Low Income Families: A Closer Look At Poverty

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Low Income Families A Closer Look At Poverty

• By Angela Walker
• November 2, 2007

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Introduction

• The purpose of this Power Point presentation is
  to inform the challenges that poverty stricken
  children pose for teachers. There are millions
  of children around the world living in poverty
  and as future teachers we will have to help our
  students over come the strains on learning that
  comes with living in poverty. No one benefits
  educationally by being born poor.

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Overview

• The next set of slides will include an overview
  of the research collected including what its
  like living in poverty, geography of low-income
  families, how poverty effects children, and how
  teachers can help children living in poverty.

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What Its Like Living In Poverty

• Poverty is defined as 20,650 a year for a family
  of four.
• Children in low-income families were twice as
  likely to face moving in the past year compared
  to children in higher-income families.
• Most of these families move to find better paying
  jobs.

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What Its Like Living In Poverty (Continued)

• Families living in poverty live in the moment
  because survival is their top priority. Their
  energies are consumed with simply getting through
  each day and making sure there is food on the
  table and lights on in the house.
• Families living in the middle class live with
  their eye to the future, where achievement is the
  top priority.
• To middle class families education is crucial for
  financial success.
• To poverty families education is abstract, but
  its not considered a long-term reality.

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Geography of Low-income families

• 41 of children in low-income families live in
  the South, up from 37 a decade ago.
• 26 live in the West, up from 23 a decade ago.
• Over 40 of children in low-income families moved
  to the South.

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How Poverty Affects children

• Children whose families live below poverty and
  with lower levels of family income are less
  likely to participate in extracurricular
  activities and to be academically on track than
  children with higher levels of family income.
• Children living in poverty are more likely to
  drop out of school, bear children out of wedlock,
  and have trouble keeping a jobs as young adults.
• Single mothers with dependent children have the
  highest rate of poverty.

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What Teachers Can Do To Help

• Schools must become the catalytic support system
  that transitions students from poverty to
  prosperity.
• Many children born into poverty are concentrated
  in struggling schools across the country.
• High-quality teachers and administrators and a
  synergistic blend of the most effective
  traditionalist and progressive ideas are needed
  to be more effective schools.

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What Teachers Can Do To Help (Continued)

• Should teachers receive incentive pay for
  improving student performances?
• U.S. secretary of education Margaret Spellings
  announced the first handout of the Teacher
  Incentive Fund, a federal grant program that
  offers cash bonuses to teachers and principals
  who succeed in improving their students
  achievement.

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Websites

• The George Lucas Educational Foundation was
  founded in 1991 as a nonprofit foundation to
  encourage innovations in schools.
• This site would be great for parents or teachers.
• This site had many polls that parents or teachers
  could participate in and post their thoughts.
• http//www.edutopia.org

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Websites

• The Ohio State University, College of Education
  and Human Ecology is a website that gives
  resources to solve complex societal problems that
  affect the quality of life, especially in urban
  settings.
• Parents, teachers, and psychologist would find
  this website helpful.
• The research topics are great.
• http//www.hec.ohio-state.edu

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Websites

• The Urban Child Institute is a website devoted to
  giving a voice to children.
• This website is great for parents and teachers.
• The blogs give great information about many
  topics that affect children.
• http//www.theurbanchildinstitute.blogspot.com

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Websites

• The Urban Institute is a website that publishes
  studies, reports and books on topics that affect
  the public.
• Teachers, parents, and psychologist would find
  the reports helpful.
• The facts and figures were astonishing.
• http//www.urban.org

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Websites

• National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) is
  a website that puts research to work for children
  and families.
• Parents and teachers would enjoy this website.
• Lots of great facts on many different topics that
  affect children.
• http//www.nccp.org

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Articles

• Restructuring High-Poverty Elementary Schools for
  Success A Description of the Hi-Perform School
  Design
• Stanley Pogrow is the author of this article.
• This article outlines the basic structure of the
  kind of school that will help children of poverty
  gain ground and so reduce learning gaps.
• This article is useful for parents and teachers.

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Articles

• Understanding Poverty
• Cindy Long is the author of this article.
• This article tells about a workshop for teachers
  that helps close the achievement gap.
• Teachers would find this article useful.

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Conclusion

• Poverty is a very delicate situation to deal with
  in the classroom. A teacher cannot ignore the
  fact that a child is coming from a background of
  poverty. Teachers must look at every child
  individually. It will be my job as a teacher to
  make these children feel like they are just as
  good as an other child in the classroom.

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References

• Long, Cindy (2006). Understanding Poverty. NEA
  Today,24(7),16.
• Pogrow, Stanley (2006). Restructuring
  High-Poverty Elementary Schools for Success A
  description of the Hi-Perform School Design. Phi
  Delta Kappan, 88(3),223.
• http//www.edutopia.org
• http//www.hec.ohio-state.edu
• http//www.theurbanchildinstitute.blogspot.com
• http//www.urban.org
• http//www.nccp.org