Diamonds in the Rough

Oh,

my name is 70 here and I am going to be

advocating for Children of poverty and

representation and into the talented programs

as a teacher have often thought about Children of

poverty and all the different issues they face.

But I never really thought specifically about

the representation and get to the talented I guess.

I've just always lumped in with all the other issues.

Uh, as I was interesting to try to take this specific

talk there and dig in deeper. So let's see what we found.

One thing I discovered is a rule that a teacher

could just go into a guidance office and say,

hey, this kid needs to be in a gifted social status class for gifted english class

and it just doesn't seem to be the case.

Um,

but it was a little bit better than a father was gonna be.

So it seems in our district,

you have after that initial testing every two years before you can test again,

there's a couple of circumstances a little while they get the test again.

Um, as they get over, you know, the only performance and things like that,

I can't allow you to get in.

But it turns out the problem seems to be advocating.

And one of the issues the Children of poverty deal with is

in their parents that are working multiple jobs, uh, too busy,

lower education themselves.

Things of that nature

and

the process, you know, there's a form you have to build, you have to go out and find it.

Um, parents especially as they get over, once they've got past that initial test,

they don't necessarily have time to dig in or knowledge to know what to dig into.

Um and so it seems to be that at the parent level, at the home level,

there was not a black advocacy and then it's the system, you know,

everybody is overwhelmed and um you probably have

a lot of kids falling through the cracks.

So how do we fix that

first thing we have to do to fix this is

really dig in and understand uh some of the issues

Children in poverty face

and I think one of the most common and one

of the most understood and studied is this word gap.

Um in this, I discovered some new stuff

um

about this parent word gap, this Berkeley study who really just talked about,

not necessarily less words known,

um but just not being able to spend the

time with their child or engage in vocabulary activities.

So it's not necessarily, oh poor parents don't know as many words.

Sometimes it's

poor parents, struggling parents,

I don't really have the time or energy

uh sometimes to do these things with their kids

or to engage in these complex conversations and that really

has become an issue and it's a new one that I've never really thought of it that way.

I always just thought no less words, here's less words

and I never really dug into some of the root cause of that parent level

right now, let's look at the student issues in the word gap

again, common knowledge at this point,

I hope nobody's seeing this doesn't understand this,

But the 30 million word gap

um struggles on standardized testing because of this.

Ah food insecurity,

I don't know how everybody here does on test when they're really hungry.

Um,

I knew what I've learned in the interviewing and talking

to some of my kids that I have this semester

while focusing on these projects

was they move a lot. They were really surprised

That I grew up and lived in the same house for 17 years.

They were baffled by that and they said they move every couple of years.

I mean that's a big stressor and if that's happening,

I mean, you could be trying to settle into your house while you get tested.

Um, I could pose a lot of issues.

I'm tired

helping family with other things, helping raise siblings

um, and just being tired on that day.

Um, and then, you know,

there's been studies Children of poverty have different values.

Um, entertainment is more valuable.

Um,

spending the money you have on things is more important than saving it.

Um,

these are just things that happen over time within populations

and so they don't really value college the same way,

they don't value education the same way

um, as people from more affluent homes.

So again,

these are just some of the issues with literacy that are gonna

be a big problem with recognizing these kids as gifted and talented.

Hundreds of big one for me.

Um I've seen it now teaching for 10 years.

Um I let my kids eat in class because I just know and I've studied

of what hunger does to brain development,

to learning to memorization and all these things and to testing which seems

to be a big way to get somebody recognized for gifted and talented.

And these effects are compounding.

Um poor diet leads to poor overall hill

more miss days

as the immune system doesn't develop properly.

The myelin sheath goes through development during this time

and malnutrition can affect the development of that.

So really hunger, especially if they're not getting food outside of school,

it really has compounding issues

that really hinder I think a lot of

um potentially gifted students from ever being able to perform

in a way that they get recognized as gifted and talented.

All right, let's talk about testing when it comes to Children of poverty.

There is no limit of studies on the effects of poverty on standardized testing.

Um We're talking

we've got studies with S. A. T. Scores, all sorts of standardized testing where

Look Children of poverty struggle with these things. And there's not one issue

poverty has a lot of different looks.

Um So

these tests are designed again if you have a student who's

behind in vocabulary and the test includes a lot of vocabulary,

they don't know.

It's basically not like not knowing a language by taking

a test in spanish when you don't speak spanish.

So there's going to be inherent bias in these things.

And I was very pleased that our district

gives multiple opportunities to take these tests.

Ah but it's still a standardized test

and I still think teacher autonomy and school autonomy to work out a plan for this kid

would really be better than just relying on the standardized test with young kids,

especially with Children of poverty.

You're talking about

uh 89 year old who has a lot less vocabulary than other students

and they're being tested on the same thing

and I just don't see how that's

helping these kids and developing representation

and gifted and talented programs.

But even if

you can come up with standardized testing

without biased,

even without bias, the struggle is going to be real. We've talked about the issues

that could be really hungry that day.

Just moved houses again and still be trying to unpack or pack.

Um,

Mom and dad could be working

and they don't get the good night's sleep, the good meal things of that nature.

So there's all these other things that even

if you fix standardized testing without bias,

the Children of poverty are still going to struggle with that part

of it with all the other things they have going on.

All right, let's see if there's some things we could do.

Um Again, like I've said several times,

I think teacher autonomy is really the best solution for this.

I really do think if a teacher

believes a student should be put in a

G. T. English or math class

based on what they've seen.

I think that should just happen.

Um And I think part of it too is accepting that you

always hear what they're going to struggle in an honors class.

Well that's okay to struggle.

It doesn't have to be easy.

Um And the struggles where learning takes place.

Uh This next one. I don't really, I put it on there and laughed as I typed it.

I know our school in our district goes

through great efforts to communicate with parents.

I don't know how much of it is specifically geared towards G. T.

Um representation.

Um

but it seems to me that there needs to be

some extra effort for this specifically if it's an issue things happen

if you really think you've got a lot of kids in poverty

missing out on something they deserve or need.

There's got to be some better efforts to communicate these requirements

other ways to get them in there um

In some sort of gifted class that they feel they need

more options besides standardized test.

Um There has to be more at the early ages

than just this standardized test.

Um again a lot of times by the time you get back to 9th grade if they haven't been in GTT

but

probably not going to happen

nutrition programs,

whether they be in the school or in the community

hungry kids do not perform as well in school.

That is an absolute fact, not a matter of opinion,

develop individual plans. Uh and I know we do a lot of that.

Um Again, I think if you communicate and advocate

ah you might can develop some better plans to again

get a kid at least in a subject area where they're gifted music, art,

um

Individual plans that can allow these kids to get

into some sort of gifted program that matches their talents

and I think the results would be

pretty positive for a lot of these kids.

Some final thoughts.

Again, it seemed uh in all the interviews,

whether it be a counselor and elementary teacher,

um an admin,

uh other just teachers I spoke to talking about the project,

It really seems like there's an issue between

school parent parent teacher or parent teacher,

parent student

um when it comes to Children of poverty and again,

you've got a group of parents who are less engaged harder to get in contact with.

I have sat there and tried five email addresses,

three phone numbers to get in touch with a parent before.

Um

but it really seems that was a common thread at all levels.

I don't think it was scapegoating.

Um it seemed like there was always, you know, we need to do better at communicating.

Uh there was always a conversation,

but every level of interview and person I talked to,

the parent really seemed to be

the focal point, the, or the

where the buck stops, where the communication broke down.

Um

which is why I think a great solution is really just give teachers more autonomy,

especially if there, if there's not a pair involved,

if you try to get in touch with a parent, go to the teacher, hey,

this kid's clothes, what do you think about this kid,

going to the gift in town or to reach and things of that nature?

Um

Uh huh.

That really, to me, seems like the ultimate solution.

I hope you've enjoyed my project. Thank you very much.

Diamonds in the Rough

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