Impact of Poverty on Education: Statistics and Insights

1. Statistics

2. General The poverty level in a school taken from amount on free and reduced lunch • 2003 12.9 mil children lived under poverty line • A lot of the lack of achievement can come from other factors as well • Family characteristics • Selection bias Kindergarteners come to school with an achievement gap already • There is a gap of 55% between high and low poverty levels in achievement (study among kindergarteners) • Gap will widen throughout the years • High school gap vs. kindergarten

3. General cont. • Twice as likely to repeat a grade, be expelled, or suspended, or drop out • 1.4 times more likely to be I.D. with a learning disability • From 1999 to 2005 spending gap has widened between highest and lowest poverty areas • We spend less and less on the highest poverty group

4. Effects on Education • $1,000 increase in income = 2.1% increase in math and 3.6% in reading • More likely to have poor verbal skills and more hostility in class • Middle level • Kids in deep poverty 10-12 points lower • Twice as likely to be placed in non-age appropriate classes • Aren't expected to do as well, self-fulfilling prophecy?

5. Drop out Rates • 1/3 drop out to support their families • Twice as likely to slip into poverty within a single year • Rates have fallen between 1973 and 1998 from 6.1% to 4.5% • 1998, 14.5 among working poor, more than double those who have a diploma

6. Event dropout rates of 15- through 24-year-olds who dropped out of grades 10–12, by family income: October 1972–2001

7. Only 54% graduate for lowest income families

8. “Low-Quality” Teachers • Highest- poverty= novice teachers • Twice as often as low poverty • High minority = the same • Don’t have strong backgrounds in the subject they teach • “out of field teachers • Start in poor districts • No requirements of demonstrating knowledge or achievement