IDENTIFYING

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IDENTIFYING WORKING WITH STUDENTS of
POVERTYMEMCA CONFERENCEMarch 14, 2014
Funding for this project is generously provided
by the Mott Foundation. Collaborative Partners
GISD, MCC, MMC, MDE
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46 Million Americans 15 of the population live
in poverty.
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• 80 of Americas wealth is owned by 4 of the
  population.
• 40 of it is owned by 1 of the population.

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• QUESTIONS
• What do you believe causes poverty?
• Where do your beliefs come from?
• Were they passed down from your parents?
• Did you learn them from your community?
• Do you have your own experience with poverty?
• How are your experiences and exposure to
  opportunities, while growing up, different than
  students and families you serve?
• Are you armed with relevant facts about poverty?
• Are you able to suspend judgment and understand
  people are making the best decisions possible
  from their perspective?

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16 Million U.S. Children 1 out of 5, live in
families that struggle to put food on the table.
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• Nationally, the average welfare check for one
  parent and two children is 478 per month.
• Twenty years ago, it was 408.
• The average disability check is 600.
• Less than 2 of the federal budget is allocated
  for welfare.

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• Nearly 1 in 3 Americans experienced a stint of
  poverty between 2009 2011.

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• The suburban poverty rate in the U.S. in 2012 was
  11.3

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• Rural poverty has exceeded urban poverty every
  year since the 60s.

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• 1 in 4 working households in America spend more
  than half of their pre-tax income on housing.
• In 2012, the National Low Income Housing
  Coalition conducted a study that examined the
  cost of housing across the United States, and
  found that no city had rentals priced low enough
  where a minimum wage earner could live
  comfortably.

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• Youth living in poverty are the least likely to
  become educated in our nation.
• People living in poverty often experience
  education as stress and see it as a place they
  do not belong.

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• A college education appears to be the only
  possibility to help people break the walls of
  poverty and escape its hardships yet today, it
  is less likely a person in poverty will attain a
  college education than it was in the 1940s.

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• GENERATIONAL POVERTY
• Two or more generations born into poverty
• Family never owned land
• Highly mobile
• Evictions/Shut Offs
• First to graduate from high school
• Has never known anyone who benefited from
  education
• High rate of family illiteracy
• Has never been respected in a job
• Lack of tools/skill set to move out of poverty
• Emphasis on survival
• Focus is on making it through the day

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• URBAN POVERTY
• Metropolitan areas of 50,000 or more
• Complex aggregate of chronic and acute stressors
• Overcrowding
• Noise
• Violence
• Less green spaces
• Low air and water quality
• Many of the housing options are old and
  deteriorated often not well kept
• Inconsistent health care
• Dependent on large city services which are often
  inadequate

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• RURAL POVERTY
• Rural poverty rate is higher than urban rate of
  poverty
• Non metropolitan areas
• Much longer distance to services and educational
  options/no public transit
• Fewer job opportunities
• More single guardian households
• Less access to services, such as health care and
  disability services
• Lack of cultural experiences such as museums and
  libraries
• Fewer opportunities for quality education and
  post-secondary options

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• SITUATIONAL POVERTY
• Often caused by a sudden crisis or loss
• Environmental disasters
• Divorce
• Health issues
• Family death
• Job loss or economic slowdown
• More likely to bounce back and finish education
• Often temporary
• Can lose health care options which can perpetuate
  health crises
• Major income drop impacting lifestyle
• Often surrounded by people who are educated or
  able to earn a living wage
• Attendance is accepted norm
• Have not internalized the poverty as a personal
  problem
• Often does not realize the advantage of growing
  up middle class

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• RELATIVE POVERTY
• Economic income of a family whose income is
  insufficient to meet its societys average
  standard of living
• Working, but rarely have money for extras
• Live paycheck to paycheck
• Often teased or harassed by more affluent
  students
• Often lack financial means to participate in
  activities of classmates
• Often reluctant to have friends over to see their
  home because it does not compare with
• most of the other students housing.
• Few have health care
• Focus on making it two weeks or through the month
• Poverty seen as personal deficiency

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• CULTURAL POVERTY
• Have little or no financial resources
• Face language and cultural barriers
• Often struggling to straddle two cultures
• Lack understanding of norms of second culture
• May slip through the cracks
• Extended family may be in another country
• Or, may be multiple family members and
  multi-generational family members in home
• Often do better than those born into poverty in
  America
• Poverty is viewed as a system problem

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• ATTRIBUTES OF STUDENTS IN POVERTY
• Poverty can undermine the development of self and
  the capacity of self-determination and
  self-efficacy.
• Strained resources correlate directly with poor
  school attendance, lower grades and lower chances
  of attending college.
• More stressors in family means they receive less
  positive reinforcement. More stress riddled
  attachments with parents, teachers and adult
  caregivers.
• Often lack a caring, dependable adult. Strains in
  attachments and added stressors often lead to
  behavioral issues in school.
• Fewer books at home, more time watching TV or
  video games. Transportation issues.
• So. these students are facing
• Social and emotional challenges, including
  depression
• Acute and chronic stressors
• Cognitive lags
• Health and safety issues
• More limited coping skills
• Poor, short-term memory

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Differences in the Brain Function Between High
and Low SES
Brain function was measured by means of an
electroencephalograph (EEG) - basically, a cap
fitted with electrodes to measure electrical
activity in the brain like that used to assess
epilepsy, sleep disorders and brain
tumors. Kids from lower socioeconomic levels
show brain physiology patterns similar to someone
who actually had damage in the frontal lobe as an
adult, said Robert Knight, director of the
institute and a UC Berkeley professor of
psychology. We found that kids are more likely
to have a low response if they have low
socioeconomic status, though not everyone who is
poor has low frontal lobe responses. http//ww
w.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/12/images/
eeg-brain.gif
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• WHAT CAN WE DO?
• The adjustments we make to support our students
• dealing with poverty help all our students.

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• OUR ATTITUDES
• Debunk myths
• Know the culture of your community
• Have high expectations for all students
• Make decisions with your own children in mind
• Believe in the student and their ability

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• OUR BEHAVIOR
• Role model appropriate behavior
• Embody respect
• Be inclusive
• Focus on the gifts, not the deficits
• Celebrate successes
• Show empathy and cultural awareness
• Connect students to mentors whenever possible

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• SCHOOL POLICY CURRICULA
• Advisory groups
• Embed social skills
• Use differentiated instruction
• Use all the senses and address all learning
  styles
• Incorporate reading interventions
• Utilize vocabulary in all disciplines
• Mastery learning/nothing lower than a C
• Be ready to change classroom practice
• Address knowledge gaps

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Panel

• Dan Seder- principal/Bay Middle College
• Lisa Reaume- counselor/Monroe Co.Middle College
• Katherine Carr- teacher/Mott Middle College

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• Team Time
• The Great Inversion Were in the midst of the
  Great Inversion, writes Alan Ehrnhalt (2012) a
  journalist and analyst at the Pew Center on the
  States. Put simply, in the United States,
  affluent people are moving back to the cities as
  lower-income people move out to the suburbs. The
  social ramifications of this flip-flop are
  far-reaching. One positive outcome is the
  potential for greater school integration along
  race and class lines as both cities and suburbs
  become more diverse. Ed Leadership/May
  2013

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• Resources
• 2010 Census Bureau Report
• Faces of Poverty. (2013). Education Leadership,
  www.ascd.org
• LeBlanc-Esparza, R., Roulston, W.(2012)
  Breaking the Poverty Barrier Changing Student
  Lives with Passion, Perseverance, and
  Performance. Bloomington, IN Solution Tree
• Tileston, D. Darling, S. (2008) Why Culture
  Counts Teaching Children of Poverty.
  Bloomington, IN Solution Tree
• Payne, R.K. (2001) A Framework for Understanding
  Poverty. Highland, TX Aha Press.
• Beegle, D.(2007) See Poverty.Be the Difference.
  Portland, OR Communication Across Barriers, inc.

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Contact Information

• Kerry Moore
• Mott Middle College
• 810.232.8703
• kmoore_at_geneseeisd.org