Poverty
st
21 Century
Dr. Katherine Sprott
Sandy Fernandez, M.S.
Midwest Equity Assistance
Center
(Kansas State University)
October 25, 2010
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Introductions
 Dr. Katherine Sprott
 Sandra L. Fernandez
 Ronna Olivier
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Introduce the Technology
 Webinar page
 Left side: Chart box
 Box: questions
 Questions in the box will be answered during webinar
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http://www.facebook.com
Midwest Equity Assistance
Center
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Objectives
 Myths/Realities
 Statistics
Next session – November 15
 Defining Poverty Deficit / Asset Models
 Identify qualities that under-resourced
students need to be successful in school.
 Provide strategies for increasing student
achievement.
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Myths/Realities: Stereotypes
Stereotypes are
generalizations about a group
that are applied to
individuals.
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Myth or Reality
(What We Think We Know)
1.
Poor people are unmotivated and
have weak work ethics.
1.
83% percent of the children from low
income families have at least one
employed parent.
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Laziness
Stereotype: Laziness
ah, but: According to the Economic Policy Institute
(2002), poor working adults spend more hours
working per week on average than their wealthier
counterparts.
Gaining employment is due to the lack of skills in many
situations. (Rural vs. Urban)
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Myth or Reality
(What We Think We Know)
2. Poor people are uninvolved in their
children’s learning , largely because
they do not value education.
2. Low-income parent hold the same
attitudes about education that
wealthy parents do.
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Don’t Value Education
Stereotype: Don’t Value Education
Ah, but: Low-income parents hold the exact same attitudes
about education as wealthy parents (Compton-Lilly, 2003;
Hale-Benson, 1986; Lareau & Horvat, 1999; Leichter,
1978; Varenne & McDermott, 1986).
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Myth or Reality
What We Think We Know
3. Poor people are linguistically deficient
have lack of intelligence.
3. All languages varieties are highly
structured with complex grammatical
rules.
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Language/Knowledge Deficient
Stereotype: Language- Knowledge Deficient
Ah, but: Linguists have known for decades that all
varieties of English (such as “Black English
vernacular” or Appalachian varieties) are equally
complex in structure and grammar (Gee, 2004;
Hess, 1974; Miller, Cho, & Bracey, 2005).
An abundance of communication is expressed in
other ways.
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Myth or Reality
What We Think We Know
4. Poor people tend to abuse drugs and
alcohol.
4. Poor people are no more likely than
their wealthier counterparts to abuse
alcohol or drugs.
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Substance Abuse
Stereotype: Substance Abuse
Ah, but: Alcohol abuse is far more prevalent
among wealthy people than poor people
(Galea, Ahern, Tracy, & Vlahov, 2007). And
drug use equally distributed across poor,
middle class, and wealthy communities
(Saxe, Kadushin, Tighe, Rindskopf, &
Beveridge, 2001).
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Myth or Reality
What We Think We Know
3. Poor people are involved in violent
crime.
3. Poor people crimes are more visible to
in media.
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Crime and Violence
Stereotype: Crime and Violence
Ah, but: Poor people do not commit more crime than
wealthy people—they only commit more visible
crime. Furthermore, white collar crime results in
much greater economic (and life) losses than socalled “violent” crime.
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Questions!!!!!!
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What Is the Origin of Stereotypes?
 Media
 Culture
 Geographical/regional
 Peers
 Historically/ passed on by family
 Generationally passed on by family
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What Can We Do?
 Confront our own “mental baggage” about students.
 Reject deficit theory and help students and colleagues
unlearn stereotypes.
 Never assume all students have equitable access to
resources.
 Ensure that learning materials do not stereotype poor
people.
• Gorski (2008), Thompson (2010)
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Reflective Questions
 Who am I and who are we in terms of the students we
serve?
 Why do we do what we do?
 How will we develop and use the skills that we have to
successful educate our students?
 In what specific behaviors will I or we engage to be more
effective?
• Lindsey, Karns, Myatt (2010)
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Reflection Question
Is poverty an
individual experience
or a systemic
condition?
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Individual and Systemic
Health Care
Literacy
Development
Parents
Neighborhood
Rothstein, R. (2007), Gorksi, P. (2008)
• Absence/Truancy due to illness
• Irritable: cognitive/behavior
• Underdeveloped complex language
• Underdeveloped vocabulary
• Low-wage employment
• Frequently laid off: stress
• Higher crime and drugs
• Fewer role models
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National Poverty
 “A Blueprint for Reform: The Reauthorization of the Elementary
and Secondary Act” (2010)
 20% of elementary school students attend high poverty schools
 14% White
 34% Black
 46% Hispanic
 4% Asian
 2% American Indian
 6% of secondary school students attend high poverty schools
 11% White
 34% Black
 44% Hispanic
 4% Asian
 3% American Indian
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State Poverty
5-17 year olds
Iowa
Missouri
10.5%
21.0%
Kansas
Nebraska
13.5%
National Center for Education Statistics
(2007)
11.4%
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Educators Nationally
 Teachers in high
 Teachers in low
poverty schools
 62% White
 16% Black
 18% Hispanic
poverty schools
 93% White
 3% Hispanic
 2% Black
A Blueprint for Reform (2010)
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Educational Attainment
 High Poverty Teachers
 Lower attainment of master degrees for both
elementary and secondary level
 Secondary Level
 38% had masters degree vs. 52% in low
poverty
 Both Elementary and Secondary level
teachers had less than 3 years teaching
experience
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Educators Locally
 In your local schools, districts and
classrooms, what does your data imply?
 How are students served?
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Students Nationally
Race/ethnicity
14% White
34% Black
46% Hispanic
4% Asian
2% American Indian
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Students by Race/Ethnicity
 Iowa
 Missouri
 White 10.5%
 White 12.9%
 Black 37.4%
 Black 32.4%
 Hispanic 28.0
 Hispanic 35.6%
 Other 21.1%
 Other 25.4%
 Kansas
 Nebraska
 White 12.1%
 White 10.3%
 Black 28.5%
 Black 24.45
 Hispanic 33.4%
 Hispanic 24.9%
 Other 18.9%
 Other 13.6%
Kaiser State Health Facts 2007-2008
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What can we do?
 Start with your data. (Ed Trust)
 Teacher Certification
 Experience
 Licensure performance
 Value Added measures the growth of individual students
using standardized achievement tests.
 Value Added scores reflect the academic growth of each
student in each content area from one year to the next
 Value Added scores eliminate traditional reasons for success
or failure on achievement tests (race, ability, socioeconomic
status, etc...)
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What We Can Do?
 Student attendance
 Drop-out rates
 Graduation rates
 Credit earned for graduation (D,F, or I
 Enrollment in advance placement, gifted and Algebra I
 Suspension and expulsion rate
 Special Education
 Bilingual Education
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Questions!!!!!
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Picture Insights!!!
 Generate a list of thoughts in group.
 Share the group thoughts.
 Analyze the thoughts
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Reflect and identify the
characteristics of the
picture on facebook
discussion. (The picture
will be posted on
facebook as well).
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Questions/ Thank You
 Dr. Katherine Sprott
 Sandra Fernendez, MS.
 Kansas State University
 Kansas State University
(Midwest Equity Assistance Center)
(Midwest Equity Assistance
Center)
 krs8888@ksu.edu
 sfdz@ksu.edu
 785-532-6408
 785-532-6408
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