Search

Objective: Explore the effects of poverty simulation integrated into an upper level nutrition course as a preparation for working with low income individuals. Background: The number of poor people is increasing in United States. Nutrition students need to understand the constraints of living in poverty and its relationship to nutrition and health. Method: A total of 123 students in an upper level course underwent poverty simulation to be sensitize to the realities of living in a typical low-income family. A pre-and post-questionnaire were administered to measure the impact of the simulation on the student's sensitivity towards poverty. Data were analyzed by Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Results:Thirty two percent of the students strongly agreed that the community does not provide efficient services to help low income families after the simulation. Most of the students did not change their thinking about causes of poverty after the simulation. Conclusion: Poverty simulation did not significantly alter the students'sensitivity towards low-income individuals, but they identified that the community needs to provide a more effective and efficient services. Implication:Results suggests that incorporating experiential learning in a nutrition course can help student develop a more empathetic understanding of poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I explore the educational equity implications of three popular ideological positions that drive teachers’ and teacher educators’ understandings of, and responses to, poverty and economic injustice in schools: deficit ideology, grit ideology, and structural ideology. The educator’s ideological position, I illustrate, determines their understandings of conditions such as socio-economic-based outcome disparities. Those understandings, in turn, determine the extent to which the strategies they can imagine have the potential to eliminate or mitigate those disparities. I then argue that teacher education for equity and economic justice must equip pre- and in-service educators with astructural ideologyof poverty and economic injustice, based on a sophisticated understanding of relationships between structural inequalities and educational outcome disparities, rather than adeficitorgritideology, both of which obscure structural inequalities and, as a result, render educators ill-equipped to enact equitable and just teaching, leadership and advocacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This empirical note seeks to provide preliminary insights into factors that may have influenced the high school dropout rate in the US cities. For some 300-plus cities for the year 2011, OLS estimates reveal that the dropout rate is a decreasing function of both the per cent of the population that is Hispanic and per pupil public education spending at the elementary and secondary levels. In addition, the estimates find that the dropout rate is an increasing function of the per cent of the population that consisted of families with children and that was classified as being at or below the poverty level and the per cent of the population aged 25 years and older that did not have a high school diploma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than half a century afterBrown v. Board of Education of Topekaand the Civil Rights Movement, the cities at the heart of America’s racial conflict with itself have changed socioeconomically, culturally, and politically. Although many of these changes resulted in quality–of-life improvements for racial minorities, some questions remain about lingering bastions of segregation in the South. Using a critical race theory (CRT) lens, in this article we investigate four cities that were important to the Civil Rights Movement—Greensboro, North Carolina, Little Rock, Arkansas, Memphis, Tennessee, and Montgomery, Alabama—to examine demographic, economic, and sociocultural trends and how they affect racial minority groups. We find that, despite considerable improvement in terms of poverty rate, unemployment, and income, blacks continue to remain substantially behind whites in these cities, indicating that desegregation and access to opportunity has done little to close the black-white opportunity gap. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Latino children often struggle in school. Early childhood education programmes are seen as critical for fostering children's school readiness. Latino families often choose family childcare (FCC) over centre-based childcare (CBC), yet little is known about the school readiness of Latino children attending FCC. We compared school readiness over the pre-kindergarten year for low-income Latino children who attended either FCC or CBC with childcare subsidies. Teachers and parents rated children's social skills and behaviour with the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment. Cognitive, motor, and language development were assessed with the Learning Accomplishment Profile Diagnostic. Although there were no family demographic differences between children who attended FCC versus CBC, children in CBC improved over time in cognitive, language, and social skills, whereas children in FCC stayed the same or lost ground in these areas over time, especially boys. The school readiness of Latino children, especially boys, may be better served by attending CBC. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The two largest minorities in the United States, African Americans and people of Hispanic origin, show official poverty rates at least twice as high as those of non-Hispanic Whites. These similarly high poverty rates between the two minorities are, however, the result of different combinations of factors related to the specific characteristics of these two groups. In this article, we analyse the role of demographic and labour-related variables in the current differential of poverty rates among racial and ethnic groups in the United States and its recent evolution. Our results show, first, that these differentials are largely explained by differing family characteristics of the ethnic groups. Furthermore, we show that while labour market activity of family members and a preponderance of single mothers play a more significant role in the higher poverty rates of Blacks, a larger number of dependent children is closely associated with higher poverty among Latinos, who also suffer from a larger educational attainment gap and higher immigration rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To have a fuller grasp of the contemporary penalization of poverty, along with neoliberalism's regulative properties, a sociology of youth must be brought more to the fore. Although there are theoretical, ideological, and substantive disagreements about how to understand neoliberalism, the common themes that cut across varying approaches (e.g., market dominance, atrophy of the welfare state, reorganization of state capacities, personal responsibility, and self-governance) have important implications for young people, who are often the key subjects of neoliberal projects and provide a unique vantage point for understanding this contested phenomenon. The author suggests that by examining youth as well as the institutional and contextual circumstances that they inhabit, scholars can glean more about neoliberalism and poverty management as it relates to three key areas: schools, the criminal justice system, and militarization. This youth studies perspective has the potential to complement and complicate folk and scholarly assumptions about the transforming American political economy and its concomitant social inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education is often viewed as the door that leads out of poverty for many students of color. But for many African American boys and young men, the dream of becoming a professional athlete is a door that appears to be wide open. Considering the over-representation of African American athletes in revenue-producing sports in colleges, universities and at the professional ranks, it is no surprise that many African American male youth develop aspirations for, and identify with the athletic role. These aspirations may become even more focused and intense if they ascend to the level of division I college athletes. The identification with the athlete role is likely to intensify as they get closer to the goal of professional sport. Most individuals occupy multiple identities or roles in life such as sibling, student, spouse, employee, athlete, etc. Identity salience and strength depends on the importance of that role. Athletic identity has been defined as the degree to which an individual identifies with the athletic role. Few studies have examined the impact and influences of race on athletic role identification. This study explores the relationship between race and athletic identity. Division I-A African American and Caucasian American football student-athletes' responses to the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale were analyzed (Brewer, Raalte, and Linder 1993). Results indicated that African American football student-athletes have a stronger athletic identity compared to their Caucasian American counterparts. Differences in specific items on the scale indicated that African American student-athletes were more internally focused on their sport, felt that others perceive them only as athletes, and see sport as the focal point in their lives. Differences in these items and implications of these results suggest that there is a potential impact on academic achievement and the student-athlete's aspirations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the link between the poverty and literacy. The article explores the mutual dependence between poverty and academic achievement, and the dedication of the low-income families for the success of their children. Some groups advocate to improve schools to better respond to the needs of low-income students while the other group advocates for both school and social reforms. Strong reading and writing skills are considered as foundation to the access the rich and diverse curricular. Both schools and home share the responsibility to develop the literacy skill. Ethnographic research shows literacy is more than encoding and decoding symbols. The article mentions about the reforms that occurred in U.S. public education system and other aspects that analysis the student education.

This article reviews the relationship between poverty and reading achievement in America's schools. It then discusses how to advance the reading proficiencies of students from economically impoverished homes. It gives particular emphasis to school-home partnerships and sociocultural literacy practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ruby Payne, CEO of aha! Process, Inc., and author of A Framework for Understanding Poverty (2005), has become one of the most influential figures in the U.S. public education milieu. Payne's framework, built largely upon understanding the "culture" of poverty, instructs educators on the values and mindsets poor students carry into the classroom as well as how to help them develop middle-class values and culture. But despite Payne's popularity, scholars and activists representing a wide variety of disciplines, from critical theory to mathematics education, have been highly critical of her work. In this essay I synthesize the existing critiques, dividing them into "eight elements of oppression" in Payne's work. I then offer a vision for a more authentic framework - one for authenticating anti-poverty education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there has been considerable scholarship on the role of school and district leadership within instructional change, there has been little analysis of the values and orientations that undergird current policy debates about instructional leadership. This article outlines the importance of examining instructional leadership in the context of broader political and cultural debates about government and about how society should be organized. It identifies two distinct models of instructional leadership emerging as part of these dynamics: the market model and the polis model. Drawing on interviews and observations with 59 school staff across three cities and with 55 district administrators, it examines the tensions that these competing models create for school administrators working in improving schools within high poverty communities. In each district, system-wide press to improve instruction activated district management practices that contradicted reform goals of building a professional community of educators and administrators focused on teaching and learning. Further, how district staff viewed and approached their work departed in significant ways from the management practices of school administrators. Based on this research, the article identifies the importance of administrators' professional contexts in studies of instructional leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1995, author Earl Shorris established a small educational program designed to help young adults escape from poverty. The curriculum chosen by Shorris for this experimental program focused solely on a classically based, college-level study in the humanities. While I do not find that Shorris provided proof that a classically inspired course in the humanities provides an effective and efficient way to escape poverty, the course drew much needed attention to conditions that surround poverty in America, and also made a compelling case for challenging long-standing assumptions about who is capable of benefiting from a rigorous, academic curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information on poverty and inequality in the U.S. The people in need of resources the most, get the least. And conversely, the more advantages people have, the easier they will find it to access resources. This skewed arrangement is most apparent in the nation's schools. There are policies and practices in place, from the way schools are funded to how poor children are taught and treated in schools, that warp the educational experiences of poor school children across this nation. Schools should be a place where children, regardless of their socio- economic status, find support and encouragement as they grow, learn and gain confidence in their abilities. Sadly, all too often this is not true for children living in poverty.

The intersection of race and poverty presents the two most seemingly intractable social problems in the United States today. Despite gains in the recent decades, unacceptable levels of institutional racism and poverty persist. Increasing income and wealth gaps, desegregation of schools, absence of minorities in the highest levels of government and the private sector, and the radicalization of space all are indicators of this failure of democracy. The white majority prefers to imagine a colorblind society, not just as a goal but also as a current reality. The Bush administration's negative attitudes toward affirmative action, as well as former President Clinton's failed Race Initiative, are evidence that ‘liberty and justice for all’ are not to be achieved in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In a post-war frontier area in north-western Nicaragua that was severely hit by Hurricane Mitch in 1998, local stakeholders embarked on and facilitated multi-dimensional development initiatives to break the cycles of poverty. Objective: The aim of this paper is to describe the process of priority-setting, and the strategies, guiding principles, activities, achievements, and lessons learned in these local development efforts from 1990 to 2014 in the Cuatro Santos area, Nicaragua. Methods: Data were derived from project records and a Health and Demographic Surveillance System that was initiated in 2004. The area had 25,893 inhabitants living in 5,966 households in 2014. Results: A participatory process with local stakeholders and community representatives resulted in a long-term strategic plan. Guiding principles were local ownership, political reconciliation, consensus decision-making, social and gender equity, an environmental and public health perspective, and sustainability. Local data were used in workshops with communities to re-prioritise and formulate new goals. The interventions included water and sanitation, house construction, microcredits, environmental protection, school breakfasts, technical training, university scholarships, home gardening, breastfeeding promotion, and maternity waiting homes. During the last decade, the proportion of individuals living in poverty was reduced from 79 to 47%. Primary school enrolment increased from 70 to 98% after the start of the school breakfast program. Under-five mortality was around 50 per 1,000 live births in 1990 and again peaked after Hurricane Mitch and was approaching 20 per 1,000 in 2014. Several of the interventions have been scaled up as national programs. Conclusions: The lessons learned from the Cuatro Santos initiative underline the importance of a bottom-up approach and local ownership of the development process, the value of local data for monitoring and evaluation, and the need for multi-dimensional local interventions to break the cycles of poverty and gain better health and welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on a special conference sponsored by the American Association of School Administrators to discuss the provisions of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 in the United States. The anti-poverty legislation was previewed by 130 school administrators from various regions of the United States. It includes an in-depth analysis of the provisions of the law pertaining to the role of education in the war against poverty, as well the issues' different implications for art and art education.

Highlights the inequalities of the public school system in the U.S. Difference in the lives of children living in poverty; Perception of the public on poverty; Role of teacher in student education.