The Effects of Poverty on Education Online

Course Description

Effects of Poverty on Education considers the impact of poverty on academic achievement. Course content includes effective ways teachers may empower students to overcome the barriers to learning that results from enduring the impact of poverty. The course emphasis is to develop a minimal, error-free, instructional system classroom teachers may use to teach all disadvantaged students.

The purpose of this course is to provide classroom teachers and school administrators the knowledge, strategies, and skills to challenge the barrier of poverty. To achieve this purpose, course process and content will draw upon the course text, "A Framework for Understanding Poverty," by Ruby K. Payne. In addition, equal emphasis will be upon the sociology of American schools and the cultural "trap" of poverty. We may provide many innovative and effective strategies to advance school reform, but if we do not address the impact of school sociology on academic achievement, school reform will be compromised. The innovative feature of this course is bringing together the framework for understanding poverty and the sociology (social context) that traps so many bright and capable students in a self-fulfilling dead-end. By joining these two aspects of poverty, teachers and school administrators will have the knowledge base and skills to effectively challenge barriers of impoverishment.

Objectives

• Contrast internal and external poverty.
• Determine the effect of time on the issue of poverty.
• Assess direction of classroom instruction based on time and extent of his/her students’ poverty levels.
• Assess the relationships between the perceptual field and language development.
• Evaluate the relationship between language development and academic achievement.
• Evaluate “hidden” rules among social classes.
• Develop methods for overcoming barriers created by poverty that utilize his/her students’ background experiences.
• Discuss how cognitive deficiencies, prerequisite status, and pace become barriers to academic achievement.
• Develop a framework for understanding the impact of poverty on student achievement.
• Formulate a pedagogy applicable to students from poverty.
• Construct techniques to create meaningful relationships with students from poverty.
• Discuss the essential components of an instructional system and how they relate to students from poverty.
• Evaluate Computer Assisted Instruction

Curriculum Design & Time Requirements

This course will emphasize the development of insights and understandings of the impact of impoverishment upon schooling in America, and then to apply the insights and understandings to case studies and "real" problems. Participants will design, based on course process and content, a strategy for removing barriers directly resulting from poverty. This course will be offered over a period of 13 weeks and is a 60 hour 3 credit graduate course. Modules 1 through 9 will be completed one per week. Module 10 will be completed over a two-week period so students will have time to revise and complete the final integration project.

Hardware & Computer Skill Requirements

Students may use either a Macintosh computer or a PC with Windows 2000 or higher. Students should possess basic word processing skills and have internet access with an active e-mail account. Students also are expected to have a basic knowledge of how to use a Web browser, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, Safari, Mozilla Firefox etc.

Course Materials

The required text for this course is "A Framework for Understanding Poverty," by Ruby K. Payne. Participants will also be provided a student guide that includes articles from journals and excerpts from various works on poverty in America.

Session Outline

Session 1: Internal/External Poverty
Contents:

1. To differentiate between internal and external poverty
2. To recognize the reciprocal between internal and external poverty
3. To recognize the function of time on the issue of poverty

Session 2: Applying Gained Knowledge to "Real" Problems
Contents:

1. Use time and extent of poverty to direct classroom instruction

Session 3:The Role of Language and Story
Contents:

1. To recognize the relationships between the display (perceptual field) and language development
2. To understand the relationship between language development and academic achievement

Session 4: Responsive Pedagogy and Hidden Rules
Contents:

1. To discover the hidden rules among classes
2. To use student's background experiences to overcome barriers that result from poverty

Session 5: Improving Academic Performance
Contents:

1. To identify cognitive deficiencies most often noted among students from poverty
2. To identify interventions that improve cognitive strategies

Session 6: Mid-Term Review and Composing a Framework for Understanding Poverty
Contents:

1. To review course progress
2. To derive a framework for understanding the impact of poverty on student achievement

Session 7: A Pedagogy for Children from Poverty
Contents:

1. To initiate the design of a pedagogy for children from poverty

Session 8: Building Meaningful Relationships with Students from Poverty
Contents:

1. To acquire the knowledge and skill to create meaningful relationships with students from poverty

Session 9: Closing the Achievement Gap Between Students from Poverty and Middle Class Students
Contents:

1. To identify the essential components of an instructional system for students from poverty

Session 10: Synthesis and Technology
Contents:

1. To assimilate Computer Assisted Instruction
2. To create a plan for using information in this course

Grading

		Assignment	Points			Grading Scale
		Forum Participation	10			100 - 93	A
		Module Reflections	67			92 - 85	B
		Design, Plan of Action	23			84 - 77	C
		Total Points	100

Student Requirements

	1.	Participation: Participation in all Forum activities and dialogue with colleagues.
	2.	Reading Assignments: Students will complete all assigned reading in the textbook, Web sites and answer questions in the appropriate Forum thread.
	3.	Culminating Activity: Participants will conduct an assessment of personal dynamics in their classroom and design lessons that encourage the use of different intelligences.

Student Academic Integrity

Participants guarantee that all academic class work is original. Any academic dishonesty or plagiarism (to take ideas, writings, etc. from another and offer them as one's own), is a violation of student academic behavior standards as outlined by our partnering colleges and universities and is subject to academic disciplinary action.

Register

To register to take TEI's The Effects of Poverty on Education Online course, go to the Course Registration page.