High-poverty Schools Research Articles

Antecedents of Teachers’ Educational Beliefs about Mathematics and Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching among In-Service Teachers in High Poverty Urban Schools

This paper examines the antecedents of three types of educational beliefs about mathematics among 151 teachers predominantly working in high poverty schools. Studies across various countries have found that teachers in high poverty schools are less likely to enact instructional approaches that align with mathematics reform standards set by national and international organizations. Researchers contend that for instruction to change, educational beliefs about mathematics and teaching must change. Regression analyses indicated that mathematics-teaching experience was associated with teachers’ self-efficacy for teaching mathematics at the onset of professional development and the number of mathematics college courses teachers had taken moderated their change in self-efficacy beliefs through professional development. Findings also indicated that epistemic beliefs about mathematics, which became more availing through professional development, were the strongest predictor of their mathematical knowledge for teaching. Results may inform professional development programs in promoting adaptive educational beliefs among teachers in high poverty schools.

Unequal Opportunities

This study profiles the qualifications and preparation of special educators from the 2003–2004 Schools and Staffing Survey and investigates their relationship with teaching in a high-poverty school. Based on Berne and Stiefel’s (1984) equal opportunity standard, students with disabilities in high-poverty schools are not provided an equitable education. The results echo state accountability reports that document a shortage of special education teachers meeting the highly qualified teacher standards in high-poverty schools and other research studies on the uneven distribution of teachers. Policies such as alternative certification programs, economic incentives, and induction programs aimed at recruiting and retaining qualified, prepared special educators are considered along with ideas for future research.

Closing the achievement gap through modification of neurocognitive and neuroendocrine function: results from a cluster randomized controlled trial of an innovative approach to the education of children in kindergarten.

Effective early education is essential for academic achievement and positive life outcomes, particularly for children in poverty. Advances in neuroscience suggest that a focus on self-regulation in education can enhance children’s engagement in learning and establish beneficial academic trajectories in the early elementary grades. Here, we experimentally evaluate an innovative approach to the education of children in kindergarten that embeds support for self-regulation, particularly executive functions, into literacy, mathematics, and science learning activities. Results from a cluster randomized controlled trial involving 29 schools, 79 classrooms, and 759 children indicated positive effects on executive functions, reasoning ability, the control of attention, and levels of salivary cortisol and alpha amylase. Results also demonstrated improvements in reading, vocabulary, and mathematics at the end of kindergarten that increased into the first grade. A number of effects were specific to high-poverty schools, suggesting that a focus on executive functions and associated aspects of self-regulation in early elementary education holds promise for closing the achievement gap.

Toxic Schools: High-Poverty Education in New York and Amsterdam By Bowen Paulle

Toxic Schools: High-Poverty Education in New York and Amsterdam By Bowen Paulle University of Chicago Press, 2013 Reviewed by Ariel H. Bierbaum Bowen Paulle’s Toxic Schools is an often-riveting transatlantic comparative ethnography that focuses on the psychosocial dynamics of high-poverty high schools in New York City and Amsterdam. Paulle, a native New Yorker and US-trained sociologist, is a professor of social and behavioral sciences at the University of Amsterdam. His work builds not only on sociological theory, but also on public health and epidemiological research. Paulle argues that the heightened levels of violence and stress in high- poverty schools and neighborhoods are toxic to the health, well-being, and life trajectory of both students and teachers. His novel approach to toxicity offers rich material and insights for planning scholars and practitioners who work at the intersection of public health, education, and poverty studies. Planning scholars and practitioners understand that access to high-quality education, adequate health care, well-paying jobs, and affordable housing and transportation are the key components of people’s “geographies of opportunity.” While volumes of urban scholarship and policy today aim to build more equitable geographies of opportunity, this work’s focus on the metropolitan or regional scale does not allow for careful interrogation of the everyday reality of living in high-poverty neighborhoods and attending high-poverty schools. Toxic Schools helps fill this gap, bringing to life the uneven geographies of opportunity and raising important questions for our methodological approaches as planning scholars and practitioners that shape the contexts and built environments in which these high-poverty schools persist. Paulle’s narrative is based on six years of ethnographic fieldwork as a full- time high school teacher in the South Bronx of New York City and as a part- time high school teacher in southeast Amsterdam. Both neighborhoods and schools had high concentrations of poor and minority students. According to Paulle, in both locations students and teachers described their schools similarly as “the ghetto” and invoked metaphors of “dumping grounds” and “garbage cans.” Paulle uses his introductory chapter to situate the reader theoretically as well as geographically. For those not already familiar with scholarship in

Effects of a Data Driven, Individualized and Multifaceted Intervention Program on Eighth Grade Students' Achievement in Mathematics

This paper reveals the results of a data driven, individualized and multifaceted intervention program piloted at a southwestern urban school district at a Title I minority school that served free breakfast and lunch to 99% of the students. Results of the benchmark tests as well as the statewide high-stakes tests show that the intervention was a success. The success of the intervention program was due to not only its careful planning but also the careful execution of its aspects that were all in place. The intervention proved to be a cheap, scalable strategy that can be implemented to improve the performance of high-poverty schools. As a result, the intervention program became the district-wide standard practice in the new school year.

Ready to Lead, but How? Teachers’ Experiences in High-Poverty Urban Schools

Background/ContextMany strategies to improve failing urban schools rest on efforts to improve leadership within the school. Effective school-based leadership depends not only on the activities of the principal, but also on teachers’ efforts to address school-wide challenges. Research has shown that the principal is pivotal in such ventures, but we know little about how teachers conceive of their role in leadership, how they respond to opportunities provided or denied by their principal, or how they initiate leadership on their own.PurposeWe studied how teachers in six high-poverty urban schools participate in leadership beyond their classroom. We asked: What role do teachers in high-poverty urban schools play in their school's improvement? How do principals conceive of teachers’ potential for leadership and how do they act on it? How do teachers respond to the opportunities and constrains they encounter as they seek to exercise leadership in their schools?Research DesignWe interviewed 95 teachers and administrators in six high-poverty schools of one large urban district (two elementary schools, one K–8 school, one middle school, and two high schools). The schools, which served large proportions of low-income and minority students, had varying records of student performance.Data Collection and AnalysisIn each school, we interviewed the principal, other administrators, and a broad sample of teachers. We reviewed documents and observed day-to-day practices. After writing a structured, thematic summary for each respondent and school, we coded all transcripts and analyzed themes and practices within and across schools.FindingsTeachers were willing and ready to address their school's challenges. They conditionally granted their principal discretion in setting the agenda, based on the perceived authority and expertise of the principal and teachers’ opportunities for engagement as partners. When the principal took an instrumental approach to their contributions, teachers resented it, withdrew to their classrooms, and considered leaving the school. When the principal took an inclusive approach, demonstrating genuine interest in their views and contributions, teachers invested in school-wide reforms.Conclusions/RecommendationAlthough a principal may develop a strategic plan for improvement, that plan cannot simply be “rolled out.” Doing so without teachers’ contributions and endorsement likely means that the plan is incomplete and will be rejected outright or adopted perfunctorily. District administrators should select and develop principals who take an inclusive approach to teacher leadership. Policy makers and researchers should go beyond assessing the success of specific reforms and study the process of change within schools as reforms are developed and implemented.

Successful leadership in a rural, high-poverty school: the case of County Line Middle School

Purpose– In this paper, the authors present a case study of successful school leadership at County Line Middle School. The purpose of the paper is to identify how particular leadership practices and beliefs were adapted to increase student achievement in this rural, high-poverty school in the southeastern USA.Design/methodology/approach– After purposefully selecting this school, the authors adapted interview protocols, questionnaires, and analysis frameworks from the International Successful School Principalship Project to develop a multi-perspective case study of principal leadership practices at the school.Findings– The findings illustrate the practices which led to students at this school, previously the lowest-performing in the district, achieving significantly higher on state standardized tests, getting along “like a family,” and regularly participating in service learning activities and charity events. A particularly interesting finding was how the principal confronted the school's negative self-image and adapted common leadership practices to implement a school-wide reform that suited its unique context.Research limitations/implications– While the findings of the study explicate the specific ways the principal adapted leadership strategies to enhance student learning, this study also highlights the need to understand how principals become familiar with their community's needs, cultures, norms, and values, and exercise leadership in accordance with them.Practical implications– The case offers an example of the need for context-responsive leadership in schools. In particular, it illustrates how this principal enacted leadership strategies that successfully negotiated what Woods (2006) referred to as the changing politics of the rural. To realize this success, the principal utilized his understanding of this low income, rural community to guide his leadership practices. Critically, part of this understanding included the ways the community was connected to and isolated from dominant sub-urban and urban societies, and how to build enthusiasm and capacity through appeals to local values.Originality/value– While it is widely acknowledged that school leaders need to consider their school and community contexts when making leadership decisions, less research has focussed on understanding how this can be achieved. This case provides rich examples of how this was accomplished in a rural, high-poverty middle school.

Disruption, learning, and the heterogeneous benefits of smaller classes

Prior research suggests that the benefits from smaller classes may vary along multiple dimensions. In this paper we develop a flexible model of education production that incorporates the classroom-level time lost to disruption and the rate of learning during productive time as a function of teacher quality and individual propensity to acquire knowledge. We then investigate heterogeneity in class size effects by school poverty share, family income, teacher experience, and achievement percentile using data from Project STAR. We find that the benefits of small classes are consistently higher in schools with a larger low-income enrollment share. Conditional on school poverty share, we find little or no evidence that lower-income or lower-achieving students tend to realize larger benefits of smaller classes. Instead, we find that the return to smaller classes tends to increase with achievement regardless of school poverty share. Given the generally higher levels of disruption reported in higher poverty schools, this set of findings is consistent with, though not direct evidence of, the notion that reduced time lost to disruption is a primary mechanism through which smaller classes raise achievement and a compelling explanation for the empirical finding that class-size effects tend to be larger for lower-income children.

What Would it Cost to Coach Every New Principal? An Estimate Using Statewide Personnel Data

In this paper, I use Levin and McEwan’s (2001) cost feasibility approach and personnel data obtained from the Superintendent of Public Instruction to estimate the cost of providing coaching support to every newly hired principal in Washington State. Based on this descriptive analysis, I estimate that the cost to provide leadership coaching to every newly hired principal as an induction support would range between $153,000 and $845,000 per year representing a per pupil cost between $4.01 and $12.35, respectively, depending on the amount each leadership coach receives in compensation. A more conservative approach that provides coaching support only to newly hired principals working in high poverty schools would cost the state between $143,975 and $443,000 per year representing a per pupil cost between $4.20 and $12.92, respectively, depending on the amount each leadership coach receives in compensation. Implications for coaching and principal professional development are discussed within the context of policy decisions. In particular, the article considers whether coaching is a financially feasible professional development strategy and how new information about the per pupil cost of coaching might better inform ongoing policy discussions related to leadership coaching.

How Do We Manage? Determinants of Effective Leadership in High-Poverty Schools

The paper focused on the challenges facing principals of high-poverty schools in an Education District in South Africa. It sought to determine how some schools in disadvantaged communities excel ac...

Shoes, Dues, and Other Barriers to College Attainment

Facilitating economically disadvantaged students’ access to higher education is an important goal of educational policy. However, some practices toward this goal are based on theories and assumptions not informed by the students’ conditions or needs. The purpose of this study was to understand the challenges faced by students from high poverty, urban high schools in their yearning for a college education. Analyses of interview and observation data from a yearlong study in six high-poverty schools revealed that economically disadvantaged students face contextual challenges that necessitate additional efforts and resources not required by others, including money, time, knowledge, courage, sacrifice, and taking risks. The findings are discussed in light of Bourdieu’s theory of capital in education. Implications for educational policy and practice are outlined, including increased attention to non-psychological, structural factors impacting college attainment such as systemic and cumulative disadvantage resulting from lack of various forms of capital.

Results of a State Incentive Program on the Supply and Distribution of National Board Certified Teachers

Investment in state incentive policies to support National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) prompt consideration of their distribution and retention. This study examines the results of a state’s incentive program for NBCTs, including a targeted bonus for those working in high-poverty schools. A quantitative analysis was conducted of state data using a longitudinal, multi-year design. The analysis included a comparison of NBCTs in high-poverty schools and in schools not identified for an additional bonus. Findings suggest that the proportion and overall supply of NBCTs in high-poverty schools increased over the three-year period. Policy implications regarding the use of incentives are discussed.

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

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.

An Examination of Teachers’ Perceptions of Principal Support for Change and Teachers’ Collaboration and Communication around Literacy Instruction in Reading First Schools

Background/Context Little research has directly examined whether principal leadership can increase the degree to which teachers work together regularly in focused ways around content. Prior research has shown that reform efforts seeking to alter the process of teaching can be successful if teachers collaborate to build capacity and improve instruction. Furthermore, the research literature has highlighted supportive principal leadership as a key component of teachers’ perception of an effective collaborative change process. Purpose This study examines the empirical link between teachers’ perceptions of principal support for change and teachers’ reports of the degree of collaboration and communication with one another around literacy. Setting The data for this study was collected in all 165 Reading First schools in Michigan in the 2006-2007 school year. Subjects Survey data was collected from 1,738 teachers across all schools. Research Design Data for this study was collected as part of the evaluation of Reading First in Michigan. Literacy teachers in kindergarten through third grade completed surveys at three points throughout the school year (fall, winter, and spring). These surveys contained questions about principal support for change and collaboration and communication around literacy. Data Collection and Analysis The primary analytic method employed in this study was multilevel modeling. Factor analysis and full information maximum likelihood estimation were also used. Findings/Results The measure of principal support for change was a significant positive predictor of teachers’ assessment of the degree of regular collaboration and communication around reading instruction; a one standard deviation increase in teachers’ reports of principal support for change was associated with a 0.202 standard deviation increase in teachers’ assessment of the degree of collaboration and communication around literacy when controlling for the other variables in the model. Conclusions/Recommendations This paper demonstrates that the degree to which teachers report collaboration and communication around literacy in Reading First schools is significantly related to their perceptions of principal support for change. If policymakers expect teachers to collaborate around issues of instruction, then they need to consider the principal's role in supporting change in the school by encouraging teachers to improve their instruction and take the risks associated with innovation. In sum, the results of this study are important for educators, as the role of the principal is potentially critical for positive changes in teacher collaboration and, consequently, student achievement in high-poverty schools.

Teacher Mobility and Financial Incentives

Extensive teacher mobility can undermine policy efforts to develop a high-quality workforce. In response, policymakers have increasingly championed financial incentives to retain teachers. In 2006, the Denver Public Schools adopted an alternative teacher compensation reform, the Professional Compensation System for Teachers (“ProComp”). Using longitudinal teacher-level data from 2001–2002 to 2010–2011, I estimate hazard models that identify the relationship between ProComp and teacher mobility. Specifically, I compare mobility patterns of teachers who received a ProComp incentive with those who did not, with special attention to teacher mobility in high-poverty schools. Results suggest receiving a ProComp incentive is associated with a significant decrease in the odds of departure. This appears to be driven by a decrease in a teacher’s odds of leaving the district rather than moving to a new school within the district, by voluntary ProComp participants and by teachers who receive incentives that total more than $5,000.

Creating and Maintaining High Quality, Sustainable Healthy Learning Environments for Students, Teachers and Staff in Global Schools

The purpose of the study was examining and exploring ecological issues that emerge from disasters or high poverty schools and UNESCO’S mandate for health conditions in learning environments and 1) teacher and staff effectiveness, 2) student achievement, and 3) health of teachers, staff, and students. A systematic narrative literature method was used to review the effects that technological innovation and ecological conditions have on schools show there is a health risk. Results of preliminary research focused on USA schools revealed a high-quality teaching environment is expected to demonstrate five key conditions and five helping brain-based behaviors in teaching 1) lesson clarity, 2) instructional variety to address diversity, 3) healthy and safe learning environment, 4) engagement in the learning process, and 5) student success. Five helping behaviors included: 1) using student ideas and contributions, 2) structuring, 3) questioning, 4) probing, and 5) teacher competence. Methodology is introduced to gather evidence of the possible relationships between these variables and potential adverse effects of technological and ecological conditions teachers and students. The discussion shares findings on the potential implications for conditions in schools and communities that result from natural disasters. Such conditions include the impact of dampness and mold on individuals in schools or similar settings. This information could advance future research direction to investigate this problem of maintaining safe and healthy environments globally. The argument is that such conditions present thought-provoking implications for transforming learning environments into healthy and safe places for teachers and learners to be active and productive. Preliminary conclusions suggest that while technological and ecological innovations offer necessary advances to education, failure to acknowledge problems involving infrastructure, environmental conditions and the impact on individual’s health could result in adverse effects on teaching and learning.

Teachers’ Support of Students’ Vocabulary Learning During Literacy Instruction in High Poverty Elementary Schools

The purpose of this study was to examine third-grade teachers’ support for students’ vocabulary learning in high poverty schools characterized by underachievement in reading. We examined the prevalence and nature of discourse actions teachers used to support vocabulary learning in different literacy lessons (e.g., phonics); these actions varied in the cognitive demands placed on the students. Results showed that teachers rarely engaged students in cognitively challenging work on word meanings. Various lesson features and student and teacher characteristics were associated with teachers’ support for students’ vocabulary learning (e.g., teachers’ knowledge about reading). A major finding was that the extent of teachers’ support of their students’ vocabulary learning was significantly related to gains in reading comprehension across the year.

Putting the Heart Back into Writing: Nurturing Voice in Middle School Students

The authors share five areas of inquiry that emerged as the result of a voluntary weekly before-school writing program.If you pay me a million dollars for me to stop writing, it would never work.- Carrie, 11-year-old middle school studentFor many middle grades students, writing facilitates a search for meaning; writing can foster self-expression and self-discovery and can help students cope with economic and family issues that are out of their control. Susannah [pseudonym] captures the voice of a middle school student perfectly in her short story:Zodiac grabbed an apple. There's not much to tell. Okay, you wanna hear? Fine. am now best friends with a slut with a rock for a brain. My science teacher is a hippie. My history teacher is a hard-ass army freak. My math teacher is a rainbow Madonna. My social studies teacher is a freakin' Calvin Klein model. My Spanish teacher is a hopeless romantic. My wellness teacher is a douche bag with 7 sons AND a divorce. And my language arts teacher is an air-head rag city ghetto girl. Zodiac cried loudly, I have a crush on my new friend's BOYFRIEND! Zodiac got out five pages of homework Mrs. Brown had assigned her. Zodiac wiped away her tears. Now leave me alone. Ryuzaki nodded.In our experience working with a team of adolescents, we witnessed young authors using writing as a vehicle to explore their innermost thoughts, their struggles with identity, relationships, cancer, love, religion, and fears. Their voices rang true as they wrote by choice, within the loosely structured setting of a before-school writing team.Many researchers have reported the adolescent years mark declining motivation for some students to write (Anderman & Maehr, 1994; Eccles, Wigfield, & Schiefele, 1998; Romano, 2007). Much of the research reveals that adolescents do write for their own authentic purposes, but this usually happens outside school (Yost & Vogel, 2012). Our experience as before-school writing team instructors contradicts these claims. At a high-poverty school with troubling test scores, students clamored for the opportunity and space to write. Our students responded enthusiastically to school writing time that nurtured their search for meaning. They wanted a quiet, safe venue to write, with support, about topics of their own choosing.Faced with expectations of increasingly higher academic standards and accountability, along with extreme budget cuts, school districts have narrowed their focus to raise student scores on statewide literacy and math tests. Teachers nationwide are increasingly pressured to use class time for test preparation in core subjects linked to high-stakes tests. Writing is not always considered a core subject (Applebee & Langer, 2006; Dillon, 2006; The National Commission on Writing for America's Families, Schools and Colleges, 2006). A key stance in the philosophy of The National Commission on Writing (2006) is that effective writing instruction is time-consuming for students and teachers, and students are not spending enough time writing at school. If writing is addressed in the classroom, it is often in preparation for the statewide writing assessment, not for its benefits to the whole child-nurturing curiosity, exploration, integrative thinking, and problem-solving. Applebee and Langer (2006) noted how state and district writing assessments limit the scope of a broad writing curriculum in favor of coaching students on how to respond to narrow prompts or questions in limited genres. With a focus on high-stakes test performance come more restricted tasks, often centered around structural concerns and a correctness mindset, not focused on inquiry or synthesis of a student's classroom life with life beyond the classroom.Even in classes where teachers make time for writing instruction, Applebee and Langer (2006) found, Students seem not to be given assignments requiring writing of any significant length or complexity (p. …

The relations of proper character introduction to narrative quality and listening comprehension for young children from high poverty schools

The present study explored the types and frequency of literate language features in children’s narratives, and the relation of literate language and proper character introduction to children’s oral language skills in a sample of 184 prekindergarten, kindergarten, and first grade students from high-poverty schools. Using hierarchical regression, the results showed that literate language features were not predictive of listening comprehension or narrative quality outcomes. In contrast, children’s skill in properly introducing characters significantly accounted for variance in all outcome measures (narrative comprehension, narrative quality, and listening comprehension) above and beyond the control variables (age, total number of words, and mean length of utterance) and literate language features (adverbs, conjunctions, mental and linguistic verbs, and elaborated noun phrases). These results indicate that the child’s retell and language comprehension skills may develop concurrently with proper character introduction.

The Case of Rivera Elementary School

This case involves a struggle for control among differently situated leaders—district- and building-level administrators, teachers, parents and community members, and university partners—seeking to influence the reform agenda of a high-poverty urban elementary school serving Latina/Latino students. The various stakeholders encounter a variety of means–ends dilemmas as they respond to pressures to improve school performance, enhance students achievement, promote democratic participation, and pursue professional goals. The discussion and teaching notes draw on theories of micropolitics, distributed leadership and organizational behavior to help students surface and consider dilemmas facing the actors.