by Robert Pondiscio
December 23rd, 2008
Posted in No category | 1 Comment »
Letters to Santa from elementary school students in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn open a heartbreaking window on urban poverty. The letters in the New York Daily News ask for food, clothes, a better place to live and money for college as their gifts this year.
“I need food,” wrote one P.S. 241 student. “I need . . . not to starve every morning, noon and evening. I just can’t take it anymore. Me and my family are hungry.”
The 571 prekindergarten through fifth-grade students at the school were assigned to write letters laying out their needs this holiday season so teachers and others could help, the Daily News reports. “These are issues on a grand scale and issues that highlight the disparity that continues to exist in Brooklyn,” says City Councilwoman Letitia James, who according to the Daily News, thought the kids would request dolls, bikes and other toys. “I cried when I read these letters,” said James, who is collecting donations. “These children are carrying a heavy weight on their shoulders.” The letters also include pleas for a new stove, money to pay the bills and new homes because of mice, crime and overcrowding.
“My mom and dad had money but it’s for food and clothes and bills,” wrote one child. “I don’t want me going to college to take from food and clothes and bills. I know college is far away from [now] but, can you help me with my college fund,” wrote a fifth-grader.
PS 241 Principal Philip Dominique says the letters reflect the most extreme cases at the school, where 81% of students are considered poor.
by Robert Pondiscio
December 23rd, 2008
Tags: Columbia University, income disparity, low-income students, University of Bristol
Posted in Research and Reports | 2 Comments »
“Low-quality parenting” can determine the ‘school readiness’ of children from low-income backgrounds,” according to a new report from Columbia University professor Jane Waldfogel.
Waldfogel and Elizabeth Washbrook of the University of Bristol in the U.K. analyzed data on 19,000 children born in the UK in 2000 and 10,000 children born in the United States in 2001. The children in both studies were followed from the age of nine months onwards, and completed tests in language, literacy and mathematics skills at ages three, four or five. The authors write:
During the crucial first few years of life, low-income children experience poorer environments in terms of factors that would promote their cognitive, social and health development.They are more likely to begin school with deficits in their learning ability and social behaviour – and, as a result, they progress more slowly than their more affluent peers and achieve fewer educational qualifications, even in circumstances in which schools serve all pupils equally.
The research also shows that “higher-income mothers interact more positively with their children” when they are as young as nine months old, show greater sensitivity to their needs, are less intrusive and provide more cognitive stimulation. These types of behaviors are then strongly related to children’s performance at the time of entry to school, and in particular to language development.
Our research identifies lower quality parenting behaviours as a key factor behind the deficits in school readiness of low-income children in the US. If that is indeed the case, the question naturally arises of what can be done to improve parenting skills in the poorest families.
A BBC report on the study carries the subhed, “Poor parenting is the key factor behind the significant gaps in readiness for school between children from low and middle income families.” It’s a testament to how deeply ingrained the idea that teachers and schools should be able to overcome all deficits that such a headline seems mildly shocking to American eyes.
The study appears inthe University of Bristol’s Research in Public Policy; a podcast with Elizabeth Washbrook on the report is available here.
by Robert Pondiscio
December 23rd, 2008
Tags: education trust, high poverty schools, Ohio
Posted in Education News | 4 Comments »
A new Ed Trust report shows that even though Ohio school districts get additional funding for low-income children, only three of the state’s 14 largest districts have higher teacher salaries in their highest-poverty schools, compared to their more affluent schools.
“Common sense and basic fairness tell us that schools educating low-income students need significantly more—and certainly not less—if we expect them to reach the same high standards and achievement levels as children who have more resources at home,” says Ed Trust’s Ross Wiener, author of the report, No Accounting for Fairness.
