Reaching and Teaching Students in Poverty: Strategies for Erasing the Opportunity Gap (Multicultural Education Series) Paperback – September 14, 2013

Reaching and Teaching Students in Poverty is a perfect course text for teachers and administrators. Too often, educators base their knowledge of the relationships between poverty and schooling on erroneous information and mythical “commonsense” thinking rather than on authentic understandings and research. Paul Gorski’s book helps educators to reconceptualize their knowledge, understandings, and beliefs through extensive research and meaningful examples. His writing is accessible and never dogmatic; rather, he invites reflection and asks readers to question previous knowledge. Most importantly, he offers alternative perspectives that deepen comprehension.

I used this book in my graduate course, Diversity, Schools, and Community. My students are experienced teachers, most of whom are employed by the Chicago Public Schools. They see poverty daily, first-hand. They told me that the book gave them important new insights into the structural causes of poverty and helped them to develop new strategies for teaching. They appreciated having new learning about: “how society tried to fix people and not the problems they face”; “the lack of resources and opportunities that all poor people experience”; the extent to which children in poverty “arrive at school with stereotypes against them that the students are aware of”; the important differences between the ‘achievement gap’ and the ‘opportunity gap’”; and “the tremendous cumulative effect that is carried by poor student from educational cutbacks.” They valued the practical advice for "addressing their own biases"; learning “about the truths of poverty”; and having "research-based practical solutions for increasing opportunities for low-income students." Finally, the students appreciated the way that the book fostered engaged and honest class discussions about this difficult and controversial topic.

Excellent book! I read this for a graduate level course, and I really enjoyed both the writing style and how he shared the information. Paul was so kind as to Skype with our class. He was so funny and insightful, making me appreciate this book even more. I can see myself reading this again and recommending to others.

Amazing point of view!! It will be read by all of my students.
Paul Gorski shows respectful empathy for the poor.
He does not blame them for their plight but asks society to take responsibility to change the inequities.
Schools need to find out from the poor what they need from them and we have to stop TELLING them what they need.
Stop the idea that there is a Culture of Poverty and approach it from the inequities and injustices of our society.

Thanks, Dr. Gorski, you opened my eyes even more to what needs to be done.

Dr. Susan Charles

"...low income people face innumerable inequities in and out of schools. These inequities regarding access to everything from adequately funded schools to playgrounds to prenatal care have nothing to do with poor people's cultures and everything to do with what Jonathan Kozol called the 'savage inequalities' of schools and society. We, as a society, give low-income youths less access to educational opportunity, healthcare, nutrition, and other goods, and then blame the outcomes of these inequities on their 'culture of poverty.'"

Not an easy read...not a feel-good read. This challenges the reader to look closely and deeply at some assumptions and stereotypes we may bring to our work with kids from low-income families.

Gorski takes us step-by-step from a shattering of the myth of the 'culture of poverty.' He is careful in his title to not talk about kids OF poverty, but kids IN poverty. Not an accident of word choice...a deliberate choice of a careful practioner.

We as educators must confront our own biases, well-meaning as they may be. We need to develop an new kind of literacy...equity literacy. We must push back against those soft-bigotry statements: Poor parents don't care about education; they're lazy,drug-addicted abusers who can't communicate and obviously care little about their children.

It's important to turn this around. Achievement gaps can be explained by examining OPPORTUNITY gaps...those resources most of us take for granted that poor families don't have..healthcare, prenatal care, dental care...living and working conditions that are safe...recreation opportunities, with money and time and transportation NON-issues...community and social services access...affordable childcare...enrichment opportunities...a society that validates our efforts. Poor families, because they may be working two or three low-paying jobs, with little free time and no disposable cash, do NOT have these opportunities to support their families.

We think of their inabilities as deficits, but we must stop...they are barriers to opportunity. Poor families have just as much resiliency as others when we help dismantle the barriers.

So, how do these gaps affect families' ability to thrive? Preschool, schools with adequate funding and resources such as libraries, shadow education (those ACT prep classes and tutoring and camp activities WE offer our own kids), support services, high expectations, WELL-PAID, CERTIFIED, EXPERIENCED TEACHERS (not 5-week wonders from TFA), higher-order, challenging curricula, the opportunity to include parents fully in their children's education. What are the barriers? TIME and TRANSPORTATIOM, a LIVING WAGE, to name a few.

Gorski lists the ineffective practices in schools: cutting arts and music programs, direct, scripted, instruction, tracking of students, and charter schools.

He tells us what works: Arts programs, high expectations, higher-order, student-centered pedagogies, movement and PE, relevancy in the schools, teaching everyone about biases, analyzing materials for bias, and my favorite: LITERACY ENJOYMENT!! Woohoo!

"The most powerful strategy is to create cultures that promote reading enjoyment...literacy instruction should not focus solely on reading or writing mechanics. More to the point, tho, it means that we ought to find ways to foster in students excitement about reading and writing even when they respond reluctantly at first… 1. Institute literature circles 2. Provide reading material options that align with stated interest of students 3. Use a variety of media…that engage students actively and interactively 4. Incorporate drama into literacy instructions."

I love the chapter entitled 'THE MOTHER OF ALL STRATEGIES" and I concur...building relationships IS the mother of all. Relationships with our students and relationships with their parents. It's not enough to set up conference times and then smugly say, 'well, we offered time for these parents to come to school. They must not be interested.' That's the same as the teacher who says, 'Well, I taught it, the students didn't get it.' I hate both of these messages...they point back to that deficit mindset. We need to ask ourselves how hard we tried...did we take into consideration work schedules, transportation, childcare? Did we really do everything we could to invite parents who may have negative feelings about schools? Did we truly show our value for them and their children? Were we creative in our problem solving, or did we simply shrug and blame the parents?

I've had a couple of conversations with professionals about 'those parents' who don't care...and I'm learning to offer alternative ways of thinking about the facts in a gentle push back. Which leads to the last chapter: SPHERES OF INFLUENCE...what IS my sphere? What can I do?

He suggests we do our job with sensitivity and respect...that is our sphere, but he says, "...when we do anything, anything at all, to push back against the defunding of schools or the underfunding of education mandates and to resist the imposition of corporate-style accountability and high-stakes testing, we are also advocating, whether we know it or not, for low-income students. Of course, we also are self-advocating, which is an added bonus."

He offers advocacy goals: preschool, community agency access, smaller classes, ongoing PD for teachers, access to healthcare, PE, arts and music. Surely every one of us could choose ONE of these issues to become advocates for.

Important book...I read it twice, once highlighting, the second, collecting all those quotes for reference later. Would make great reading for our legislators who continue to chip away at the few support systems poor families have.

An absolute staple on the topic of reaching children in poverty -- which Gorski's research shows can address anywhere from 40-80% of the American population. Certain themes are consistent with other research on differentiation, multicultural literacy, multimodal learning, multimedia literacy, and equity literacy, but with a focused lens on creating equitable learning environments to reduce the impact of socioeconomic gaps. Learning about poverty (the first 4-5 ch's) won't be "fun", but it is imperative for teachers and culture at large to understand the institutional systems that prevent equitable learning. Gorski then addresses approaches, such as warm demander learning environments, that help remove obstacles and scaffold every child to achieve high standards of learning. An excellent source, which was assigned reading during my Masters in Curriculum and Instruction.

One of the best books I have read about poverty and how it affects our education. This book speaks the truth!