Turning high-poverty schools into high performing school part 1

William H. Parrett and Kathleen M. Budge's book, Turning High-Poverty Schools into High-Performing Schools, had me think about what specific steps we can and do enact to support our children living in poverty. I just finished Ed Week's report that identified 40% of American children as living in poverty. Many communities have far higher numbers than that. The one I work in has a 65% rate.

Their chart on pages 160-1 details practices that address the needs of underachieving students living in poverty. I have reproduced the first two columns and added my thought in the third.

Effective  practice	Examples	My world
Create a bond between students and school Foster a sense of belonging	Class meetings Advisories Athletics and clubs	Restorative justice circles work toward community building. In many places clubs and sports are only activities for a few. The participators are involved, but large swaths of the student body are not. Bussing, home commitments, and expense are impediments for many
Teach, model and provide experiences that develop creative and critical thinking skills	Higher order questions Socratic seminars Multidisciplinary units	In NY our regents exams (graduation requirements) are full of application level questions so the good teachers use them when they teach these courses, but the students resist them and perform poorly. Multidisciplinary units are decreasingly common as students go up the grades as subjects become increasingly siloed. This is good teaching, but often many challenges abound.
Provide opportunities to build short-term working memory	Mnemonic devices Multisensory instruction	We just finished our semester with midterms last week. In a community circle I threw out the question- hony w many students studied outside of school. I received many curious glances as only two students in the group of 35 said yes. They don’t see the need or know how. These kids would bomb college if they went now. We need to generate knowledge of how to do it and motivation for why to do it.
Provide specific opportunities for the development of social skills.	Cooperative learning Peer tutoring mentoring	The mother of a child of a child with ASD in me says how about direct instruction. My child and others like him need direct  support in how to function in society. SEL (social emotional learning) is all the rage now. I do not understand why more schools do not have more programs. Restorative justice processes involve teaching these skills as do PBIS focused programs. English class however offers a fantastic opportunity to discuss social skills through literature- no student or specific event is the target so it is less charged and they are more cold when they examine behavior and  use perspective.
Access and build on prior knowledge to expand knowledge	Brainstorming, Semantic mapping Autobiographical activities Advance organizers	I go back to my pre-service instruction when we visit an urban school. We were going to work in the classrooms, but first had an intro to the building by the principal. She lived 45 minutes away in a rural community. She introduced the idea that some of her students had never seen stars. She would bring kids to her home to see farm animals, stars and campfires. Teachers assume kids know these ideas, and many do, but some do not. Brainstorming alone does not build on prior knowledge, we need to find ways to link where we are going to their lives. Some teachers I have worked with are geniuses at this. KWL charts capitalize on this idea. Nonfiction videos, field trips and picture books- even for our high school kids- help build the knowledge we need for academic success.
Mediate and scaffold learning experiences	Reciprocal teaching Think alouds Visual organizers Guided instruction	In  some ways this is so strange that it needs to be said. Marie Clay’s direct instruction could be highlighted here. These ideas have been around for decades, we just rename them and send them out again.
Personalize based upon diverse learning needs	Learning styles, multiple intelligences Differentiated instruction RTI	The research does not really support the first two as ways to improve achievement. Differentiated instruction is useful, but requires time to implement. We run into resource challenges- time, staff and expertise- to do these things well. Personalized learning is a current catch phrase. Much of the research around it does not support its use. This is a feel good.
Accelerate and enrich rather than remediate	Talent development College prep for all Arts education	As a parent of a gifted child, this one concerns me. She specifically selected some of her high school classes because the students in them would be decent at playing school and not interfere with the activities of the classroom. Escalante was able to get his kids to pass calculus not just because of the work he did in class, but because they stayed after, came in late and attended on Saturday. Unfortunately many places and people cannot support this level of intensity. In the rural district I work in, the transportation becomes a real impediment. How do we support kids who need to be home to work on the farm chores or child care duties? Scaffolding for success in important, but the many impediments need to be identified and countered.
Actively engage students in learning experiences for authentic, meaningful purposes	Project based learning, authentic assessment	This works better in some areas than others. skillful guiding of a class working on projects to learn both the required content for the state tests art the end of the year and authentic experiences is challenging. Lecture is efficient delivery of instruction. Projects take time. Finding ways to build in authentic choice is challenging for secondary staff trying to prepare for final exams.
Connect physical activity, exercise and motor development to learning	PE Sensory motor labs	Some research suggests that daily activity increases achievement independent of anything else. Other research suggests that for kids with ADHD, daily aerobic activity can help them control their bodies at least as well as medication can. Our kids spend too long sitting and staring at screens. They need to get up, rev up their engines and get the blood to flow to their brains. Boys in particular need exercise and movement embedded in their school day. Just about all kids would benefit from daily exercise.
Provide learning experiences that help students envision their future and foster hope	Service learning Community-based internships mentoring	While these are good ideas, just witnessing them in the short-term does not allow students to see themselves differently. Parents who tell their kids what they have is what they’ll get are hard to counteract. This needs to be a movement in the community, not just school. The community needs to see their children as capable of great things. This has to start with families when they are young. Immigrants who come to this country want a better life for their kids. Our generational poor need that optimism as well.

To me it seems that we do many of these things on a daily basis, so why are we  not more successful. I think the answer to that question lies in the lack of systematic implementation and belief in our kids. If we can more deliberately use more of these ideas perhaps we can better meet the needs of our kids struggling with poverty.