Kermit Ward Outlines 5 Challenges That Exist in High Poverty Schools

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When it comes to education in America, many are blessed with superior access that can improve the overall health and longevity of a society, grow economies, and even combat issues of climate change. Yet in low-income American cities, children’s access to education can be limited by numerous factors.

 

What Are These Challenges?

The educational barriers that Americans in poverty face are real — and that goes for both low-income students and teachers. Kermit Ward, public school educator and Superintendent of Clarksville Independent School District understands how these challenges can affect a community, and is committed to helping both students and educators in high-poverty institutions succeed.

Below Kermit Ward recognizes five major educational obstacles low-income Americans face in the classroom, whether they’re in front of the teacher’s desk—or behind it.

 1. Lack of School Supplies

Low-income students and teachers can sometimes manage to scrape by and get the bare minimum amount of supplies, however, crossing everything off the list can prove to be quite difficult. And while teachers pitch in and dip into their own salaries to accommodate the classroom, it’s simply not enough. It was noted that 94 percent of public school teachers reported spending some of their own money (without reimbursement) on school supplies, according to data from the U.S. Department of Education. The problem is, in high-poverty schools, teachers’ too are struggling financially, putting everyone in a lose-lose situation.

 

2. Untrained Educators

Effective teachers are the most important factor contributing to student achievement. However, in high-poverty schools, there aren’t enough teachers to achieve universal primary education. Additionally, many of the teachers that are currently working in these schools are untrained or very early in their career. As a result, children in high-poverty schools aren’t receiving a proper education. In fact, the average performance of the lowest income students in the United States falls about three to four years behind that of the highest income students. This achievement gap has remained constant for more than four decades, a study conducted by Stanford education sociologist Sean Reardon finds.

 

3. Hunger & Poor Nutrition

 Although the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) does a wonderful job in providing free and reduced-priced school lunches for lower-income students, there are still those from low-income areas who do not qualify. For the students who do not qualify, eating lunch at school is never a guarantee, and the truth is, hunger hurts. Studies published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Pediatrics show that 46% of children from low-income families say hunger negatively impacts their academic performance. “Hungry children usually perform lower on tests and are more prone to absences due to illness from poor nutrition,” notes Kermit Ward, who, as a child, was a product of poverty as well.

 

4. Increased Bullying & Peer Pressure

Bullying is a serious problem in American schools and the proliferation of social media has increased the challenges of controlling it. What also continues to hold true is the fact that children from lower income families often experience bullying at higher rates than those from higher socioeconomic statuses. According to research from UNESCO, 40 percent of children in poverty experience bullying. Additionally, data released in July 2019 by the U.S. Department of Education revealed that the highest percentage of students who reported that they were bullied at school were from low-income households.

 

5. Higher Teacher/Student Turnover Rates

Both teachers and students in high-poverty schools have a difficult time maintaining structure. For teachers – they don’t always stick it out. According to a teacher survey conducted in 2017 by the Learning Policy Institute, it was found that teacher turnover rates are 50 percent higher in Title I schools, which generally serve more low-income students.

At the same time, low-income students are also frequently uprooted. The National Center for Children in Povertyexplains that lower-income families tend to move more often, forcing students to have to abruptly stop and restart their studies somewhere new and unknown.

 

Promoting Success in High-Poverty Schools

With so many challenges that exist in high-poverty schools today, promoting success is especially important. By strengthening instructional framework through empowerment, targeted interventions, and reflective practice, it’s possible for high-poverty institutions to meet student, professional, and system learning agendas.

As a respected educational leader in the Clarksville Independent School District, Kermit Ward understands that in order to overcome the challenges high-poverty schools are faced with, the entire school, as a system, must work together to develop a common instructional framework that not only provides a vision of success, but also works with everyone’s abilities in order to achieve it.

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