National tests for years have indicated that over 50 percent of students in
urban poverty schools fail 4th grade reading tests which indicate that these students can not read.
Not exact matches
But some education specialists say that elected
school boards in general pose problems for
urban school districts with challenges related to
poverty.
High -
poverty schools in
urban areas tend to have the highest rates of teacher turnover.»
In the study, 292 first - generation immigrant children who attended eight high -
poverty,
urban elementary
schools in Boston took part in the intervention, called City Connects, in the early 2000s.
Philanthropies like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Broad Foundation, after giving to
urban education for years, have realized that the charter sector disproportionately produces high - performing high -
poverty schools.
The
schools these young men would attend are typically in high -
poverty urban neighborhoods, have high rates of violence and
school dropout, and struggle to retain effective teachers.
The district consists of high -
poverty to middle - class
schools, rural, suburban, and demographically diverse
urban schools — including one where over 60 languages are spoken.
«An ideal situation in five years may be in a leadership role at a large
urban school district, charter
school network, or nonprofit organization that serves underrepresented students, especially those living in
poverty,» she says.
During two years of doing research, Chenoweth identified 15
schools representing a mixture of grade levels and
urban, rural, and suburban settings where students were excelling despite
poverty and other obstacles — and where kids were not spending endless hours on reading and math drills.
April 29:
Urban Neighborhoods and the Persistence of Racial Inequality with New York University Associate Professor Patrick Sharkey; Senior Fellow Richard Rothstein, University of California - Berkeley
School of Law; and Harvard University Professor William Julius Wilson, director of Harvard Kennedy
School Joblessness and
Urban Poverty Research Program.
Urban school districts spend significantly less per pupil on their high -
poverty schools than their low -
poverty ones, a fact that is routinely masked by
school budgets that use average - salary figures rather than actual ones, a new paper suggests.
For a decade or more,
school reform has been an
urban tale of superintendents seeking to «turn around»
schools in
poverty - stricken communities, where vast numbers of children read below grade level and drop out before graduation.
The Sue Duncan Center was attended by kids from elementary to high
school age, nearly all of them African Americans struggling with the grind of
urban poverty — crime, drugs, gangs, absent parents.
By 2005 Pisces was the biggest single supporter of Teach for America, a nonprofit that has, improbably, made teaching in
poverty - ridden
urban schools one of the most popular career choices of students at Ivy League colleges.
with University of Pittsburgh Professor H. Richard Milner IV, Helen Faison Endowed Chair of
Urban Education and director of the Center for
Urban Education; editor of
Urban Education; and author of Rac (e) ing to Class: Confronting
Poverty and Race in
Schools and Classrooms.
The highest turnover happens in high
poverty urban and rural public
schools.
Almost half of the teachers in Ohio's charter
schools quit their
schools in the four - year period between 2000 and 2004, in comparison with about 8 percent in conventional public
schools and 12 percent in high -
poverty,
urban public
schools, suggesting that new organizations are not a magic formula for
school stability.
A research team led by Harvard Graduate
School of Education's Susan Moore Johnson at the Project on the Next Generation of Teachers spoke to 95 teachers and administrators in six high -
poverty, high - minority
schools in a large,
urban district.
African American students, students who qualify for free / reduced lunch (i.e. poor students), students living in relatively high -
poverty areas, and students attending
urban schools are all more likely to be investigated by Child Protective Services for suspected child maltreatment.
The project, which he calls, The Chastened Dream, will look at how publicly - oriented professional
schools, including those focused on education, public health, public policy, and
urban planning and design, develop knowledge that they hope will be useful for ameliorating
poverty, curing disease, improving education, and increasing the quality of life for us all.
Probably the most convincing argument for the fundamental difference between start - ups and turnarounds comes from those actually running high - performing high -
poverty urban schools (see sidebar).
While rural and
urban schools share certain challenges, including the devastating effects of
poverty on
school children, there are myriad other problems specific to rural
schools, which is why applying an
urban model and
urban solutions to rural
schools simply doesn't work.
Gold notes, for example, how the demand that
urban schools intervene directly to overcome the effects of
poverty on achievement results in a proliferation of site - based social - service programs — clinics, counseling, rehab centers, family interventions — whose maintenance can overwhelm the instructional mission of the
school.
But, contrary to many leading reform voices, progress on the important issues of
poverty and talent will not be enough to reverse the dysfunction of
urban school districts.
The expectation is that the resulting intervention, titled «SECURe for Parents and Children (SECURe PAC)» is feasible to implement within existing
school - and community - based services in
urban areas with a high concentration of families and children living in
poverty.
In my years teaching in
urban public
schools, I saw many students experience extreme stress from living in
poverty and also in gang - affiliated neighborhoods.
A high -
poverty urban district with 28 percent English language learners and more than 50 home languages spoken throughout the district, Oakland Unified
School District (OUSD) in California was looking for new ways to reach these diverse families.
The dysfunctional nature of how
urban schools teach students to relate to authority begins in kindergarten and continues through the primary grades.With young children, authoritarian, directive teaching that relies on simplistic external rewards still works to control students.But as children mature and grow in size they become more aware that the
school's coercive measures are not really hurtful (as compared to what they deal with outside of
school) and the directive, behavior modification methods practiced in primary grades lose their power to control.Indeed,
school authority becomes counterproductive.From upper elementary grades upward students know very well that it is beyond the power of
school authorities to inflict any real hurt.External controls do not teach students to want to learn; they teach the reverse.The net effect of this situation is that
urban schools teach
poverty students that relating to authority is a kind of game.And the deepest, most pervasive learnings that result from this game are that
school authority is toothless and out of touch with their lives.What
school authority represents to
urban youth is «what they think they need to do to keep their
school running.»
We present results from a randomized experiment of a summer mathematics program conducted in a large, high -
poverty urban public
school district.
«
Urban schools are faced with huge challenges, some of which are simply related to concentrated
poverty, and so many kids are coming to
school with unmet needs,» said Pedro Noguera, a professor of education at New York University.
Really it is certain types of public
schools are failing such as high
poverty rural and
urban schools.
For a high -
poverty urban district like LAUSD, where declining birth rates, reduced immigration, gentrification and the expansion of charters have left neighborhood
schools scrambling for resources, education researchers believe that community
schooling offers the first meaningful bang for its buck in delivering equity for its highest - needs students.
In the United States, the problem is most obvious in high
poverty urban schools, where boys are losing sight of the girls.
With increasing teacher - turnover rates in high -
poverty and
urban districts,
school and district leaders need to make sure that the job is satisfying and rewarding — and quality collaboration time can help lower turnover rates.
Last week, I had the privilege of visiting several high -
poverty urban schools in Cleveland.
And although charters enroll only 5 percent of America's K - 12 students, to the cash - strapped, high -
poverty urban districts that have been targeted for charter expansions, that number represents a shift of roughly $ 38.7 billion per year in lost tax dollars and mass closings of neighborhood
schools.
Given this strong correlation, it's not surprising that almost all high -
poverty urban schools in Ohio get failing grades on the performance index.
The study also compared charter performance to average statewide performance — admittedly, a higher bar, as
schools statewide had significantly lower levels of
poverty than the charters (and their
urban districts).
In the two previous years, 46 and 39 percent of
urban schools were rated D or F. To be sure, fewer high -
poverty schools will flunk under value - added as under a proficiency measure.
On average, respondents estimated that a little more than half — or 52 percent — of all low - income students attend high -
poverty schools.67 This estimate is slightly larger than the
Urban Institute figure showing that 40 percent of all low - income students attend a high -
poverty school.68
«Rural
schools face many of the same challenges as their
urban counterparts — high
poverty and inadequate resources among them,» said Patte Barth, Director of the Center for Public Education.
The figures quoted above about the availability of computers in
schools do not provide details about the types and quality of computer technology available to students and teachers in high -
poverty urban school settings as opposed to those in more affluent suburban
schools.
While many whole -
school reform models geared to
urban and high -
poverty contexts provide excellent professional development for teachers, few provide anything that directly address the needs and experiences for principals in high
poverty settings.
State ID (9 sub-codes) District site ID (18 sub-codes) District size (large, medium, low) District
poverty (high, medium, low) District diversity (high, medium, low) District location (
urban, suburban, rural)
School site ID School level (elementary, middle school, high school) School poverty (high, medium, low) School diversity (high, medium, low) School size (student population) Interviewee role district (superintendent, board member, staff, parent representative, community stakeholder) Interviewee role school (principal or assistant principal, teacher, teacher leader, other staff, parent representative) Interviewee gender Interviewee role experience (0 - 2 years, 3 - 5, 6 - 10, 11 +) Interviewee site experience (0 - 2 years, 3 - 5, 6 - 10, 11 +) Site visit date (site visit 1, 2, or 3) Document type (district, school, research
School site ID
School level (elementary, middle school, high school) School poverty (high, medium, low) School diversity (high, medium, low) School size (student population) Interviewee role district (superintendent, board member, staff, parent representative, community stakeholder) Interviewee role school (principal or assistant principal, teacher, teacher leader, other staff, parent representative) Interviewee gender Interviewee role experience (0 - 2 years, 3 - 5, 6 - 10, 11 +) Interviewee site experience (0 - 2 years, 3 - 5, 6 - 10, 11 +) Site visit date (site visit 1, 2, or 3) Document type (district, school, research
School level (elementary, middle
school, high school) School poverty (high, medium, low) School diversity (high, medium, low) School size (student population) Interviewee role district (superintendent, board member, staff, parent representative, community stakeholder) Interviewee role school (principal or assistant principal, teacher, teacher leader, other staff, parent representative) Interviewee gender Interviewee role experience (0 - 2 years, 3 - 5, 6 - 10, 11 +) Interviewee site experience (0 - 2 years, 3 - 5, 6 - 10, 11 +) Site visit date (site visit 1, 2, or 3) Document type (district, school, research
school, high
school) School poverty (high, medium, low) School diversity (high, medium, low) School size (student population) Interviewee role district (superintendent, board member, staff, parent representative, community stakeholder) Interviewee role school (principal or assistant principal, teacher, teacher leader, other staff, parent representative) Interviewee gender Interviewee role experience (0 - 2 years, 3 - 5, 6 - 10, 11 +) Interviewee site experience (0 - 2 years, 3 - 5, 6 - 10, 11 +) Site visit date (site visit 1, 2, or 3) Document type (district, school, research
school)
School poverty (high, medium, low) School diversity (high, medium, low) School size (student population) Interviewee role district (superintendent, board member, staff, parent representative, community stakeholder) Interviewee role school (principal or assistant principal, teacher, teacher leader, other staff, parent representative) Interviewee gender Interviewee role experience (0 - 2 years, 3 - 5, 6 - 10, 11 +) Interviewee site experience (0 - 2 years, 3 - 5, 6 - 10, 11 +) Site visit date (site visit 1, 2, or 3) Document type (district, school, research
School poverty (high, medium, low)
School diversity (high, medium, low) School size (student population) Interviewee role district (superintendent, board member, staff, parent representative, community stakeholder) Interviewee role school (principal or assistant principal, teacher, teacher leader, other staff, parent representative) Interviewee gender Interviewee role experience (0 - 2 years, 3 - 5, 6 - 10, 11 +) Interviewee site experience (0 - 2 years, 3 - 5, 6 - 10, 11 +) Site visit date (site visit 1, 2, or 3) Document type (district, school, research
School diversity (high, medium, low)
School size (student population) Interviewee role district (superintendent, board member, staff, parent representative, community stakeholder) Interviewee role school (principal or assistant principal, teacher, teacher leader, other staff, parent representative) Interviewee gender Interviewee role experience (0 - 2 years, 3 - 5, 6 - 10, 11 +) Interviewee site experience (0 - 2 years, 3 - 5, 6 - 10, 11 +) Site visit date (site visit 1, 2, or 3) Document type (district, school, research
School size (student population) Interviewee role district (superintendent, board member, staff, parent representative, community stakeholder) Interviewee role
school (principal or assistant principal, teacher, teacher leader, other staff, parent representative) Interviewee gender Interviewee role experience (0 - 2 years, 3 - 5, 6 - 10, 11 +) Interviewee site experience (0 - 2 years, 3 - 5, 6 - 10, 11 +) Site visit date (site visit 1, 2, or 3) Document type (district, school, research
school (principal or assistant principal, teacher, teacher leader, other staff, parent representative) Interviewee gender Interviewee role experience (0 - 2 years, 3 - 5, 6 - 10, 11 +) Interviewee site experience (0 - 2 years, 3 - 5, 6 - 10, 11 +) Site visit date (site visit 1, 2, or 3) Document type (district,
school, research
school, research memo).
Even where
urban and high -
poverty school districts emphasize public engagement, the policies and preferences tend to «trickle down» to
schools only in the form of mandated representation on
school councils — a weak strategy for distributing leadership.
We heard similar criticisms about the effectiveness of state support - system interventions for low - performing
schools in one of our large, high -
poverty, low - performing
urban school districts — where (again) the district developed no plan for systematic intervention to ameliorate the problem.
Today, 50 years after the report was issued, that prediction characterizes most of our large
urban areas, where intensifying segregation and concentrated
poverty have collided with disparities in
school funding to reinforce educational inequality (see Figure 1).
The success of these programs provides a clue to the root problem of low achievement in so many
urban areas:
Poverty didn't keep these children from performing better, failing
schools did.
But our recent study of teachers» working conditions in six successful high -
poverty urban schools suggests otherwise.
The Council of
Urban Boards of Education (CUBE) has been at the forefront in helping urban school districts in their work to close the achievement gap, raise high school graduation rates, provide intervention services to academically struggling students, and create broad - based school programs to support students who live in poverty or other circumstances that create obstacles to lear
Urban Boards of Education (CUBE) has been at the forefront in helping
urban school districts in their work to close the achievement gap, raise high school graduation rates, provide intervention services to academically struggling students, and create broad - based school programs to support students who live in poverty or other circumstances that create obstacles to lear
urban school districts in their work to close the achievement gap, raise high
school graduation rates, provide intervention services to academically struggling students, and create broad - based
school programs to support students who live in
poverty or other circumstances that create obstacles to learning.