Class Conscious:

How Socio-Economic Status Impacts Education

Judith Pellettieri, Ed.D.

Golden Rule For Schools

ALL practices have to work for ALL students ALL of the time.

Know Your Clients

What is the make up of your classroom? What is the make up of your school? What is the make up of your community?

Know Their Class

Lower Middle Upper Alternative

The Great Class Debate

Schools should acknowledge class and differentiate accordingly. Schools should be blind to class and not stereotype any one group. Schools need to work for social and economic reform.

Common Belief
It is beneficial to students to attend schools where their individual differences are respected and not viewed as deficiencies.

No Child Left Behind

Focused us on differences Increased assessments Held us accountable Created need for differentiation

How Are Students Different?

Socio-economic Race Ethnicity Physical abilities Gender Learning abilities Family traditions Family structure Nutrition Support system Family history Urban / Rural Religion Family dynamics

Schools have to work for everyone!

Learning disabled (IEP) Gifted and talented (IAP) Special needs (504) Language needs (ESOL) Poor and rich, walkers and busers, hot lunch or cold lunch, white milk or chocolate, tall and short, .

School & Family Partnerships

Public schools operate from middle class norms and values.
Individuals bring with them the hidden rules of the family in which they were raised.

Instruction to the Lower Class

Causes of Poverty
Lack of Human Capital Crisis (car accident, health, fired)

Social Mobility
One paycheck away from poverty Tend to reproduce your class

Facts
The younger the child, the more likely they live in a low income family. Maternal education is biggest indicator of childs school success. Maternal depression has a major impact on preschool learning.

 Children of poverty may not know the hidden rules of the middle class. Poverty is the extent to which an individual is without resources Language issues can cause students from generational poverty not to fully develop the cognitive structures needed to learn at the levels required by state tests.

 Direct teaching must occur to build these cognitive structures. Relationships are the key motivators for learning for students of generational poverty.

Child Care Upper/Middle Lower

Center based care. Children from centers are more ready for school. Care given by relatives. Children play less, nap less, are not as ready for school.

Registers of Language
Formal - speaker or writer gets straight to the point. Casual - speaker or writer goes around the issue before finally coming to the point.

Teachers using formal register can be viewed by parents of poverty as being rude and non-caring

Tips for working with parents from poverty.

Use the museum format for events. Have food. Invite the children. Have classes that benefit parents. Call them Mr. or Mrs. as a sign of respect. Use humor, never sarcasm. Deliver bad news through a story.

Tips for working with parents from poverty

Offer a cup of coffee. Use the adult voice. Be understanding, but firm. Be personally strong - dont show fear. Emphasize that there are two sets of rules: one for school and work and one for outside of school and work. Dont accept behaviors from adults that you dont accept from students.

Everybodys Problem
Majority of Americans will experience poverty at some point in their lifetimes

Instruction to the Upper Class

Tips for working with parents from wealth

State the issue Be a confident listener / Take notes Stress the rules that will help their child Be firm about boundaries Be mindful of time

Tips for working with parents from wealth

Dont use humor Use experts by name Dont accept behaviors from adults that you dont accept from students..

Other Resources
Each individual has resources that greatly influence achievement; money is only one. Friends in high places Children of wealth may not know the hidden rules of the middle class. Relationships are the key motivators for learning for students of from the upper class.

Needed For School Success

Social skills - Emotional skills - Early literacy skills - Pre language between parent and child
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Education & Economic Class

Educators must recognize that class differences impact: Language, Values Beliefs Support Systems

Relationships & Economic Class

All children need protagonists, cheer leaders and role models.

Best Practices
Form Relationships Parent / Teacher Conferences Student Centered Practices Maximin Principle

Maximin Principle
Inequalities are permitted only when everyone benefits.
The welfare of the least advantaged is the touchstone of social justice. Some cannot be well off at the expense of others.

Adjust Your Lens

After school activities PTO meetings, etc. Winter Activities Book Fairs Bike Rodeos Breakfast and lunch Snacks Communication with home School phobias

School Practices
Retention - gift of time or discrimination Homework - boost or burden Fundraising - individual or whole group

Ask Yourself
Do you classroom or school practices work for all of your students? Are you making the welfare of the least advantaged, not the average, your touchstone?

Schools As Solution
Are your practices inclusive? What do you need to change?

Diversity
Young people whose languages and cultures differ from the dominant group must often struggle to sustain a clear image of themselves because differences are commonly treated as deficiencies by schools and teachers.
S. Nieto, Affirming Diversity

Credits
Payne, Ruby, A Framework For Understanding Poverty, aha! Process, Inc., Highlands, TX, 1996.
The Effects of Poverty on Learning, Head Start - Public School Transition Conference, Plymouth, NH, 2004. Rank, Mark Robert, One Nation, Underprivileged - Why American Poverty Affects Us All, Oxford University Press, NY, NY, 2005

Hooks, Bell Where We Stand, Rutledge, NY, NY, 2000.

Strike, Kenneth A., Haller, Emil J., Soltis, Jonas F., The Ethics of School, Teachers College Press, NY and London, 1998.