Poverty
st
21 Century (Part 3)
Jessie Myles, M.S.
Sandy Fernandez, M.S.
Midwest Equity Assistance
Center
(Kansas State University)
December 13, 2010
1
Introductions
 Jessie Myles
 Sandra L. Fernandez
 Ronna Olivier
2
Introduce the Technology
 Webinar page
 Left side: Chat box
 Box: questions
 Questions in the box will be answered during webinar
 Poll information for interactive participation
3
http://www.facebook.com
Midwest Equity Assistance
Center
p
4
Objectives
 Review
 Webinar 1 (Myths/Realities)
 Webinar 2 (Deficit / Asset Models)
 Asset Based Strategies
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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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Please post other
myths.
Why is it a myth?
10
Current Family Poverty Rate
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“Fulfill the Promise of Equal
Education”
 U.S. Department of Education (2008-2009),
 44.2% of student in public school were identified as low
income
 PISA
 Fifth largest achievement gap between low-income and their
more affluent classmates.
 High school students performed 24% below those from higherincome schools
 Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2011)
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Cultural Proficiency
Deficit Approach to Poverty
 Our role is that educators we are to correct
the deficiencies in students and by
implication their parents/guardians.
Lindsey, Karns, & Myatt, 2010
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Deficit Model Characteristics
 Dirty
 Poor Vocabulary
 Lack of Background Knowledge
 Unmotivated
 Dysfunctional
 Unorganized
 Equating SES/ intelligence
Tileston & Darling 2009
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Cultural Proficiency
Asset-based Approach to Poverty
 Begins with the premise that students from low-income
and impoverished communities are educable, and it is our
role as educators to find out how best to get the ob done.
 That educators know the technical aspects of their roles,
whether that is as a teacher, a counselor, an administrator,
or a policymaker.
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Cultural Proficiency
Asset-based Approach to Poverty
 Based on the belief that:
 Students from low-income and impoverished communities
have the capacity to learn at high levels.
 Schools have the capacity to learn how to educate all
students.
 The styles of democracy in United States is most effective
when ensuring the rights and opportunities of historically
marginalized groups of people.
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Asset Model
 Strong Family Unit (Collective vs Individual)
 Motivated/relevance
 Culturally responsive classrooms and context for learning
 Educational resources
 Strong Resiliency
 Leadership
Tileston & Darling 2009
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Asset Model
 Informational text are patterned vs. literary text.
 Developing metacognitive skills. ( Highlighting or
underlining significant information)
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What Can We Do?
 Educate ourselves about class and poverty.
 Reject deficit theory
 Make school involvement accessible to all families.
 Continue reaching out to families.
 Respond when colleagues stereotype poor students and
families.
 Never assume that all students have equitable access.
 Ensure learning materials do not stereotypes.
Gorski, 2008
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What Can We Do?
 Advocate to keep low income student from assigned
unjustly to special education or low academic tracks.
 Validate students experiences and intelligences.
 Make curriculum relevant
 Teach about issues related to class and poverty
 Teach about antipoverty work
 Advocate for healthy school meal programs
 Examine proposed corporate-school partnerships
Gorski, 2008
20
What can you do in
your school/ district/
organization to
implement an asset
approach?
21
Deficiency Terms
Words often used to describe some groups and implied for others
 Underclass
 Deprived
 Middle Class
 Superior
 Unskilled
 Disadvantaged
 Privileged
 Normal
 Subgroups
 Deficient
 Underperforming
 Upper Class
 Minority
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Equity Terms
 Culture
 Demographic group
 Equity
 National Origin
 Race
 Reflection
 Student of color
 Underserved
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Transformation Chart
 Cultural Precompetence
 Technical Teaching
 Cultural Competence
 Relational Teaching
 Cultural Proficiency
 Relational Teaching
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Strategies
 Possesses skills of technical and relational teaching
 Technical-Educator organize work from a cognitive view
 Transition students from retrieving information to using
information
 Results are important
 Relational Teaching Develop relationships with students as a starting place
 Create trust generating climate
 Students construct meaning from their point of view
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10 Tenets of Asset Base Learning
 Accept and respect differences
 Acknowledge choices life.
 Stop Distractions
 Teach and Use Personal Reflections
 Care and invest in others ( Me to we)
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10 Tenets of Asset Base Learning
 Act responsibly and consider others
 Believe and behave knowing that humans are self-righting
 Identity what is important, no negotiable, a must have to
facilitate learning.
 Collaborate and be responsive
 Commitment to what is right.
27
What teachers can do to build relationships?
 Call on everyone in the room equitably
 Provide individual help
 Give “wait” time
 Ask questions to give the student clues about the
answer
 Ask questions that require more thought
 Tell students whether their answers are right or wrong
 Give specific praise
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Dolores Grayson,
1998
Behavior/Special Education
 Poor students are 9 times as likely to be place in Special
Education.
 Cultural linguistic factors
 Cultural norms and values
 Bias are employed to place students in Special Education.
Hoover, 2009
29
Digital Quiz
 Do you think students should
use cell phones in school?
 Should cell phones, facebook,
twitter or other forms of
technology be used as
learning options?
 How?
 How can you improve
instruction with the current
technology?
 How many students have
access online?
30
What Does Poverty
Mean to You?
Some student voices:
 pretending that you forgot your lunch,
 being teased for the way you are dressed,
 feeling ashamed when my dad can’t get a job,
 not getting a hot dog on hot dog day,
 knowing that my mother can’t help with homework
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What Does Poverty
Mean to You?
 being afraid to tell your mom
that you need gym shoes,
 not getting invitations to
birthday parties,
 not buying books at the book
fair
 feeling invisible
 knowing that my mother can’t
read or write
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Ideas of Ways Schools Can Help Families
 School supplies – do they need to have everything the first
day of school? Could things be spaced out as needed?
 Sports apparel – help teams, cheerleaders, dance teams,
etc. to make economical choices about matching shoes,
sweats, socks, etc.
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Ideas of Ways Schools Can Help Families
 Pay attention to sleep needs – if a student seems to need
sleep, be sensitive to the possibility that maybe things
were crazy at home and sleep wasn’t the top priority.
 Graduation “stuff” – start early with the information,
advertisements, needs for the graduate so the family can
have time to decide what is needed and how to pay for it.
34
Ideas of Ways Schools Can Help Families
 School pictures – offer a class picture on the digital
camera; some parents may be happy with that if they
can’t afford the regular class picture; give parents a long
notice about picture day and the cost; let parents pay in
stages
35
Ideas of Ways Schools Can Help Families
 Deadlines for homework – give adequate time to get
things done at home especially if there are things parents
need to purchase; also keep in mind that many parents
work in the evening and aren’t able to help with
assignments that are due the next day. They need time to
plan.
 Keep extra clothes on hand for those students who may
have dirty clothing because a caregiver just didn’t have
time to get the laundry done or didn’t see what they
walked out of the house wearing.
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Ideas of Ways Schools Can Help Families
 Offer to help parents with the paperwork for reduced/free
lunch, insurance, especially if they have little or no English
speaking ability.
 Make home visits – students feel special and it also give
some insight to the family’s situation and makes visiting
with the parents in the future much easier.
 Have inexpensive supplies that students often run out of
on hand in the school office.
37
Ideas of Ways Schools Can Help Families
 Computer time and homework help time before and after
school – some students have no access to a computer and
often an adult may be at work so they can’t get to the
library or get that extra homework help they need.
 Be understanding of family situations that may keep
students from meeting a deadline (part-time job that is
necessary, no ride due to parents being at work, fees for
something that are late).
 Limit or skip reward parties that involve students bringing
food/drink from home.
38
Questions/ Thank You
 Jesse Myles
 Sandra Fernandez, MS.
 Kansas State University
 Kansas State University
(Midwest Equity Assistance Center)
(Midwest Equity Assistance Center)
 jmyles1234@yahoo.com
 sfdz@ksu.edu
 785-532-6408
 785-532-6408
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