combine and resources because of the loss of a Peers, Child Development, 72, (4), July/ Who Graduates? Who Doesn’t? predictor of student success with interact to form an environment job, a death, a divorce or other August, 2001, 1231-1246. the exception of a student’s prior often worsened by the involvement catastrophic event that forces a Victims of Generational Poverty May Use Hidden achievement record. of drugs and crime. family to change their style of living Craig, Paul. Crossing Poverty Lines. The News Rules of Conduct, California Educator, 8 (8) May, temporarily—one to five years. Review Online. January 24, 2004. 2004.www.cta.org/CaliforniaEducator/v8i8/ Unfortunately, research repeatedly Poverty is generally divided into to Children usually rebound from www.newsreview.info/ In Search Box type in MTC_1.htm. Article is reporting on presentation by confirms that teachers have low two types: generational poverty and situational poverty, but their self- Crossing Poverty Lines. Ruby Payne in which she is referencing her work, A expectations of students who come situational poverty. Generational esteem, self efficacy and confidence Framework for Understanding Poverty. from impoverished homes. No poverty is when the economic level usually need attention and Child Left Behind mandates all of a family drops and stays in a low reparation. Specific attention must teachers to make sure that all economic state for more than two be paid to a student’s coping skills children learn, but more generations. It is very likely that the and academic progress during this importantly, it is the professional 25 million generational poverty stressful time. Failure to help a responsibility of educators to hold individuals will remain there and be student cope with this new and Professional Association of Georgia Educators low income children to high joined by their children. Many devastating situation can result in educational standards because only researchers and public health and generational poverty for the student P.O. Box 942270 then can they break the cycle of social service providers think that and his/her future children. Atlanta, GA 31141-2270 770-216-8555 (Metro-Atlanta) or 800-334-6861 (Outside Atlanta) www.pageinc.org PAGE seeks to provide its members with the latest and most reliable information available at the time of publication. PAGE reserves the right to make any improvements or to correct any error or omission in the contents of this publication.