Breaking the Cycle of Poverty

Emily Karst
Stack the Deck
Olentangy Report Card Data:
Columbus City Schools Report Card Data:
Enrollment Data:
Olentangy Enrollment Data: Columbus Enrollment Data:
Difference 1: Health and Nutrition
● Children of poverty are less likely to receive:
○ Proper diagnoses
○ Appropriate and prompt medical attention
○ Appropriate prescriptions
● Children of poverty are exposed to foods of lower nutritional value.
○ Adverse effects start in the womb
○ Poor nutrition affects grey matter development
○ Skipping breakfast negatively impacts cognition and absenteeism
● Poor diet affects behavior patterns
○ Increased sugar intake leads to hyperactivity and eventually listlessnes s
What Can we Do?
● Physical Education
○ Helps promote oxygenation and glucose development
■ Body regulation
■ Memory
■ Cognitive Function
● Breakfast and Lunch Programs
● Take Home Meals
Difference 2: Vocabulary
● Children of poverty generally have a more limited vocabulary than their affluent
peers.
○ Can lead to academic failure.
○ Low SES: 13 million
○ Middle Class: 26 million
○ Upper Class: 46 million
○ Upper Class Toddler uses a greater variety of words than a low SES mother
● An active vocabulary helps children reframe and interpret new information and
participate confidently in class discussion.
What Can we Do?
● Prioritizing introducing new words
○ “Trading cards”
○ “Fish Bowl”
○ “Class Mixer”
● Incorporate practice into daily rituals
● School wide incentivizing
● Word of the Day
Difference 3: Effort
● “Inherited laziness” is a myth.
● Poor families work as hard as middle and upper class families
● Students lack hope and optimism
● “I give up” posture = learned helplessness
● Lack of effort = feedback
What Can we Do?
● What are we doing to build relationships with struggling students?
● Buy-in strategies
○ Student choice
○ Excitement and risk
○ Curiosity builders
○ Competition
● Real world application
○ Money
○ Shopping
● Affirm effort
● Daily Practice
Difference 4: Hope and Growth Mind-Set
● Students in low SES situations expect the future to be full of more negative
experiences than positive.
● If students believe that failure is likely, they are less likely to put forth effort.
What Can we Do?
● Provide high quality feedback
● Teach that brains can grow and develop
○ Flexible IQ’s
● Cultivate positivity
● Coach good choices
Difference 5: Cognition
● Low SES children tend to struggle cognitively more than peers:
○ Intelligence and academic achievement
○ Short attention spans
○ High levels of distractibility
○ Difficulty monitoring the quality of work
○ Difficulty generating new solutions to problems
What Can we Do?
● Cognition is teachable
○ Start with basics
■ Organizing
■ Studying
■ Note taking
■ Prioritizing
■ Remembering new information
● Give encouraging feedback along the way
Difference 6: Relationships
● Three quarters of children from poverty have a single parent care-giver
● Children in poverty receive a 1:2 ratio of positive to negative comments from
caregivers
○ Middle class children receive a ratio of 2:1
● Low income homes struggle to adapt to the needs of high-needs children
● Home instability leads to a lack of trust and social-cognitive skills needed to
interact with adults and peers in school
○ These students are more likely to exhibit disrespect, inappropriate language,
and impulsivity UNTIL TAUGHT
What Can we Do?
● Demonstrate care to develop trusting relationships with students
○ Learn EVERY child's’ name
○ Stop telling, start teaching
○ Ask questions in one-on-one conversation
● When behavioral intervention is necessary, do it in private if possible
○ End with affirming common goals
○ Use this time to strengthen the relationship you have, not weaken it.
Difference 7: Distress
● Small amounts of stress are healthy, but acute chronic stress is known as
distress.
○ Students living in poverty are much more likely to experience distress
● Distress affects brain development, academic success, and social competence
as well as:
○ Impairs behaviors
○ Affects impulse control
○ Impairs working memory
○ Reduces attention span
● Distress often presents either as passivity or as aggression
○ Examples?
What Can we Do?
● Address the issue (distress) and the symptoms will alleviate
● Embed fun in learning
○ How is this possible in your subject area and age bracket?
● Offer choice to the students and work to create a child centered learning environment
○ Centers
○ Classroom decision making
○ PBL
○ Discussion
○ Supporting teamwork
● Teach coping skills
○ If this, then that
○ Solution brainstorming
○ Modeling
Getting Involved
a. Organizations for Getting
Involved.
i. United Way
ii. Donor’s Choose
iii. Children’s Hunger Alliance
iv. Dream Centers’ After
School Program
v. Partners in Education
Take a Step
Sources:
A. (n.d.). How Poverty Affects Classroom Engagement. Retrieved December 04, 2017, from
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/may13/vol70/num08/How-Poverty-Affects-Classroom-Engagement.aspx

How Does Poverty Affect Education? | LSU Online. (2017, April 10). Retrieved December 04, 2017, from
https://lsuonline.lsu.edu/articles/education/how-does-poverty-affect-education.aspx

Budge, W. P. (2016, January 13). How Does Poverty Influence Learning? Retrieved December 04, 2017, from
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/how-does-poverty-influence-learning-william-parrett-kathleen-budge

10 Facts About How Poverty Impacts Education. (2017, January 19). Retrieved December 04, 2017, from
http://www.scilearn.com/blog/ten-facts-about-how-poverty-impacts-education