Reply to Correlation of SES status, race, and FARMS with test scores and disruptiveness?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote]I would love for someone to do a true study showing correlation (but more important showing what options work in leveling the playing field, if any). What needs to happen to bring a kid who is disrupting class out of whatever issue he/she is having to perform better? Are we talking lots more psychologists? Are you talking master teachers? More volunteers in the classroom? Classes devoting to addressing specific behaviors?

For the teachers that teach this population, can you answer this?[/quote]

This is really tough.  I taught these kids and I do not have the answer.
I taught this population many years ago as a young new college graduate.  I am Caucasian.
First, I also had some white children in my class who had the same problems.  In fact, one of the white moms got in a fight with the (white) school bus driver and put her in the hospital.  The kids were on the playground before school and witnessed the fight.  That is an example of the problem and the environment in which some of these kids live.  Do not think that white kids are exempt.  And, while almost all the AA children that I taught lived in the projects , they weren’t all behavior problems.  However, more were than were not.
Many of these kids fought a lot.  We were told (by the “experts” that they didn’t have toys, so they “manipulate” each other.)  I think that is BS from professors who are not dealing with the problem.  Kids who see violence in their homes will express it themselves.  It is very hard to establish rules in school when there are no rules at home.  One of my students had her dad killed in a bar fight (knife). Another’s nineteen year old brother was arrested for a violent rape.  These two young girls were among the better behaved and were sweet children.  It breaks your heart when you see these issues.   Most  of my students was struggling in school.  I had a meeting with a dad about trying to help her a little extra at home.  The next day she came in with strap marks on her legs—I never gave her a bad grade again.
 I taught first grade in Florida before K was mandatory.  Many of the kids I taught did not even know the names of the colors.  I spent time teaching “inside and outside”, “over and under”—basic concepts that these children should have known at three. 
Most of the kids I taught were on welfare and just about all were on free lunch.  A few were on reduced lunch, as I recall.  They may not have eaten properly, but I never felt that they were malnourished or hungry.  I do not know that for a fact, however.  I will say that we had a terrific dietician at our school with superb food, so the kids did get healthy food that tasted great for lunch. This is a rarity in a public school.  
It is hard to explain to people who have not been a class like those I taught, just how difficult it is to get the kids’ attention and keep them on task.  I did have kids that did great—some of them from the poorest homes.  One of the smartest I taught had a mother who was a prostitute.  He started at the bottom of my class and rose to the top in one year.  However, most of  the kids struggled and definitely were not going to be on a college track.  They had not been read to.  They had not been talked to—they had been yelled at and that is what they expected.  It is hard to teach a reading group when you have other kids pestering each other.  This was before IEP’S  and I am sure that many of these kids would have had them.
Sadly, this was forty years ago, and, from what I see, little has changed.
My suggestions: start in the hospital with educating the parents about the right way to talk to their babies. .  Public service announcements on television and the radio about the best way to handle your child.  Stress the importance of reading to your child and parenting classes.  I think parenting classes would be more valuable than preschool.  Teach middle school kids and elementary school kids about how to talk and help their younger siblings.  Teach parenting classes in high school. Get the rappers and the hip hoppers involved.  Get the preachers to step up more.  
Barack Obama should talk about this.  Other AA leaders should, as well.  It is the culture—though the problems are not limited to the African American community.  Throwing money at the schools won’t change things.  
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