Re-thinking Teacher Quality in High-Poverty Schools in Australia

A great deal of scholarship informs the idea that specific teacher preparation is required for working in high-poverty schools. Many teacher-education programs do not focus exclusively on poverty. However, a growing body of research emphasizes how crucial it is that teachers understand the backgrounds and communities in which young people and their families live, especially if they are to teach equitably, without bias, and with a critical understanding of historical educational disadvantage. Research on teacher education for high-poverty schools is largely associated with social-justice education and premised on two key assumptions. The first is that teachers do make a difference and should be encouraged to see themselves as agents of change. The second is that without nuanced knowledge of poverty and disadvantage, and especially its intersection with race, teachers are prepared as though all students and all communities have equal social advantage. Through targeted teacher education, social justice teachers aquire the knowledge, skills and attributes to understand what they can and cannot do. Teachers with strong communities of practice and agency can resist the idea that they can eradicate poverty on their own, but can enact teaching in ways that are equitable and respectful, culturally responsive and safe. It is increasingly possible to observe how debates propose or challenge how preservice teachers should learn about high-poverty contexts. There are also numerous models, globally, of what works in preparing teachers for high-poverty schools; however, providing evidence or proving how specialized teacher preparation affects the educational outcomes of high-poverty students is difficult.

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Reading Fluency as a Predictor of Reading Proficiency in Low-Performing, High-Poverty Schools

School Psychology Review ◽

10.1080/02796015.2008.12087905 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 37 (1) ◽

pp. 18-37 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

Scott K. Baker ◽

Keith Smolkowski ◽

Rachell Katz ◽

Hank Fien ◽

John R. Seeley ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Reading Fluency ◽

Reading Proficiency ◽

High Poverty ◽

High Poverty Schools

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Does Progressive Finance Alter School Organizations and Raise Achievement? The Case of Los Angeles

Educational Policy ◽

10.1177/0895904820901472 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 089590482090147

Author(s):

Joon-Ho Lee ◽

Bruce Fuller

Keyword(s):

Los Angeles ◽

English Learners ◽

High Poverty ◽

High Poverty Schools ◽

The Past ◽

Poor Students ◽

Past Half Century ◽

The Social ◽

State Finance ◽

Past Half

State finance reforms have raised per-pupil spending and elevated the achievement of disadvantaged students over the past half-century. But we know little about how fresh funding may alter teacher staffing or the social and curricular organization of schools, mediating gains in learning. We find that US$1.1 billion in new yearly funding—arriving to Los Angeles high schools after California enacted a progressive weighted-pupil formula in 2013—led schools to rely more on novice and probationary teachers. Schools that enjoyed greater funding modestly reduced average class size and the count of teaching periods assigned to staff in five subsequent years. Yet, high-poverty schools receiving higher budget augmentations more often assigned novice teachers to English learners (ELs) and hosted declining shares of courses that qualified graduates for college admission. Mean achievement climbed overall, but EL and poor students fell further behind in schools receiving greater funding.

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