1. Poverty Wedges: Education Challenges & Assets of Cultural Groups in Poverty Circumstances Kathleen S. Cooter Robert B. Cooter, Jr. Annsley Frazier Thornton School of Education 2 Note: Some slides provided by john a. powell at the www.KirwanInstitute.org

2. 3 Urban Literacy Challenges & Issues Poverty Related Issues  High Student Mobility  Language Development Deficits  Nutrition & Health Issues  Attendance Problems  Access to resources School District Challenges  Leadership Capacity (Superintendents, Principals)  Teacher Longevity  Accountability Stress (NCLB)  Supt. Turnover  “Program of the Month” Solutions Community Perceptions & Flight (Economic/Re-segregation) Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education and Social Change Bellarmine Univ. (6.11)

3. 4 Urban Concentrated Poverty East Coast Examples of Neighborhoods of Concentrated Poverty in Baltimore and Philadelphia Source: Brookings Institution

4. 5 Urban Concentrated Poverty Midwest Examples of Neighborhoods of Concentrated Poverty in Detroit and Cleveland Source: Brookings Institution

5. 6 Urban vs. Rural Poverty Urban and rural poverty are distinct issues in the US, urban poverty is often linked to concentrated poverty while rural poverty is more regional in scope Urban concentrated poverty: In urban areas, many of the impoverished are hypersegregated into pockets of extreme high poverty within metropolitan areas, in recent years these pockets of poverty are being found in some inner suburban areas Rural regional poverty Rural poverty often is represented regionally, with vast isolated or historically depressed rural areas Both urban and rural poverty represent an isolation from opportunity, but operate at different geographic scales, both are also highly racialized

6. 7 Areas of Severe Rural Poverty by Race in America 2000

7. 8 The Working Poor 63% of families in poverty have a family member working A quarter of all jobs pay less than a “living wage” (wage needed to keep a family of four out of poverty) More than 28 million workers earned less than a living wage in 2004 Sources: Penn State, Business Week and US Bureau of Labor Market Studies

8. 9 Frames to View Poverty Help Determine the Response The US Model Policies which reflect frame of personal failure, serving capitalism Framing of poverty and race The European Model Policies tied into serving democratic society The International Model Human Development Index A Structural Model

9. 10 US v. EU Policy Response While the U.S. devotes 11 percent of its GDP to transfers and other social benefits, the EU countries contribute more than 26 percent of their GDP to social benefits There are more poor people living in poverty in America than in the sixteen European nations for which data is available EU countries also have higher minimum wage, better unemployment benefits, and generous family leave packages Jeremy Rifkin, The European Dream: How Europe’s Vision of the Future is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream (2004)

10. 11 US v. EU Policy Response Source: Alesina and Glaeser, Fighting Poverty in the US and Europe

11. 12 Explaining this Difference Constitutional differences European constitutions were written more recently, reflecting the influence of a stronger “left” US Racial fractionalization White resistance to redistributive policies that disproportionately benefit people of color The existence of strong labor or populist parties Influenced by both geography and racial conflict Source: Alesina and Glaeser, Fighting Poverty in the US and Europe

12. 13 The Human Development Index What is the HDI? The UN measures human development through three measures: GDP per capita (income) Life expectancy (health) Literacy and school enrollment (education) According to this Index, the U.S. ranks 10 th, after Norway, Iceland, Australia, Luxembourg, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, Ireland, and Belgium Source: UN Human Development Report (2005)

13. International Human Development Indicators (2010) Source: United Nations Development Programme http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/ 14 Let’s Check Our Latest Indices… http://hdr.undp.org/en/data/build/

14. Health & Nutrition Mobility Issue Culturally-informed Instruction Stakeholder Mobilization Early Language Development Stabilization Triangle 20052055 14 BtC/y So, what are some of the potential ‘wedges’ for improving learning for kids from poverty? Parent Involvement 15

15. Vocabulary: The great predictor Reading and other academic skill development are very strongly correlated to language at ages as early as 18 months Listening and speaking vocabularies are critical to school success Poor kids have only about 25% of the words in their heads compared to middle and upper class kids in kindergarten (Hart and Risley, 1995; Hoff-Ginsburg, 1991) Reading and other academic skill development are very strongly correlated to language at ages as early as 18 months Listening and speaking vocabularies are critical to school success Poor kids have only about 25% of the words in their heads compared to middle and upper class kids in kindergarten (Hart and Risley, 1995; Hoff-Ginsburg, 1991) 16 Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education and Social Change Bellarmine Univ. (6.11)

16. Language & Neuron Activity from: Rima Shore (1997) rethinking the Brain: New Insights into Early Development. NY: Families and Work Institute. 17 Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education and Social Change Bellarmine Univ. (6.11)

17. Rethinking the Brain… 18 Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education and Social Change Bellarmine Univ. (6.11)

18. Family Involvement 19 Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education and Social Change Bellarmine Univ. (6.11)

19. Mothers: The most powerful teachers Mean length of utterance studies – Mom is greatest exemplar Rule of thumb Age = Length* *Disadvantaged children tend to speak in 2-3 word utterances at age 5 (Murray, 1990; Peterson, Carta & Greenwood, 2005)) 20 Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education and Social Change Bellarmine Univ. (6.11)

20. Your words are your prophecy Parents are the prophets of their child’s life… 21 Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education and Social Change Bellarmine Univ. (6.11)

21. Teen parents Speak in short sentences Use few complete sentences Speak with less complexity Use directives in their talk to children Do not engage children actively in conversation (Tamis-LeMonda, Shannon, Cabrera & Lamb, 2004; Peterson, Jesso & McCabe 1999; Weizman &Snow, 2001) 22 Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education and Social Change Bellarmine Univ. (6.11)

22. Teen Mothers especially …. Less oral stimulation Fewer interactions overall Read less to their children Take less advantage of language opportunities (Burgess, 2005; Huebner & Meltzoff, 2005) 23 Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education and Social Change Bellarmine Univ. (6.11)

23. Dads talking Research says Dads are far less active verbally with their children regardless of social class Dads spend less than 15 minutes weekly in “talk” to their children Responsive interactions can be taught to Dads (AND tend to be more responsive to training) ( Fewell & Deutscher, 2002) 24 Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education and Social Change Bellarmine Univ. (6.11)

24. Talk is money in the brain bank How can you convince parents? Parents want to know Reciprocal talk – life is a narrative event “Beware of those having the soft bigotry of low expectations…” 25 Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education and Social Change Bellarmine Univ. (6.11)

25. His words…. 26 Let me say something. School changed a lot from when you were in school. I [know] you can tell even though you are a professor…. Teachers used to care about how good you can read… Teachers don’t even do that any more. They just say “that’s wrong” and put it up there, right. They don’t even worry about it, and they go on to the next [lesson]. You [have to] take your time…. Teachers now days, do this on the board; they explain it one time - no repeating. [They] don’t know whether the student caught it or not. They don’t ask us if we need them to go over it one more time? African American Male Student (Retained 3 times) Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education and Social Change Bellarmine Univ. (6.11)

26. Cultural assets of City Kids… Resilience Racial/Ethnic socialization and culture Verve Communalism 27 Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education and Social Change Bellarmine Univ. (6.11)

27. Resilience Resilience is the ability to thrive, mature, and increase competence in the face of adverse circumstances including… biological abnormalities or environmental obstacles adverse circumstances that are chronic or severe, constant or occasional. To thrive, mature, and increase competence a person must draw upon all of her resources… (Gordon, 1995). 28 Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education and Social Change Bellarmine Univ. (6.11)

28. Resilience = Control Resilient children and adults have an internal locus of control… they control themselves and the events of their lives and are not easily controlled by external factors. They feel capable and are able to move on after hardship. 29 Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education and Social Change Bellarmine Univ. (6.11)

29. “City kids are often placed in situations which demand they “bounce back” There seem to be some common characteristics of resilient people (Werner,1994)… sociable and have good social skills excellent reasoning ability autonomous, capable people 30 Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education and Social Change Bellarmine Univ. (6.11)

30. Gender differences in resilience Females often develop resilience when the mother figure of the family must work and they become a surrogate mother figure to their younger siblings. Males are often firstborn children and have an adult male in the family whom they can model. For both boys and girls, resilience is best built when there is structure and routine as part of their childhood. 31 Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education and Social Change Bellarmine Univ. (6.11)

31. Southeast Asian Children Southeast Asian American families, despite their history and the conditions of violence from which many had to flee, have also demonstrated a resilience that has resulted in many educational success stories… required to cope with major societal and linguistic changes. 32 Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education and Social Change Bellarmine Univ. (6.11)

32. Children as “Translators” of the outside world Furthermore, in many Latino and Asian American families a type of role reversal often occurred when very small children became the language and cultural “translators” for their non-English speaking family members—an impressive feat of resilience. 33 Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education and Social Change Bellarmine Univ. (6.11)

33. Cultural assets of City Kids… 34 Resilience Racial/Ethnic socialization and culture Verve Communalism Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education and Social Change Bellarmine Univ. (6.11)

34. Cultural socialization African American preschool children whose parents facilitated a home environment rich in culturally appropriate toys, pictures of African Americans, and African cultural features scored significantly higher on measures of achievement and cognitive development compared with those from less African- centered homes, even after SES was controlled (Caughy et al., 2002). 35 Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education and Social Change Bellarmine Univ. (6.11)

35. Cultural assets of City Kids… 36 Resilience Racial/Ethnic socialization and culture Verve Communalism Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education and Social Change Bellarmine Univ. (6.11)

36. Verve! Verve has to do with a student’s receptiveness to variability in the classroom. African American learners, in particular, are highly receptive to variability (Boykin, 1978, 1982; Tuck & Boykin, 1989; Cooter & Cooter, in process). Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education and Social Change Bellarmine Univ. (6.11)

37. Social, loud, and active “Learning is noisy, DEATH is silent” Researchers have discovered, for instance, that African American children benefit from tasks that are highly varied, visually and physically stimulating, and socially-oriented. Familial interactions in many African American households demonstrate a high degree of verve, and these children establish an early preference for high verve environments (Boykin & Bailey, 2000.) Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education and Social Change Bellarmine Univ. (6.11)

38. Change and movement African American children were found to have significantly better academic task performance and motivation when tasks were presented with greater variability in the elementary classroom (Bailey, Caryn, and Boykin, 2001). Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education and Social Change Bellarmine Univ. (6.11)

39. Verve-acious Verve-acious classrooms-- where there is action, choice, voice and change, matches the cultural needs of many city kids. This may occur in classrooms with structure and routines; but the key is choosing learning activities that are a social-cultural match to what children know and understand. Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education and Social Change Bellarmine Univ. (6.11)

40. Cultural assets of City Kids… 41 Resilience Racial/Ethnic socialization and culture Verve Communalism Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education and Social Change Bellarmine Univ. (6.11)

41. Communalism Social connectness is what we mean by communalism. Several studies have been done with low income African American children that demonstrate that they learned most in small group activities and were given ample opportunity to interact and problem solve. Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education and Social Change Bellarmine Univ. (6.11)

42. Talking works… This form of communal learning is not competitive, but cooperative and verbal. Both quality and quantity of learning are enhanced when children engage in communal learning, especially for African American children (Albury, 1998; Coleman 1998; Cunningham and Boykin, 2004) Resource - See “CREDE Standards” at http://crede.berkeley.edu/ Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education and Social Change Bellarmine Univ. (6.11)

43. Asian American children Focusing on communalism factors among Asian American children, Min (1995) found an emphasis on educational achievement shame used as a behavioral influence respect for authority a high regard for the elderly, emphasis on the centrality of family relationships and responsibilities and filial (i.e., parental) piety self-control and restraint in emotional expression group orientation Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education and Social Change Bellarmine Univ. (6.11)

44. Latino cultural learning Colectivismo is the Latino concept of family that extends to their view of community. Latinos tend to see their community as family and tend to be tightly knit (Delgado, 1995). Research literature on Latino students, suggests that these youth do best when allowed to cooperate with other students (Vazquez,1998). Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education and Social Change Bellarmine Univ. (6.11)

45. Cultural assets of City Kids… Resilience Racial/Ethnic socialization and culture Verve Communalism Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education and Social Change Bellarmine Univ. (6.11)

46. Powers within…. …When a human being becomes suddenly conscious of the tremendous powers lying latent within him, when from the puzzled contemplation of a half-known self, he rises to the powerful assertion of a self, conscious of its might, then there is loosed upon the world possibilities of good…that make men pause. W. E. B. DuBois The Education of Black People Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education and Social Change Bellarmine Univ. (6.11)

47. Story of … “The 900-Year-Old Sheep”