Here is the next part of our continuing series on Common Cause by Checkerboard Gang contributor, Randee Head: ######################### The Effects of Poverty on the Education of Our Children There is no question that poverty affects a childs education success. There are several significant reasons for this. Children who are raised in poverty, too often, do not have proper nutrition. By the time these children enter school, even if they are fortunate enough to attend Pre-K4, they do not have the nutritional support they need to grow, learn, and thrive. It is unlikely these children get vitamins to make up for their poor diet. That means they rely on school breakfasts and lunches for nutritional support. These meals are often full of fat, salt, sugar, and excessive starch. To make matters worse, many schools sell sugary snacks and drinks during breaks to raise money. This means poor children, who often have access to enough money for these snacks, add these poisons to their diet thus dramatically increasing their chances of getting Type 2 Diabetes at a relatively young age. As has been noted, some children enter kindergarten already beginning to read. Many others have the pre-reading skills necessary to begin learning. Children of poverty are usually those who begin school already behind. They frequently do not know their colors, numbers, or letters, and they have no concept of reading. It is likely they have no books in their homes and no one to take them to the library. Once children begin their schooling, they usually return, at the end of the day, to homes where no one is able to help them with homework. Such children lose this additional opportunity to learn and fall farther and farther behind. Chances are, these children are raised in single-parent homes with little family support.Children suffering from these afflictions will probably have difficulty adapting to a learning environment. With the excess energy that is the result of a diet full of starch and sugar, they will have difficulty focusing on learning. There are often many stress factors in their lives that further impede learning. Life is not easy for these children, and it shows in their lack of academic progress. You might wonder what all of this has to do with Common Core. In truth, it has nothing to do with this new layer of accountability and testing. Common Core does nothing to address the issues of at-risk children. In the end, the only good it might do is show how poorly children are doing academically by standardizing the assessments. As it stands, each state is free to do as it wishes with respect to tests. For states with a large percentage of poor academic under-achievers, state tests are free to do a poor job of testing, and many of them do. I base this opinion on my own experience with the Georgia graduation tests. They are not very stringent and have no use beyond permitting a student to graduate high school. In my opinion as a teacher, this makes them a waste of time. They should be able to show sufficient academic achievement and, at the very least, be sufficient to show a student is capable of attending vocational school. Instead, all post-secondary schools must administer a test in order to determine what students know, and what programs they can enroll in. That makes the Georgia graduation tests a real waste of money. As little as five years ago, when I spoke with students in a local college, some of them expressed frustration because they had failed the Compass test and had to take remedial classes. Many told me they had passed the graduation tests the first time with flying colors. Thats just not right. Randee Head theworldaccordingtorandee Next: The Politics of Common Core #########################
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 04:51:45 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015