I like the idea that every child deserves a school that has a culture conducive to learning, just as every child deserves to be taught at their level.
This far, and this far only, I agree with you.
In my view, you are lumping many factors into SES that are best treated separately.
I agree with DeeDee that you are lumping many factors together that are best treated separately.
I'm going to add a few comments to your thoughts (Tigerle) but please know my reply is only from my experience in one school district in one city in one region of the US - there is so much variability across the US that none of us can really speak for others re experiences. My experience and knowledge is based on having close friends who are teaching in my cities' challenged lower SES elementary schools, and having acquaintances who have taught in our lower SES high schools. As I've mentioned previously, I live in a school district in which neighborhoods, and hence neighborhood schools, are highly segregated by family income. I've also spent a lot of time tutoring children in lower SES schools where the challenges of living in poverty is a huge issue for families.
Also, the more motivated and well behaved peers there are, the better the classroom atmosphere and the more learning Is going on. Ability cannot rub off, but motivation and behaviour can - if there is peer pressure from a majority! All of this works the other way round, too, after all.
This sounds like you are making an assumption here that students from lower SES schools are not as well-behaved or motivated as children of higher SES parents. I haven't seen this to be true *at all* in real life. It's true that it's easier for motivated students to learn in a classroom where the other children are staying on task and are motivated, and I've seen this issue being a challenge for my ds in particular… in an elementary school classroom that was made up largely of middle-higher SES children.
There are absolutely challenges for lower SES children that may impact behavior in school as a secondary effect: hunger, getting to school, staying up late, not having attention from parents because of parents both working, sometimes working multiple jobs etc. Those challenges *might* impact behavior in a way that has an impact in the classroom, but the impact is secondary. It's not something inherent with who the children are. Conversely, there is no guarantee that a child from a higher income SES is going to be well-behaved and motivated.
There are teacher effects: higher expectations in higher SES schools
This can potentially be an issue, and it has been an issue in some areas at different points in time, but I think it's also important to recognize that there are school districts and individual educators who are trying (REALLY trying) to counteract this. Our school district focuses a tremendous amount of energy and effort toward raising our overall (for the whole district) graduation rate and puts staff effort, dollars, you name it, toward helping high school students set high expectations for post-high-school education and careers. There really is in many ways, probably *more* effort going into making sure this information and cheerleading is taking place in the schools where parents might not have the same high expectations for their children. Likewise extra staff, extra attention, extra program funding etc is going into the neighborhood elementary schools where lower SES children live and where historically early reading and overall achievement has been lower. Our school district may not have all the answers, and they may not be providing the ideal solution for every student, but there is no question that they have expectations for each student and that they believe students can achieve, no matter their background.
My gut feeling is that low expectations most likely happen with staff members who wouldn't be all that high-functioning in a "high SES" school. Although most teachers I've known truly care about the students they teach, I overheard friends talking long ago, before my children were in school, that no matter what school your child is in, no matter how you try to avoid it, at some point in time they will have a teacher who is simply, not all that great. That's been our experience, and I've also heard that echoed from my friends who teach in the low SES neighborhood elementary schools. But that's just one or two teachers per school. Most of the people who go into teaching as a career, and who stick with it, are there because they genuinely care about students as *people*. Even students who come from very challenging backgrounds.
Most troubling to me is the idea that poor children drag down the system for "our" children. I am committed to that idea that "all children should get an appropriate education." That is a far cry from saying that poor children should generally get less opportunity because they are less capable. That is the language of inferiority we've heard all too often in the past, and in my view, thinking this way does not help children-- "ours" or "theirs."
(NB: They're all "ours"-- our neighbors, our students, our eventual colleagues, and the nurse who will look after us when we need her.)
ITA with DeeDee, and very well said
polarbear
