Introduction

Low-income students may experience challenges that can affect the teaching and learning process. Given that a large proportion of students attending public schools are designated as low-income (Suitts, 2016), it is imperative that teachers understand their low-income students and their students’ circumstances. As a family and consumer sciences (FCS) teacher, you are in a unique position to help your low-income students overcome their challenges and improve their resiliency.

Key Terms

Generational Poverty

Low-income

National School Lunch Program (NSLP)

Poverty

Poverty line

Resiliency

Situational poverty

Title I

Working class poverty

Who is Low-Income?

Low-income students are currently the majority of the student population in public schools across the United States (Suitts, 2016).  A map developed by the Southern Education Foundation (2015) shows that 51% of all public-school students in the U.S. were low-income in 2013. Specifically, the map designates 21 states in which more than half of the students are low-income and another 19 in which more than 40% of students are low-income.

Each year, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) publishes income guidelines to determine individuals’ and families’ eligibility for certain government programs. This set of guidelines is referred to as the poverty line. Individuals or families with incomes at or below the poverty line are designated as living in poverty. Individuals or families with incomes up to 150% of (one and a half times) the poverty line are designated as low-income (U.S. Department of Education, 2017). However, because most families need 200% of the poverty line to meet their basic needs (Cauthen & Fass, 2007), many government programs allow eligibility for incomes up to 185% of the poverty line.

One of the most pertinent government programs offered to low-income students in public schools within the U.S. is the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). Under the NSLP guidelines, students with family incomes up to 130% of the poverty line are eligible for free school meals (United States Department of Agriculture, 2017). Students with families up to 185% of the poverty line are eligible for reduced-price meals. (Reduced-priced meals cannot cost more than $.40 per meal for low-income students.) Because some students (e.g., foster children) are eligible for free or reduced lunches regardless of income level, the NSLP is not a direct indicator or poverty status (Snyder & Musu-Gillette, 2015). However, NSLP eligibility is often a substitute for determining the poverty level of a school because the data is widely published and more easily found. See Table 1 to compare the poverty line to the NSLP guidelines, low-income designation, and the approximate income needed to meet an individual’s or family’s basic needs.

[1-8-] Comparison of Incomes Needed for Multiple Low-Income Statuses

In order to help low-income students overcome some of their circumstantial hardships, the schools can apply for supplemental funding through the U.S. Department of Education’s Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, typically referred to as Title I. Title I is a financial program provided by the U.S. Department of Education with the purpose of ensuring “that all children have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and reach, at a minimum, proficiency on challenging State academic achievement standards and state academic assessments” (U.S. Department of Education, 2004, par. 2). Title I provides additional funds to schools with high numbers or proportions of low-income children. Using these funds, schools in which more than 40% of its students are low-income, can implement school wide programs that benefit all students (U.S. Department of Education, 2015). Schools in which less than 40% of its students are low-income are also eligible to receive Title I funds in order to target low-income and at-risk students. When using Title I funds, schools must implement research-based best practices for teaching and provide opportunities for parental involvement.

How Does Being Low-Income Affect Students’ Education?

Living in a low-income household has the potential to affect students’ educational attainment as well as their actions within the school and classroom. However, prior to discussing the potential effects of living in low-income households, it is important that teachers understand that these effects are reversible and can be overcome by students (Levin, 1995). Furthermore, it is important that teachers understand that these effects may not be seen in all low-income students. Low-income students, just like middle-income students, are not all the exact same (Jensen, 2013). Students’ living conditions, familial relationships, attention and motivation, school connections, and reactions to their circumstances are unique. However, their circumstances have the potential to influence students’ health, behaviors, and academic success.

One factor that influences how individuals are affected by poverty is the type of poverty in which students reside. Situational poverty is typically a short-term bout of poverty due to a life circumstance (Portland State University, n.d.). Life occurrences that may result in situation poverty include a family member losing his or her job, parents divorcing or separating, a family member experiencing severe health problems, or a natural disaster striking the community. Individuals in situational poverty are less likely to experience negative consequences of poverty because they typically have lived in more stable homes, will likely return to their prior socioeconomic status, and don’t view their situations as their fault. Working class poverty is a more constant form of poverty in which individuals have a constant income but one that is not high enough to have discretionary income or in order to save for the future. Individuals in working class poverty typically live paycheck to paycheck and view their situation as a personal or familial deficit. Generational poverty is poverty in which two or more of the family’s generations have been born into poverty. Individuals in generational poverty are most likely to experience negative consequences of poverty.

Let’s consider the implications of a student’s circumstances with an example of a hypothetical low-income student, Trey. Trey lives with his mother and two younger sisters. His mother, Erin, works as a nursing assistant at a local nursing home for $13 per hour. Trey works after school at a fast-food restaurant earning minimum wage and contributes to the family’s bills with his paycheck. After Trey’s mother pays for rent, utilities, groceries, insurance, living expenses (e.g., gas), and daycare for the younger siblings, Trey’s family has little money remaining.

Trey’s younger sister, Diane, suffers from Lupus and must stay home from day care often. If Erin is able to, she finds a sitter for the younger sister. However, more often than not, Erin must stay home with Diane. If Erin cannot find a sitter and is unable to miss work, Trey must miss school to care for his younger sister.

When Trey works late, he does not always complete his homework. Other times, he stays up late at night to complete his homework after his shift. Because of this, he sometimes falls asleep during class. In addition, Trey does not always bring in his necessary school supplies. His teachers have called Erin to discuss these problem, but this does not seem to change Trey’s behaviors. When the teachers have requested a parent-teacher conference, Erin states that she is unable to miss work to attend.

Given this situation, how might his teachers view Trey? How might his teachers view Erin? How might teachers’ views affect their relationships with Trey and with Erin? In what type of poverty is Trey’s family most likely living?

Health

In reality, low-income students are more likely to experience developmental problems and poor physical health, mental health, and nutrition (Arnett-Hartwick & Walters, 2016; Evans & Anderson, 2013). Furthermore, low-income students are also more likely to attend school with unmet needs such as hunger, sleep deprivation, environmental factors (e.g., being cold in the classroom), and medical care (White et al., 2010). Poor health can result in problems related to the medical condition (e.g., hearing problems) or other problems, such as students’ limited concentration and anxiety. Low-income students are likely to experience stress due to their circumstances, peers’ treatment of them, etc. (White et al., 2010). Students’ stress can result in attention problems at the time they are anxious and in their futures (Evans & Schamber, 2009; Liston et al., 2009). And, this anxiety typically worsens as school breaks and holidays approach. Poor nutrition can also result in students’ behavioral problems (Forrest & Alexander, 2004; White et al., 2010).

Behaviors

Low-income students may respond, communicate, and interact differently than you expect them to (Evans & Anderson, 2013). Furthermore, low-income students are more likely to enter the justice system than their more affluent counterparts. When students behave differently than teachers expect, it can be frustrating and cause tension in the classroom. For this reason, learning how to develop positive relationships with your low-income students is important. You will learn more about developing positive relationships later in this chapter.

Low-income students are also more likely to have school attendance problems (Forrest & Alexander, 2004; White et al., 2010). Teachers may find that their low-income students miss school due to family responsibilities (caring for siblings, work, etc.), ill health, limited transportation options, or other reasons related to poverty. Furthermore, low-income students may be less likely to participate in out-of-school activities (like out-of-school FCCLA activities) or to attend field trips. Given the benefits of participating in FCCLA and other out-of-school activities, helping low-income students participate in these activities is essential.

Academics 

Low-income students are more likely to have learning gaps and learning difficulties (White et al., 2010). One reason for this is that teachers in schools with a high proportion of low-income students are often inexperienced, new to the profession, or trained in other fields (Hughes, 2010; Ingersoll, 1999). When students miss and do not complete out-of-school assignments or class frequently due to home and work responsibilities, it can complicate these issues further. As a result, low-income students have higher drop-out rates than other students (Evans & Anderson, 2013).

In contrast, some low-income students set extremely high expectations for themselves. These students may feel that they need to be perfect in order to overcome poverty. They are the students who are upset about earning a “B” and tend to never feel content with their efforts. Oftentimes, they are never satisfied with their achievement and always want to do more or achieve a new goal. Once they have been accepted into college or started a high-paying job, they may struggle with their status and relationships. Sometimes, they may not feel like they fit in with their colleagues because of their backgrounds; other times, they may not feel like they are still a part of their network of family and childhood friends.

Parental Involvement

Teachers have often reported that low-income parents are less involved, more apathetic, and more difficult to reach than other parents (Davies, 1988). This is partially due to the fact that low-income parents tend to work more hours or have jobs where it is difficult to take time off to attend school functions. Parents are also less likely to be involved in their children’s schooling because of the high proportion of negative communication they experience with the school. Communication tends to focus on children’s poor academic performance or behavior.

Myths and Facts

The majority of individuals, even teachers, have misconceptions about low-income individuals. Consider your beliefs and assumptions about low-income students and their families; then review the table below for facts associated with some common myths.

Table 2. Some Common Myths and Facts about Low-Income Students and their Families

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How Can FCS Teachers Help Low-Income Students? 

FCS   teachers are in a unique position to help low-income students become more   resilient. Resiliency is the   ability to overcome adversity and subsequently thrive. Resiliency   is comprised of individual factors, familial factors, and community factors.   Individual factors are comprised of a student’s academic performance,   intelligence, physical health, mental health, communication skills, sociability,   positive self-concept, and positive self-efficacy (Garmezy, 1991; Rouse,   1998; Wolin & Wolin, 1993 as cited by Seccombe, 2002). Familial factors are   comprised of a family’s warmth, emotional support, affection, and commitment   to the family (Seccombe, 2002). Community factors are comprised of community   resources such as positive role models, teachers, extracurricular activities,   and community organizations (Blyth & Roelkepartian, 1993).

As an FCS teacher, you have the exceptional potential to build students’ resiliency because FCS teachers affect each of these factors. You can make way for your low-income students to thrive despite their adversity by incorporating resiliency factors into your classroom lessons and by advising FCCLA. Classroom activities should teach students how to communicate and develop interpersonal skills, how to be physically and mentally healthy, and promote students’ self-esteems. While you cannot change a student’s family, you can discuss what makes a healthy family and provide students with a school-based support system, especially if they do not have one at home. Discussing your community’s resources and including community guests representing various community organizations can also be included within the FCS curricula. Overall, provide rigorous and relevant content and require all of your students to meet your high expectations.

FCCLA not only provides a rich opportunity for building teacher-student relationships, which can be influential in the lives of low-income students, but it is the only Career and Technical Student Organization with the family  as its central focus. Therefore, chapters can serve as school-based families  for students, and chapter activities help students to interact with their   communities (e.g., community service events). Additionally, as an FCCLA Advisor, you can help to build students communication skills, interpersonal skills, and self-esteems by providing them with opportunities to be leaders (e.g., officer positions) or to present to groups (e.g., STAR Events). By incorporating resiliency factors into your curriculum and through advising FCCLA,   you are in the unique position to be able to make an impact that can change the outcome of many lives.

Helping Low-Income Students

How Do I Teach Low-Income Students?

• Get to know each of your students. It is imperative that teachers know and build relationships with all of their students in order to know and understand their personalities, strengths, personal struggles, and individual differences. Basic understanding and compassion for each of your students can go a long way to help them succeed and develop or maintain motivation.
• Consider your students’ unique circumstances. To do this, you will have to communicate and build a trust system between you and your students. If a student doesn’t connect with you, have a conversation with a teacher or staff member they do connect with to learn how you can help that student in your class. If students are struggling to complete homework or bring in necessary materials, missing school often, sleeping in class, or avoiding work altogether, find out why. Talk to each student individually to help them come up with a plan. Perhaps your school offers time before or after school for students to work on homework or receive tutoring, or your school may offer school supplies or a clothes closet for those who are in need. Even with limited resources, never lower your expectations. However, high expectations do not always mean the same assignment for each student. You may have to differentiate the assignment to help each student demonstrate mastery.
• Look for signals that indicate students’ present circumstances and/or needs (Ching, 2012). For example, if a student is asleep in your class, you may find that he or she works during the night shift or had to stay up to complete homework after an afterschool function. Likewise, a grumpy student may be hungry. Students who aren’t participating may need glasses to be able to take notes. If you see a student who is not meeting your expectations in the classroom, talk to the student to find out why and how, if possible, you or the school can help.
• Know your school’s attendance policy, and have procedures for student absences in place. For those students who often miss school, having a set of guidelines for how they can obtain missing work and when it will be due is important. Have at-home options or other alternative assignments for missed labs. Remember to consider their home environments and the amount of help or resources they can receive from parents (Ching, 2012).
• Include more cooperative learning activities in your classes (Ching, 2012). The more students interact with one another and get to know one another, the less likely they are to compare themselves to or stereotype their classmates.
• Limit comments about students’ appearances (Ching, 2012). Some low-income students wear hand-me downs, shop at thrift stores, or generally don’t spend money on maintaining their appearance. When you comment on a student’s appearance, whether good or bad, you may be unknowingly affecting students’ thoughts about money and self-esteem. For instance, if Trey gets a brand new pair of sneakers, and you comment about how great they look, Trey may feel bad when those sneakers wear out and his family cannot afford another pair.
• Invite your low-income students (and all students) to join FCCLA. FCCLA not only benefits students as leaders and community members, but it has implications for their academics and future careers. Additionally, FCCLA affords you and your students with time to connect and develop a positive student-teacher relationship. For students who need positive role models, networking opportunities, and pro-social out-of-school time, FCCLA can be exceedingly beneficial for your low-income students.
• Help your low-income students become college and career-ready. The following guidelines and resources will help you with that.

Summary

The consequences of poverty can often be barriers to classroom learning, but there are strategies to diminish these hurdles. With the growing number of low-income students in public schools, family and consumer sciences teachers need to know best practices for helping their low-income students to succeed. The strategies in this chapter will help you to consider the needs of your students, help them to become more resilient, and help them to be successful. It is important to keep in mind that each student is unique; each has different amounts and types of resources, strengths and weaknesses, and levels of resiliency, and each will respond to different teaching strategies.

Key Points

1. Low-income students are currently the majority of the student population in public schools across the United States (Suitts, 2016).
2. Title I provides additional funds to schools with high numbers or proportions of low-income children.
3. Living in a low-income household has the potential to affect students’ educational attainment as well as their actions within the school and classroom. A student’s health, behaviors, and academic achievement and parental involvement may be affected by his or her poverty statuses.
4. Teachers understand that these effects are reversible and can be overcome by students (Levin, 1995).
5. Check your assumptions related to low-income students. Try to rid your mind of preconceived notions or stereotypes.
6. FCS teachers are in a unique position to help low-income students become more resilient by teaching about and incorporating individual, family, and community strengths within FCS curricula and through FCCLA.
7. Build relationships with your students.
8. Get to know each of your students and their circumstances.
9. Invite your low-income students to join your FCCLA chapter.
10. Develop your low-income students college and career readiness.

Supplemental Resources

References

Arnett-Hartwick, S. E., & Walters, C. M. (2016). Advancing Learning by Countering the Effects of Poverty. Journal of Family & Consumer Sciences, 108(4), 18-22.

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Bondy, E., & Ross, D. D. (2008). The teacher as warm demander. Educational Leadership, 66(1), 54-58.

Ching, J. (2012). The poverty myth. Teaching Tolerance, 41, 44-45.

Davies, D. (1988). Poor Families and Schools: An Exploratory Study of the Perspectives of Low-Income Parents and Teachers in Boston, Liverpool, and Portugal. Boston: Institute for Responsive Education. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 294 939).

Eichelberger, E. (2014). 10 poverty myths busted. Mother Jones. Retrieved from https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/03/10-poverty-myths-busted/.

Evans, S., & Anderson, W. (2013). Demetrio’s story: Socialization and family adjustment based on long-term immersion in a culture of poverty. Children & Schools, 35(4), 244-247.

Evans, G. W., & Schamberg, M. A. (2009). Childhood poverty, chronic stress, and adult working memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(16), 6545-6549.

Forrest, M., & Alexander, K. L. (2004). The influence of population demographics: What does it mean for teachers and teacher education? Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences Education, 22(2), 37-73.

Garmezy, N. (1991). Resilience and vulnerability to adverse developmental outcomes associated with poverty. American Behavioral Scientist, 34, 416-430.

Hughes, J. A. (2010). What teacher preparation programs can do to better prepare teachers to meet the challenges of educating students living in poverty. Action in Teacher Education, 32(1), 54-64.

Jensen, E. (2013). How poverty affects classroom engagement. Educational Leadership, 70(8), 24-30.

Liston, C., McEwen, B. S., & Casey, B. J. (2009). Psychosocial stress reversibly disrupts prefrontal processing and attentional control. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(3), 912-917.

Levin, B. (1995). Educational responses to poverty. Canadian Journal of Education/Revue Canadienne de L’éducation, 211-224.

Portland State University. (n.d.). Working with people living in generational poverty. Retrieved from https://www.pdx.edu/multicultural-topics-communication-sciences-disorders/generational-poverty.

Rouse, K. A. G. (1998). Resilience from poverty and stress. Human Development and Family Life Bulletin. 

Seccombe, K. (2002). “Beating the odds” versus “changing the odds”: Poverty, resilience, and family policy. Journal of Marriage and Family, 64(2). 384-394.

Shaefer, H. L., & Edin, K. (2012). Extreme Poverty in the United States, 1996-2011. National Poverty Center, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan.

Snyder, T., & Musu-Gillette, L. (2015). Free or reduced price lunch: A proxy for poverty? Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/blogs/nces/post/free-or-reduced-price-lunch-a-proxy-for-poverty.

Southern Education Foundation. (2013). Percent of low income students in U.S. Public Schools. Retrieved from https://www.childfund.org/uploadedImages/NewCF/Article_Info/Stories_and_News/2016/rsz_sefmap%20(1).png.

Suitts, S. (2016). Students facing poverty: The mew majority. Educational Leadership, 74(3), 36-40.

U.S. Department of Education. (2004). Title I – Improving the academic achievement of the disadvantaged. Retrieved from https://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/pg1.html#sec1001.

U.S. Department of Education. (2015). Improving basic programs operated by local educational agencies (Title I, Part A). Retrieved from https://www2.ed.gov/programs/titleiparta/index.html.

White, M., Hill, I., Kemp, S., MacRae, J., & Young, L. (2012). Poverty and education: A teacher’s perspective- Summary of the findings of the focus group research. (BCTF Research Report Section V).

Wolin, S., & Wolin, S. (1993). The resilient self. New York: Villiard.

Working Poor Families. (n.d.). Myths and facts about low-income working families. Retrieved from http://www.workingpoorfamilies.org/nat_report/nat_report7.html.

Yahn, J. (2012). Addressing poverty bias in the classroom. Retrieved from https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/addressing-poverty-bias-in-the-classroom.

Image Credits

[18-1]  Table created and provided by author via Microsoft Office. Data taken from https://nces.ed.gov/blogs/nces/post/free-or-reduced-price-lunch-a-proxy-for-poverty

[18-2] Table created and provided by author via Microsoft Office. Data taken from various sources, citations included in table.

[18-3] Table created and provided by author via Microsoft Office. Data from author.