The Notebook

Stories tagged: low-income

Improvement starts with cooperation

Posted in April 2010 Edition | Permalink

To the editors:
When administrators acknowledge the achievement gap is not created by teachers, we will then have an atmosphere where teachers and administrators can work cooperatively on solving problems.

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Esos vatos locos forever! And school racial violence, Somali pirates

Submitted by Gustavo Martínez on Fri, 02/19/2010 - 13:26 Posted in Social justice in education | Permalink

I'm supposing none of y'all know what the title to this post means. I'll put it this way: that's proper Chicano English, a southwestern US of A dialect of Spanglish, for "aw yeah, crazy dudes!"

Down there, by our own Berlin Wall, we live in español, but go to school in Spanglish, which goes to show how unsuccessful Operation Wetback was.

What worries me is that still, today, there are people who think that English is the only language that should be spoken in this land. But I take relief when amigos gabachos stand in defense of the many tongues spelling out life in the today's United States. So, gracias to attorney and blogger Len Rieser for his post in response to a Christopher Paslay's op-ed piece that appeared in The Inquirer earlier this week.

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Profiles of the Renaissance pool

Submitted by Paul Socolar on Wed, 01/27/2010 - 15:49 Posted in Latest news | Permalink

Even a quick look at the school profiles for the 14 Renaissance Eligible Schools makes clear that one of the central issues the School District and its turnaround teams will have to tackle in its Renaissance Schools plan is the effects of concentrated poverty.

Here's what the typical Renaissance Eligible School looks like (using median figures and the data provided for 12 of the 14 schools):

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South Philly grad's immigrant experience

Submitted by Gustavo Martínez on Wed, 12/16/2009 - 12:16 Posted in High schools | Permalink

We'll pick up the conversation from last week. As an update, we can tell you that school authorities announced measures in an attempt to make South Philly High safer. This includes cameras, more police, and an education program so kids learn how to deal with other cultures.

School District CEO Arlene Ackerman said she wanted the Asian students to come back to school on Monday, and that she would be there to welcome them back and have personal conversations with each one of the affected students. The students returned today.

I spoke with a South Philly High graduate, who is a recent immigrant, about his experience acclimating to the new environment.

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Immigrant students and their mental health

Submitted by Gustavo Martínez on Thu, 12/10/2009 - 15:38 Posted in Social justice in education | Permalink

Last week several Asian students were attacked in South Philadelphia High. They have complained that school and District authorities haven't responded to their concerns sufficiently.

The relevance of caring for these students' needs is highlighted in the work of Eileen Gale Kugler and Olga Acosta Price in their report "Helping immigrant and refugee students succeed: It’s not just what happens in the classroom," in which they stress the need to provide newly arrived children and their families with the culturally competent assistance they require.

This is the first part of a series of postings in which we will talk about these issues. Check for a follow-up soon.

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Renaissance Schools to be named in January

Submitted by Paul Socolar on Fri, 12/04/2009 - 19:03 Posted in Latest news | Permalink

January 2010 is the new target date for the announcement of the first cohort of Renaissance Schools - low-performing District schools that will be reorganized under new management by next fall.

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DREAM Act: Estudiante activista lo toma personal

Submitted by Gustavo Martínez on Wed, 11/18/2009 - 18:43 Posted in Social justice in education | Permalink

La estudiante-activista María Marroquín está íntimamente involucrada en la lucha para que se apruebe la denomindada DREAM Act. Se puede decir que es un asunto vital para ella, una inmigrante indocumentada que estudia Ciencias Políticas.

Su participación fue fundamental para que el Senador Arlen Specter apoyara publicamente la versión 2009 del DREAM Act, una propuesta de ley que aún espera por llegar al pleno de ambas cámaras y ser votada.

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DREAM Act: Student activist makes it personal

Submitted by Gustavo Martínez on Wed, 11/18/2009 - 13:36 Posted in Social justice in education | Permalink

Student activist María Marroquín is deeply involved in the fight for getting the DREAM Act approved. This is a vital issue for her, an undocumented student majoring in political science.

She was instrumental in Senator Arlen Specter's public support of the 2009 DREAM Act, a bill that has yet to make its way down to the floor for a vote.

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Poverty = stress = brain impairment

Submitted by Erika Owens on Wed, 04/08/2009 - 13:50 | Permalink

A new study finds that students who grew up in poverty have less working memory than their middle class peers. The researchers say that the cause is the stress that living in poverty puts on the brain, as measured by physiological indicators like blood pressure.

Working memory is crucial for everyday activities as well as for forming long-term memories.

"It's critical for learning," [the lead researcher] said. "If you don't have good working memory, you can't do things like hold a phone number in your head or develop a vocabulary."

When the researchers analyzed the relationships among how long the children lived in poverty, their allostatic load [stress level] and their later working memory, they found a clear relationship: The longer they lived in poverty, the higher their allostatic load and the lower they tended to score on working-memory tests. Those who spent their entire childhood in poverty scored about 20 percent lower on working memory than those who were never poor, [the lead researcher] said.