Reply to Myth: low income students do better in schools with <25% FARMs rate.

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Reply to "Myth: low income students do better in schools with <25% FARMs rate. "

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[quote=Anonymous]1. Yes it is a myth that low income students do better in schools with less than 25% FARMS at the MS and HS level. ES is a different situation IF the school is not overcrowded.

2. No low income students are not lost causes. It takes resources ON THE GROUND not sitting off in a remote central office to help them succeed.

In ES if the school is not overcrowded, FARMS kids can get extra help in richer schools. As a teacher, teaching in a wealthy school is much easier. The kids have the background knowledge, learn easily or already know the material, and the kids with SN have parents fighting to get them para educator time. I had time to give the 1-3 FARMS kids extra support. The PTA paid for homework club that provided them with extra help after school. The PTA paid for them to be able to buy some books at the book fair, get school t-shirts, cover expensive field trips, or go to some of the after school enrichment programs.

This ALL evaporates in MS and HS. Teachers structurally do not have time to help kids that are very far behind within the short class sessions. You don't have the same kids all day. The PTAs are not as active and usually just focused on the dances, sports, music etc. There is no PTA funding for the FARMS kids to do after school programs or go to private tutoring like their wealthier peers. It is much more dispersed. MS and HS REQUIRES a student to navigate the system. Kids need to keep track of their work and turn it in. They need to not lose their materials. They need to study at home. The wealthier kids who struggle with this have parents that keep on top of them and intervene when their grades drop. The FARMS kids do not have this.

What would work would be providing a case worker with a manageable load of students similar to how SN is supposed to be handled. (I say supposed because this isn't even implemented consistently for SN kids). The case worker would meet twice a week with the student and have up to date information on what is missing and what is due. The case  worker could check that the student is taking notes, has their materials organized, or even help them edit or reflect back on any assignments that they did poorly on to learn how not to make the same mistakes next time. After school there would be a structured homework club with tutors assigned to small groups. I am NOT talking about having a few tutors sit at a table in the library saying we're available if you have questions and the session becomes a basic proctored study hall. The tutors would work with their small groups to check off their homework lists, help check work and give subject specific help as necessary. If I had more money, I would create a program where high school students would be paid minimum wage to go to summer school. They would get a bonus for earning high grades.

This all takes dedicated instructional staff and caseworkers IN THE SCHOOLS.  The central office likes to label programs and say they are doing some things like this but they NEVER willingly reduce the staff in the central office to hire staff in the schools. Anything that threatens to reduce positions in the central office is viewed as a major threat.

This is why the central office is so gun ho on the idea that simply changing the demographic make up of the schools will fix the achievement gap. In their view, the teachers will have plenty of time within their existing workload to bring up the FARMS kids and all the central office staff get to stay or grow their departments. [/quote]

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