Education's greatest adversary is Poverty

2008 was a life-changing year for me. My husband’s mom passed away from terminal cancer, I started with Teach for America, and I became a teacher. Of those three things, becoming a teacher was the most life-altering experience – I would never be the same person again. Melodramatic, I know. While I sound like a sappy introduction to a personal teaching memoir, it’s the truth. My entire core transformed when I stepped into that fourth grade class for the first time. Up to that point I was oblivious.

I grew up in the middle-class. I attended good public schools. I had three meals a day, sometimes more. I had parents who helped me with my homework and guided me through the formative years of my development. When I was sick, I went to the doctor. When I was hungry, I ate. The realities of my students in 2008 were nonexistent to me, they were a nightmare I only saw in movies or read in books. The only glimpse I ever had of this foreign poverty concept was my friend’s experience. She quickly became a permanent member of our family. I recall my parents paying (out of pocket) for her health care needs when that luxury wasn’t available to her. I remember my mom buying groceries so they could have food for the week. As a young girl, this was the closest I came to seeing the affects of poverty. Again, still a distant reality; one I did not quite grasp until recently.

Poverty is real... Currently, there are 16.4 million children living in poverty. More disappointing is that children under the age of five are the poorest age group in America. While Republicans and Democrats argue about accountability, our policies are only affecting the most vulnerable population in our country, children. Unquestionably, many hardworking Americans are troubled by the corruption within the welfare system. Our political arguments are in response to adult error yet the children are the ones who suffer. As I walked into that fourth grade room and saw 26 sets of eyes starring back at me and I knew that their struggles had nothing to do with the poor choices they made. 

I want to thank my parents. When they observed poverty first-hand, in my friend’s situation, blame wasn’t placed. My parents realized the best way to change my friend’s circumstances was to do something about it. Casting blame on incapable parents will not eliminate poverty, doing something about it will. My friend is graduating from college, is in a healthy relationship and on her way to a life that breaks the cycle she was born into. My parents are my heroes. They remind me everyday that there is no such thing as “us” and “them," just a community...just "us."

In my first year of teaching I learned a very valuable lesson, that poverty affects learning. America ranks 17^th in reading scores, 23^rd in science and 31^st in math. Additionally, we rank the worst in relative child poverty. A child’s socio-economic status irrefutably affects their academic success. The current education debate is teacher responsibility of student gains and the level of accountability that is necessary. Somehow, policymakers have come to believe that external factors are less significant than the caliber of teacher standing at the front of the classroom. If a student does not meet standardized test goals it is the teacher’s ineffectiveness and lack of skill that made it so.

In my first year of teaching, my students met those standardized test goals. What did I do to ensure student success? I fed my students, gave them necessary hygiene products, took them to get proper healthcare, clothed them, handed out Christmas gifts and filled their poorly stocked home libraries with books. I filled in all the external gaps.

As an effect, after two years I was burnt out and emotionally depleted. Every year I would adopt 26 new students, which I fought tooth-and-nail for, to give them an environment that defied the true impact of their poverty. I realized that what I did as one educator, in my class, was not sustainable. After they left my walls and moved onto another year, another teacher (with different strategies) those gains might dissipate as poverty again took hold. Poverty eventually won out. I was a good teacher and I worked relentlessly everyday to defy the gravity of their socio-economic status. Was it my lack of pedagogical knowledge and skill that caused my student’s to fail, no. It was the lack of a stable home that kept them from doing their homework. It was the inability to attain healthy food and proper healthcare that kept them from attending school regularly. This was the hardest lesson to learn as a new teacher in an urban school, I wasn’t strong enough to conquer this reality in my student’s lives. I alone was not going to be the cure for my kid’s poverty. Even more troubling was the reality that no matter how hard my students tried to overcome the circumstances they were born into; the odds weren’t in their favor.

Poverty wasn’t used as an excuse in my classroom. However, in order to accomplish this I had to adopt the same philosophy my parents did – fill the gaps. I had to shoulder their problems and struggles, extinguish them, and only then could I begin the teaching process. Only then was my classroom free from the chains of poverty. I was exhausted, emotionally volatile…a hot mess. Ending poverty in my classroom was no easy fete; it was impossible for one person to do alone.  

My concern with our current policy agenda in education is that the wrong issues are being fixated on. While the Department of Education and State Education Agencies are focusing on teacher factors in student success, research shows that this is only a small fraction of the equation. Linda Darling-Hammond wrote, “Research reveals that gains in student achievement are influenced by much more than any individual teacher.” I propose spending the millions of dollars that will be allocated to the Common Core be spent instead on teacher preparation programs. I believe that providing additional funds that will go directly to students can make a larger impact than the present-day focus of checks and balances on teachers.

If studies have found that poverty and child development are directly related, than resources need to be invested in early education programs, healthy food initiatives and placing the most qualified educators in urban classrooms. It’s money well spent and will begin to change the face of student success in the classroom. I also recommend that the state education agencies need to encourage additional school partnerships with community programs and businesses. If communities are not investing in their children’s future, change will not happen.

Federal programs are also a crucial component in alleviating child poverty in America. Providing food, healthcare, necessary mental health treatment and quality schools with well-trained teachers, are essential in moving towards greater academic successes. To believe that all education issues will be solved with the creation of a new national curriculum and the punishment of teachers for low-test scores is futile. Education will not improve until the problem of child poverty is addressed. Change will not ensue until society recognizes the need and has the desire to make meaningful reforms that transcend the “us” and “them” accountability measures.

**If you would like to read more about child poverty and education, as well as the facts I shared in this post, please check out the Children’s Defense Fund’s 2012 That State of America’s Children Handbook. Additionally, read Linda Darling-Hammond’s article from Education Week titled, “Evaluating Teacher Evaluation.”