Poverty Provides Wealth of Reasons for School’s Low Ranking

The Academic Performance Index has been published and I have the dubious honor of teaching at a school ranked among the lowest statewide, the No. 2 group from the bottom.

Some say I shouldn’t feel so bad because, compared to similar schools, Monroe High School comes in at a lofty eight out of a possible 10--well above average. State education officials, however, say that figure may be distorted by faulty data.

Either way, I am anxious. I worry what the public and government will think. Will they think it’s a lousy school? That I’m a lousy teacher? Is there any reason not to think that? I would, if I didn’t know better.

Our children are our future. We want them to succeed, to grow, to become the leaders of tomorrow. Americans want to believe that education levels the playing field and transcends poverty, racism, sexism and all the other “isms” that marginalize people in our society.

So why aren’t educators succeeding? To imply that these children are somehow less capable than others feels toxic. To imply that their teachers aren’t trying hard enough is dismissive and downright erroneous. The public blames the schools; the schools blame the parents; the parents blame the school. It doesn’t take a statistician to see the correlation between socioeconomic status and the API. It reeks of racism and classism.

Accountability is important. Some propose linking teacher salary to student performance. Three years ago, I would have liked that idea. I was at a school at which I could get two years of academic growth out of a student in one year. Now I’d be in big trouble. I can’t even get six months. I didn’t lose my ability to teach; I just moved five miles east, to a different school. So I ask myself: Why are these students performing so much more poorly? What is the difference? The difference is economics.

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The area in which I now teach has one of the highest crime rates in Los Angeles. Poverty is endemic. My students don’t have pencils, they forget their books, they are regularly absent.

My families struggle to keep their two minimum-wage jobs, care for children and pay exorbitant rent on substandard housing. The child who doesn’t go to school is an extra set of hands to help a father at work or a mother at home.

One of my ninth-graders is absent a minimum of two days a week. No wonder he’s failing. I just learned that he stays home to help his ailing mother care for his younger siblings. As the eldest, it’s his duty. Yet at school his teachers view him as irresponsible for missing so many days. On the other side of town, they would simply hire a nurse and a nanny.

I could say that my students’ poor English skills compromise their education. It would be valid, because most have not acquired English proficiency. However, many have been in this country for years. Why haven’t they learned English?

Schools alone cannot transcend the debilitating effects of underemployment, crime, isolation and ghettoization that accompany poverty. I don’t need another computer or newer textbooks; I would even suffer with my noisy old useless air conditioner if my families could get the community support and help they need. We build our schools by building our families and by building our communities. We look at the exceptional few who rise from the slums and achieve greatness to prove that it can be done, shame those who can’t, and absolve ourselves of any responsibility to reach out.

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The latest academic research finds the correlate for academic functioning to be economics, not ethnicity. Simply put, we perform at the level of our economic peers. Of course, persons of color and single-parent households are overrepresented at the poverty level, hence the over-representation of these groups in low achievement. To truly address the cause of low academic achievement, our focus must be on community economic development.

I am a good teacher, and I am humbled by the caliber of my colleagues. They are exceptionally committed professionals who have built many outstanding and award-winning programs at Monroe High School. We persist, firmly believing that we can make a difference.

I hope that when people read the API, they will wonder why some kids are more challenged than others. I further hope that they will wonder how they can make a difference. When educators and the community unite, real changes will begin.