7
studying Shakespeare could go to Navy Pier and
watch a live rap version and could see the Bard’s
work come to life. Parental attendance at the private
school events was about 80 percent compared to
about 5 percent in Creve Coeur “if we were lucky,”
she said.
“Parents from low-income
homes are no less loving or
concerned, but they face huge
obstacles when it comes to
resources,” Davis said. “Parents
in Creve Coeur were no less
interested, but many were
working more than one job or
could not afford a babysitter.
More affluent people tend to
have done well in school and
school is a comfortable place for
them. Some of the low-income
parents tend not to be
comfortable at school. Some
may be embarrassed that they
can’t help their kids with
homework and so they don’t
come.”
Davis’ 14 years as a teacher
and nine as an administrator
have led her to the observation
that school practices are guided
by middle-class norms and
expectations that don’t easily
translate for children who live in
poverty.
It’s
a
practical
observation that is in sync with
the writings and teachings of
Ruby Payne, an educator and
noted author who has presented
her program titled “A Framework
for Understanding Poverty”
across the country the past
several years.
“There has to be a basic
understanding
about
living
circumstances, family structure
and the challenges that people
in poverty face,” said Davis, who
also has worked for non-profit social agencies in her
career. “You can’t begin to teach in the classroom
until children are emotionally ready to learn, and
many of them are faced with challenges many of us
will never see in our lives, things like hunger, abuse
or neglect, no support systems or stable homes.”
Davis and others in the
Creve Coeur school district did
more than pontificate about those issues. Despite
dwindling state assistance – or maybe because of the
lack of state funds – they did things like forming
student support teams and partnering with local
agencies like the Center for
Prevention of Abuse in
Peoria.
A student support team
of 10 Creve Coeur Junior
High
staff
members,
counselors, social workers
and interventionists from the
Center for Prevention of
Abuse met monthly and
identified the top dozen
children with the most critical
needs. Those children were
assigned a teacher mentor
that they were required to
check in with each school
day. The teacher mentor was
supposed to make sure the
kids were feeling safe and
were doing their schoolwork.
“It was a system of care,”
said Davis, noting the Mind
Over Muscles and HARTS
programs to help children
navigate through conflict and
improve their self-discipline.
“Students who have social or
emotional issues have their
ability to learn disabled.”
Davis said the one-on-one
teacher mentor approach
was showing good results in
the Creve Coeur district.
Davis and Flynn agree
that
early
childhood
education
is
a
key
component to overcoming
the obstacles of poverty in
education. School districts
across the state have seen
reductions in state support,
forcing districts to find alternative ways to keep
programs going, such as reaching out and partnering
with local non-profit agencies.
In Freeport, the partnerships included a summer
(Continued from page 6)
(Continued on page 8)
Poverty in the public education classroom
“Illinois’
proportion of
low-income
students has
grown
from
37.5 percent
of
the
enrollment in 2002 to about
half in 2013, meaning more
than 1 million students now
live in households that struggle
to meet their children’s basic
nutritional, healthcare and
housing needs. Research
shows that children who live in
areas of concentrated poverty
often suffer higher stress
levels and can demonstrate
more severe behavioral and
emotional problems than their
peers. These struggles can be
huge road blocks on a child’s
path to college and career
readiness and lead to lower
achievement
scores
and
higher dropout rates.”
--Dr. Christopher Koch, State
Superintendent of Schools
