Coming Hard: The Primacy of Embodied Stress Responses in High Poverty Schools

2014 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bowen Paulle
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Stress Responses ◽  
Black Culture ◽  
Male Students ◽  
High Poverty ◽  
High Poverty Schools ◽  
Teaching Experiences ◽  
Coping Processes ◽  
Do So

AbstractInformed by nearly six years of teaching experiences in high poverty schools of New York and Amsterdam, this ethnographic comparison examines the following question: Even though they often say they “know better”, why do so many teens from low income neighborhoods behave in aggressively disruptive ways that contribute to the further destruction of their own schools? This article suggests that the long dominant oppositional black culture approach to such questions related to life in distressed urban schools promotes overly mentalist and therefore superficial analyses. A more fully incarnated, collectively impassioned, relational, and processual way of thinking about the gradual socialization and immediate coping processes behind the further devastating of physically violent schools is offered. Interrogating the state and process that students in both settings referred to with terms like “coming hard”, this article brings to life the temporarily seductive yet ultimately maladaptiveembodied stress responsesof two male students effectively forced to sever visceral connections to themselves. Probing deep into how hardening was both habituated and situated on opposite shores of the Atlantic Ocean can help us advance our grip on—and perhaps even our attempts to deal with—the ways in which teenagers’ feelings of empathy and abilities to “think straight” are crowded out during the moments that matter most in and around our worst schools.

Academic Vocabulary Learning in First Through Third Grade in Low-Income Schools: Effects of Automated Supplemental Instruction

2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (11) ◽  
pp. 3237-3258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howard Goldstein ◽  
Robyn A. Ziolkowski ◽  
Kathryn E. Bojczyk ◽  
Ana Marty ◽  
Naomi Schneider ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Hierarchical Linear Modeling ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Vocabulary Instruction ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Academic Vocabulary ◽  
High Poverty ◽  
High Poverty Schools ◽  
Linear Modeling

PurposeThis study investigated cumulative effects of language learning, specifically whether prior vocabulary knowledge or special education status moderated the effects of academic vocabulary instruction in high-poverty schools.MethodEffects of a supplemental intervention targeting academic vocabulary in first through third grades were evaluated with 241 students (6–9 years old) from low-income families, 48% of whom were retained for the 3-year study duration. Students were randomly assigned to vocabulary instruction or comparison groups.ResultsCurriculum-based measures of word recognition, receptive identification, expressive labeling, and decontextualized definitions showed large effects for multiple levels of word learning. Hierarchical linear modeling revealed that students with higher initial Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test–Fourth Edition scores (Dunn & Dunn, 2007) demonstrated greater word learning, whereas students with special needs demonstrated less growth in vocabulary.ConclusionThis model of vocabulary instruction can be applied efficiently in high-poverty schools through an automated, easily implemented adjunct to reading instruction in the early grades and holds promise for reducing gaps in vocabulary development.

Concentrated Poverty in U.S. Schools and Adolescents’ Risk of Being Overweight

2020 ◽  
pp. 232949652097854
Author(s):  
Jennifer March Augustine ◽  
Lilla Pivnick ◽  
Julie Skalamera Olson ◽  
Robert Crosnoe
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Adult Health ◽  
High Poverty ◽  
High Poverty Schools ◽  
Economic Segregation ◽  
Adolescent Students ◽  
School Poverty ◽  
Low Income Families ◽  
Course Outcomes

The economic segregation of U.S. schools undermines the academic performance of students, particularly students from low-income families who are often concentrated in high-poverty schools. Yet it also fuels the reproduction of inequality by harming their physical health. Integrating research on school effects with social psychological and ecological theories on how local contexts shape life course outcomes, we examined a conceptual model linking school poverty and adolescent students’ weight. Applying multilevel modeling techniques to the first wave of data (1994–1995) from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health; n = 18,924), the results revealed that individual students’ likelihood of being overweight increased as the concentration of students from low-income families in their schools increased, net of their own background characteristics. This linkage was connected to a key contextual factor: the exposure of students in high-poverty schools to other overweight students. This exposure may partly matter because of the lower prevalence of dieting norms in such schools, although future research should continue to examine potential mechanisms.

Teacher Turnover in High-Poverty Schools: What We Know and Can Do

2015 ◽  
Vol 117 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Simon ◽  
Susan Moore Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Working Conditions ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Students Of Color ◽  
Teacher Turnover ◽  
School Context ◽  
High Poverty ◽  
High Poverty Schools ◽  
Low Income Students ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Poor

Background/Context Over the past three decades, teacher turnover has increased substantially in U.S. public schools, especially in those serving large portions of low-income students of color. Teachers who choose to leave high-poverty schools serving large numbers of students of color usually transfer to schools serving wealthier, Whiter student populations. Some researchers have interpreted this trend to mean that “teachers systematically favor higher-achieving, non-minority, non-low-income students.” These ideas have influenced policy analysis concerning high-poverty schools but offered little guidance for those who would address this problem. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This article presents an alternative explanation for turnover—one grounded in organizational theory and substantiated by an emerging line of research. In doing so, it reframes the debate over what fuels high rates of teacher turnover in high-poverty schools and provides advice for policy makers and practitioners, as well as recommendations for productive possibilities for future research. Research Design This article reviews six studies analyzing turnover as a function of school context rather than as a function of student demographics. Based on the patterns regarding what factors influence teacher departures across these studies, we pursue these predictors by summarizing what is known about them and how each supports teachers’ work. Findings/Results The six overarching studies reviewed here collectively suggest that teachers who leave high-poverty schools are not feeing their students. Rather, they are feeing the poor working conditions that make it difficult for them to teach and for their students to learn. The working conditions that teachers prize most—and those that best predict their satisfaction and retention—are social in nature. They include school leadership, collegial relationships, and elements of school culture. Conclusions/Recommendations The poor working conditions common in America's neediest schools explain away most, if not all, of the relationship between student characteristics and teacher attrition. This is important because, unlike demographic characteristics of students, working conditions can be addressed. Policy makers and practitioners have many options for improving aspects of the school environment, and, although more research can inform this work, much is already known about what matters to teachers as they are deciding whether to continue teaching in their schools.

scholarly journals The narrowing gap in New York City teacher qualifications and its implications for student achievement in high-poverty schools

2008 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 793-818 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald Boyd ◽  
Hamilton Lankford ◽  
Susanna Loeb ◽  
Jonah Rockoff ◽  
James Wyckoff
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Student Achievement ◽  
York City ◽  
Teacher Qualifications ◽  
High Poverty ◽  
High Poverty Schools

Joining the Conversation about Educating Our Poorest Children: Emerging Leadership Roles for School Counselors in High-Poverty Schools

2007 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 2156759X0701100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen S. Amatea ◽  
Cirecie A. West-Olatunji
Keyword(s):  
School Counselors ◽  
Low Income ◽  
School Environment ◽  
Culturally Responsive ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
High Poverty ◽  
High Poverty Schools ◽  
Low Income Children ◽  
Emerging Leadership ◽  
Responsive Instruction

School counselors bring special skills to the effort of educating low-income children. A review of literature on poverty and social class as correlates of student success, teacher expectations, and parent involvement provides a rationale for school counselors expanding their leadership roles in high-poverty schools by (a) serving as cultural broker among students, their families, and school staff; (b) partnering with staff to design more culturally responsive instruction; and (c) developing a more family-centric school environment.

PAR Method

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 355-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Billies
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Critical Consciousness ◽  
Design Method ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Context Analysis ◽  
Gender Nonconforming ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Gender

The work of the Welfare Warriors Research Collaborative (WWRC), a participatory action research (PAR) project that looks at how low income lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and gender nonconforming (LG-BTGNC) people survive and resist violence and discrimination in New York City, raises the question of what it means to make conscientization, or critical consciousness, a core feature of PAR. Guishard's (2009) reconceptualization of conscientization as “moments of consciousness” provides a new way of looking at what seemed to be missing from WWRC's process and analysis. According to Guishard, rather than a singular awakening, critical consciousness emerges continually through interactions with others and the social context. Analysis of the WWRC's process demonstrates that PAR researchers doing “PAR deep” (Fine, 2008)—research in which community members share in all aspects of design, method, analysis and product development—should have an agenda for developing critical consciousness, just as they would have agendas for participation, for action, and for research.

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