poverty

Showing 83 posts tagged poverty

Study: Free Computers Don’t Close The Rich-Poor Education Gap According to a new study, we really don’t have to worry too much about the nearly 1 in 4 children without access to FarmVille at home. “Our results indicate that computer ownership alone is unlikely to have much of an impact on short-term schooling outcomes for low-income children,” report Robert W. Fairlie and Jonathan Robinson in a new study of a large-scale randomized computer give-away experiment in California. On the one hand, it’s good news that doomsday predictions for computer-less children have been exaggerated. However, giving out computers was one of the easier solutions to closing the poverty educational outcome gap, and now we have to go back to the drawing board. image via flickr:CC | Free Press Pics

Study: Free Computers Don’t Close The Rich-Poor Education Gap

According to a new study, we really don’t have to worry too much about the nearly 1 in 4 children without access to FarmVille at home.

“Our results indicate that computer ownership alone is unlikely to have much of an impact on short-term schooling outcomes for low-income children,” report Robert W. Fairlie and Jonathan Robinson in a new study of a large-scale randomized computer give-away experiment in California. On the one hand, it’s good news that doomsday predictions for computer-less children have been exaggerated. However, giving out computers was one of the easier solutions to closing the poverty educational outcome gap, and now we have to go back to the drawing board.

image via flickr:CC | Free Press Pics

Social class and the college choices of high school valedictorians Using a data set with about 900 high school valedictorians, she asked whether students applied to highly selective colleges, if they got in, and whether they matriculated. She found a stark class difference on all these variables, especially between high socioeconomic status (SES) students and everyone else.  Over three-quarters of high SES valedictorians (79%) applied to at least one highly selective college.  In contrast, only 59% of middle SES and 50% of low SES valedictorians did the same.  Admission and matriculation rates followed suit. High-res

Social class and the college choices of high school valedictorians

Using a data set with about 900 high school valedictorians, she asked whether students applied to highly selective colleges, if they got in, and whether they matriculated.

She found a stark class difference on all these variables, especially between high socioeconomic status (SES) students and everyone else.  Over three-quarters of high SES valedictorians (79%) applied to at least one highly selective college.  In contrast, only 59% of middle SES and 50% of low SES valedictorians did the same.  Admission and matriculation rates followed suit.

What is the most important problem facing American children today? According to the Academic Pediatric Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, it is the effects of poverty on the health and well being of young people. The role of poverty on student achievement has been one of the flashpoints between supporters and critics of modern school reform. Supporters insist that citing poverty as a reason for lack of student achievement is “an excuse” made by people who want to support the status quo. Critics of reform say that the major reform efforts ignore the effects that living in poverty have on children and their ability to do schoolwork and perform on standardized tests.

What is the most important problem facing American children today? According to the Academic Pediatric Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, it is the effects of poverty on the health and well being of young people.

The role of poverty on student achievement has been one of the flashpoints between supporters and critics of modern school reform. Supporters insist that citing poverty as a reason for lack of student achievement is “an excuse” made by people who want to support the status quo. Critics of reform say that the major reform efforts ignore the effects that living in poverty have on children and their ability to do schoolwork and perform on standardized tests.

To Close the ‘Opportunity Gap,’ We Need to Close the Vocabulary Gap As I write this, I’m returning from the Education Writers Association annual conference, held this year at Stanford. I spoke on a panel about the “opportunity gap” with professors Sean Reardon and Prudence Carter. Reardon, as you know, recently published a fascinating but sobering study about the growing income achievement gap. (ASCD’s Educational Leadership has an accessible version of the study available online.) And Carter co-edited the new volume, Closing the Opportunity Gap. What Professor Reardon’s research shows is that, over the last 60 years, the achievement gap between the nation’s poorest and richest students has widened dramatically. That’s true of both test scores and college attainment. This finding is not surprising for people who have been paying attention, but what is surprising is where the gap lies. It’s not that poor children are falling behind the middle class—they’re not. It’s that the richest students are breaking away from everybody else. Why is this happening? image via flickr:CC | Ines Seidel High-res

To Close the ‘Opportunity Gap,’ We Need to Close the Vocabulary Gap

As I write this, I’m returning from the Education Writers Association annual conference, held this year at Stanford. I spoke on a panel about the “opportunity gap” with professors Sean Reardon and Prudence Carter. Reardon, as you know, recently published a fascinating but sobering study about the growing income achievement gap. (ASCD’s Educational Leadership has an accessible version of the study available online.) And Carter co-edited the new volume, Closing the Opportunity Gap.

What Professor Reardon’s research shows is that, over the last 60 years, the achievement gap between the nation’s poorest and richest students has widened dramatically. That’s true of both test scores and college attainment.

This finding is not surprising for people who have been paying attention, but what is surprising is where the gap lies. It’s not that poor children are falling behind the middle class—they’re not. It’s that the richest students are breaking away from everybody else.

Why is this happening?

image via flickr:CC | Ines Seidel

7 current influencers on education

  1. More challenging student populations: more poverty and mobility;

  2. Common core: different and higher standards;

  3. Online assessment: the rubber hits the road  Sprint 2015;

  4. Bottoms-up student, parent, teacher app adoption;

  5. App explosion and the proliferation of point solutions;

  6. The shift to blended learning; and

  7. Device deployments (often without a plan).

Response to Stress Can Fuel Childhood Obesity Emerging research from Penn State and Johns Hopkins universities suggests an overreaction to stress can increase a child’s risk of becoming overweight or obese. “It is possible that such factors as living in poverty, in violent environments, or in homes where food is not always available may increase eating in the absence of hunger and, therefore, increase children’s risk of becoming obese,” she said. photo via flickr:CC | Megan Skelly

Response to Stress Can Fuel Childhood Obesity

Emerging research from Penn State and Johns Hopkins universities suggests an overreaction to stress can increase a child’s risk of becoming overweight or obese.

“It is possible that such factors as living in poverty, in violent environments, or in homes where food is not always available may increase eating in the absence of hunger and, therefore, increase children’s risk of becoming obese,” she said.

photo via flickr:CC | Megan Skelly

Anti-Poverty Program Found to Yield Few Academic Gains

Ten to 15 years after leaving neighborhoods of concentrated poverty, children of the Moving to Opportunity program are in most ways no better off than their peers who stayed put. But new findings from the ongoing study of their urban communities suggest more comprehensive school-neighborhood improvement initiatives stand a better chance of breaking the cycle of poverty.

The latest studies on the research project, which were presented at the annual conference of the American Economic Association here, find that removing children from concentrated poverty boosts their parents’ sense of well-being, but by itself doesn’t increase children’s reading or mathematics achievement or the likelihood that they will be on track to graduate from high school or be employed as adults. Even children who moved before age 6, considered a critical period for brain development, showed no academic benefits from moving to higher-income neighborhoods.

School Breakfasts Now Served as Widely as Lunches Maybe the message about the most important meal of the day has finally sunk in: In many school districts, more than 90 percent of schools that serve lunch through the National School Lunch Program now serve breakfast at school, too, new data from the Food Research and Action Center show. In addition, the report out this week, which looked at how school breakfast programs are operating in 57 large urban and suburban school districts in the 2011-12 school year, found that more than half of all low-income students who ate lunch prepared at school also ate school breakfast. photo via flickr:CC | USDAgov

School Breakfasts Now Served as Widely as Lunches

Maybe the message about the most important meal of the day has finally sunk in: In many school districts, more than 90 percent of schools that serve lunch through the National School Lunch Program now serve breakfast at school, too, new data from the Food Research and Action Center show.

In addition, the report out this week, which looked at how school breakfast programs are operating in 57 large urban and suburban school districts in the 2011-12 school year, found that more than half of all low-income students who ate lunch prepared at school also ate school breakfast.

photo via flickr:CC | USDAgov

For Many Kids, Winter Break Means Hungry Holidays Holidays are typically a festive time, with breaks from the routine, meals with loved ones, maybe even some gifts. But for many families across the U.S., the season comes with intense stress: Roughly 1 in 5 families with children are not getting enough food. Even with school meals, food stamps and food banks, some kids just aren’t getting enough to eat. A recent national survey from the anti-hunger organization Share Our Strength found more than half of teachers have used their own money to buy food for hungry students. They know hunger increases the chances of academic failure, which can push people toward unemployment or even crime. photo via flickr:CC | Old Shoe Woman

For Many Kids, Winter Break Means Hungry Holidays

Holidays are typically a festive time, with breaks from the routine, meals with loved ones, maybe even some gifts. But for many families across the U.S., the season comes with intense stress: Roughly 1 in 5 families with children are not getting enough food.

Even with school meals, food stamps and food banks, some kids just aren’t getting enough to eat. A recent national survey from the anti-hunger organization Share Our Strength found more than half of teachers have used their own money to buy food for hungry students. They know hunger increases the chances of academic failure, which can push people toward unemployment or even crime.

photo via flickr:CC | Old Shoe Woman

More Wisconsin children living in poverty

The percentage of children living in poverty rose to 18.4% for Wisconsin and almost 32% for Milwaukee County in 2011, according to new U.S. Census figures.

The data from the Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates shows that between 2007 and 2011, 37 Wisconsin counties saw a significant increase in children between the ages of 5 and 17 living in families in poverty.

In 2011, the Milwaukee Public School district had 112,298 children between the ages of 5 and 17 living within its boundary. According to the Census figures, 42,555 of those children, or 37.9%, were in families in poverty.

That’s up from 2007. At that time, 120,900 children between the ages of 5 and 17 were living within the MPS boundary, and 39,231 of them, or 32.4%, were in families in poverty.

Kids From Low Income Families Use Brains Differently Kids who come from lower socioeconomic families have a harder time ignoring insignificant environmental information than children who come from higher income families, due to the fact that they learn how to pay attention to things differently, according to a new study published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.The researchers discovered that the groups of children displayed differences in theta brain waves in the frontal lobe, a major area involved in attention. This revealed that the participants used different neural workings for the task they were given, and kids with a lower socioeconomic status allocated extra resources to focus on unimportant information. photo via flickr:CC | jungmoon

Kids From Low Income Families Use Brains Differently

Kids who come from lower socioeconomic families have a harder time ignoring insignificant environmental information than children who come from higher income families, due to the fact that they learn how to pay attention to things differently, according to a new study published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

The researchers discovered that the groups of children displayed differences in theta brain waves in the frontal lobe, a major area involved in attention. This revealed that the participants used different neural workings for the task they were given, and kids with a lower socioeconomic status allocated extra resources to focus on unimportant information.

photo via flickr:CC | jungmoon

Segregation Prominent in Schools, Study Finds The United States is increasingly a multiracial society, with white students accounting for just over half of all students in public schools, down from four-fifths in 1970. Yet whites are still largely concentrated in schools with other whites, leaving the largest minority groups — black and Latino students — isolated in classrooms, according to a new analysis of Department of Education data. The report showed that segregation is not limited to race: blacks and Latinos are twice as likely as white or Asian students to attend schools with a substantial majority of poor children. photo via flickr:CC | blmurch

Segregation Prominent in Schools, Study Finds

The United States is increasingly a multiracial society, with white students accounting for just over half of all students in public schools, down from four-fifths in 1970.

Yet whites are still largely concentrated in schools with other whites, leaving the largest minority groups — black and Latino students — isolated in classrooms, according to a new analysis of Department of Education data.

The report showed that segregation is not limited to race: blacks and Latinos are twice as likely as white or Asian students to attend schools with a substantial majority of poor children.

photo via flickr:CC | blmurch