Leadership Matters February 2014

Poverty in the public education classroom

Davis and others in the Creve Coeur school district did

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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

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,

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

“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

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

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.”

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