Culture, Poverty, and Education

Most changes in educationincluding the rise of standardized testing, holding teachers accountable for their students academic performance, and rewriting math and reading standardsdont address poverty. Understanding the relationship between poverty, class, and education for decades has been framed through studies on the behavior and culture of poor students and their families. Educators are caught up in the history of classism and are often guilty of buying into the mindsetincluding the implementation of activities and strategies for working with parents in poverty or students in povertythat leads them to believe in the need to fix the poor instead of eliminating the inequities that oppress them. So it is not just one or the other; nature or nurture, poor or not poor. Poverty is a potential outcome for all of us. Culture, Poverty, and Education: Whats Happening in Todays Schools? is intended to not only discuss 5 myths about the culture of poverty and its effects on education, but provide some resources on alternatives for educators to better address this growing barrier to student achievement in todays schools.