Disrupting Poverty

Five Powerful Classroom Practices

Kathleen Budge, William H. Parrett

• Publisher: ASCD
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781416625308
• Topic: Bildung
• Subtopic: Bildung Allgemein

Drawing upon decades of research and myriad authentic classroom experiences, Kathleen M. Budge and William H. Parrett dispel harmful myths, explain the facts, and urge educators to act against the debilitating effects of poverty on their students. They share the powerful voices of teachers—many of whom grew up in poverty—to amplify the five classroom practices that permeate the culture of successful high-poverty schools: (1) caring relationships and advocacy, (2) high expectations and support, (3) commitment to equity, (4) professional accountability for learning, and (5) the courage and will to act.

Readers will explore classroom-tested strategies and practices, plus online templates and exercises that can be used for personal reflection or ongoing collaboration with colleagues. Disrupting Poverty provides teachers, administrators, coaches, and others with the background information and the practical tools needed to help students break free from the cycle of poverty.

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Chapter 1

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Classroom Cultures That Disrupt Poverty

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On a chilly spring day, Mr. Johnstone, a veteran high school teacher of 10 years, walked into his second-period classroom to find Elysa typing furiously on the keyboard in front of the computer he made available for any student who needed to use it. The computer was connected to a printer he kept stocked with paper, as he knew many of the school's students did not have a computer or a printer at home.

Elysa was crying as she typed. After he asked her, "What's up?" she explained: "I had a homework assignment in my social studies class I was supposed to do over spring break. I got it done, but we don't have a computer or printer at home, so I wrote the assignment in my notebook. We were supposed to summarize six current events. I did. I used my phone to look them up, but I couldn't get them typed up and printed." Mr. Johnstone asked, "And you couldn't get into the school over break to use this computer, could you?" "No," replied Elysa, "and I couldn't get to the downtown library because my mom's car isn't working and there isn't a bus, and I had to take care of my brothers most of the hours it was open."

She continued: "Mr. Walther said the best I can do is half-credit, and that is if I can get it to him typed up by the end of the day." Later in the day, Mr. Johnstone decided to talk with Mr. Walther to see if he would make an exception. After all, he reasoned, Elysa had done the assignment—wasn't that what was important? After discussing Elysa's case, Mr. Walther remarked, "Johnstone, you're such a bleeding heart. I am trying to teach these students responsibility. Other kids have it just as bad as Elysa, or worse, and they managed to get their assignment typed and printed. No, I am not making an exception. I would be doing Elysa a disservice. Someone has to teach her responsibility. She'll be out in the real world soon. No one is going to make exceptions for her there."

—From a high school in New York

Elysa's family income hovers around the poverty line. Living in poverty presents multiple challenges for students as they strive to keep up with the demands of school and the achievement of many of their more advantaged peers. Too often these challenges are not well understood by middle-class educators. In this case, Elysa's efforts to get her assignment done (which poverty-disrupting educators would likely consider both creative and praiseworthy) were overshadowed by her teacher's insistence that it was not only social studies he needed to teach her, but also personal responsibility. Does Elysa need to be taught to be responsible? Perhaps Elysa could teach many adults what it means to be responsible, given the heavy load she carries to support her family. If Mr. Walther wants to teach responsibility, should he conflate responsibility with mastering the content in terms of grades? Is such a grade an accurate reflection of what Elysa has learned in her social studies course?

As teachers and educators, we have an extraordinary opportunity to influence the course of our students' lives and the future of the country. Disrupting poverty requires us to depart from our comfort zones, to ask the hard questions, and to examine not only our individual professional practices, but also our collective practices and the classroom and school conditions that create inequities.

Our previous book, Turning High-Poverty Schools into High-Performing Schools (Parrett & Budge, 2012), was the result of exploring and analyzing success stories from high-poverty, high-performing (HP/HP) schools throughout the country. Out of this study, we created a Framework for Action reflecting the work of HP/HP schools (see Figure 1.1).

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Figure 1.1. A Framework for Action

Source: From Turning High-Poverty Schools into High-Performing Schools, (p. 55), by W. H. Parrett and K. M. Budge, 2012, Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Copyright © 2012 by ASCD.

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The framework is intended to jumpstart educators' thinking about ways they could better meet the needs of their own students who live in poverty. In these schools, administrators and teacher-leaders took action to (1) build leadership capacity, (2) focus on three types of learning (student, professional, and system), and (3) foster healthy, safe, and supportive learning environments. As a result of their actions in these three arenas, the schools' culture became more responsive to the needs of students who live in poverty, in turn raising achievement.

In each school we visited, we could literally "feel" the culture within a few minutes of stepping on the school grounds. These were places where people (adults and students) authentically felt they belonged, had a purpose, were empowered and supported, and knew they were safe. As we talked with teachers, administrators, and others, we began to understand why this was so. Educators spoke of the importance of forming caring relationships with students, holding high expectations for them, ensuring equity, assuming professional responsibility for student learning, and challenging both themselves and the status quo. In addition to these values and actions, they also shared their beliefs about their students, themselves, how they established priorities, and the way they "did business" in their schools. What they were making explicit as they shared their thoughts with us was their school's significantly improved culture.

Culture as Values, Beliefs, and Norms

Have you ever paused to consider what constitutes school culture? When we talk about a school having a particular kind of culture, such as a supportive culture, a responsive culture, or a toxic culture, what do we mean? Most of us do not often analyze what we mean by culture; rather, we just know it when we see it, hear it, and feel it. School and classroom cultures are composed of values, beliefs, and norms. Values are those elements we believe to be important, and they form the foundation for a system of beliefs. Both beliefs and values are made evident in our norms or actions (Gruenert & Whitaker, 2015).

This book is about proactively creating poverty-disrupting classroom and school cultures. What do we mean by this? To answer the question, we first drew from our observations and experiences in the HP/HP schools we have studied. In these places, caring relationships, high expectations and support, a commitment to equity, professional accountability for learning, and the courage and will to take action exemplified what was most important. In essence, these five values formed the basis for a set of beliefs that underpinned the schools' norms (see Figure 1.2).

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Figure 1.2. School and Classroom Cultures in High-Poverty, High-Performing Schools

Values: Caring Relationships
Examples of Beliefs: Caring relationships are necessary if significant learning is going to occur.
Examples of Norms: Teachers are intentional about fostering relationships with their students in all aspects of their daily work.

* * *

Values: High Expectations and Support
Examples of Beliefs: All students are capable of meeting high standards when appropriately supported.
Examples of Norms: Teachers have empathy for students and an understanding of the challenges they face, hold them to high standards, provide the appropriate supports to succeed, and value the importance of effort.

* * *

Values: Commitment to Equity
Examples of Beliefs: An equal opportunity to learn requires equitable conditions for learning.
Examples of Norms: Teachers differentiate their support based on the needs of individual students and do all they can to "level the playing field" in their classrooms for every student.

* * *

Values: Professional Accountability for Learning
Examples of Beliefs: Teachers are responsible for student learning.
Examples of Norms: When students fail to learn, teachers go "back to the drawing board." They view themselves as "being on the same team" with their students.

* * *

Values: Courage and Will to Take Action
Examples of Beliefs: Barriers to learning are difficult, but not impossible, to eliminate.
Examples of Norms: Teachers confront their own biases and blind spots, as well as work to eliminate conditions that perpetuate underachievement in their classrooms, schools, and districts.

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Based on what we learned from HP/HP schools, we turned to two groups of experts to better understand how such cultures were fostered in individual teachers' classrooms. We also sought to gauge what, if anything, might be different from, or missing in, our observations of schoolwide culture. One group was composed of preK–12 teachers (or former teachers) who were identified primarily through their supervisors or others who knew their professional capabilities. They were recommended to us because of their demonstrated success in meeting their students' needs year after year, especially students who live in poverty. These teachers, their supervisors informed us, create classroom cultures where both they and their students thrive. They are the teachers whose students routinely come back to visit and thank them for "making a difference" in their lives. In some cases, these teachers were referred to as a "kid whisperer" kind of teacher.

The other group was composed of effective preK–12 teachers who had grown up living in poverty. We were curious about the advice and wisdom these teachers could offer based on personal experience. We anticipated that their lived experiences and wisdom would be revealing, insightful, and valuable.

We recruited both groups from throughout the United States. Rather than use their real names, we have created pseudonyms for each of the educators we interviewed to protect their identity. These educators graciously shared their insights, experiences, stories, and lives with us, and now we do the same with you as the reader. Figure 1.3 lists their names (as pseudonyms) and a few other demographic details about each of them.

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Figure 1.3. Educators Interviewed

Name: Alex
Teaching Level: Middle School
Years of Experience: 14
Race/Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male

* * *

Name: Alva
Teaching Level: Elementary
Years of Experience: 8
Race/Ethnicity: White
Gender: Female

* * *

Name: Anna*
Teaching Level: Elementary
Years of Experience: 4
Race/Ethnicity: White
Gender: Female

* * *

Name: Anton
Teaching Level: High School
Years of Experience: 23
Race/Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male

* * *

Name: Celia*
Teaching Level: Elementary
Years of Experience: 13
Race/Ethnicity: Latina
Gender: Female

* * *

Name: Connie*
Teaching Level: High School
Years of Experience: 13
Race/Ethnicity: White
Gender: Female

* * *

Name: Damon*
Teaching Level: Elementary Teacher/Principal
Years of Experience: 9
Race/Ethnicity: Multiracial
Gender: Male

* * *

Name: David
Teaching Level: Elementary
Years of Experience: 5
Race/Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male

* * *

Name: Estella*
Teaching Level: Elementary/College
Years of Experience: 20
Race/Ethnicity: African American
Gender: Female

* * *

Name: James
Teaching Level: Middle School Teacher/Principal
Years of Experience: 19
Race/Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male

* * *

Name: Javon*...