Running

head: IMPACT OF POVERTY ON EDUCATION

Impact of Poverty on Education

Michael Miller
Concordia University, St. Paul
ED 504 Educational Issues, Cohort 378
Dr. Teresa Tyler
October 6, 2014

IMPACT OF POVERTY ON EDUCATION

Impact of Poverty on Education

Right now a student is sitting in class listening to the teacher talk about last nights math
homework, which he realizes he didnt finish. Then he hears a slight rumble and feels a pain in
his stomach. He didnt have breakfast. He didnt have supper last night. In fact, his last meal was
lunch yesterday, at school. Who cares about math; he needs to get something to eat. At the same
time, a classmate of his realizes she lost the assignment while packing to move her limited
possessions for the third time this year. She is far more concerned about where she is going to
sleep from night to night than she is about math. These students, like many throughout the
country, are facing the unfortunate consequences of poverty. Poverty is one of many educational
issues that continues to persist in the United States that can have a significantly negative affect
on academic progress.
Engle and Black (2008) define poverty as having enough money to spend on food, but
little left over for nonfood goods. Society has dialogued about the issue of poverty for years, with
education cited as the mechanism for improving the standard of living of persons within our
nation. Moreover, educational achievement or attainment has been credited as the way to end
poverty altogether. For high-poverty families, nonfood goods could include healthcare, clothing
or any other convenience enjoyed by families not living in poverty.
When forced to make a difficult choice, many parents elect to concede nonfood goods
and services in order to provide some food for their children. For millions of children, this means
giving up Internet, tutors and other materials that could improve their academic performance.
Due to issues associated with poverty, students are at an increased risk of experiencing poor
nutrition, being unprepared for school socially and facing academic challenges at home that
make them fall behind their high income peers.

IMPACT OF POVERTY ON EDUCATION

In extreme cases of poverty, parents are unable to provide a balanced diet for their
children. As a result, children in high-poverty families are at an increased risk of being either
overweight or undernourished (Engle & Black, 2008). When students dont receive the proper
nutrition, they are more likely to miss school due to illness and more likely to get distracted or
fall asleep during school. Students can have a difficult time finding a reason to complete a
reading, study for a test or even go to class when they are not sure where their next meal will be
coming from. High-poverty students not only face poor nutrician, but they may also lack a bed to
provide a good nights rest. They may face bullying because of academic achievement, the
clothes they wear or improper hygiene (Brooks-Gunn & Duncan, 1997). These factors can each
leave student exhausted and distracted, which often prevents students from focusing on
classroom instruction.
Social health is another aspect of life that is negatively impacted by the effects of
poverty. Poor children are more likely than non-poor children to develop internalizing behaviors
such as anxiety, social withdrawal and depression (Brooks-Gunn & Duncan, 1997). Anxiety can
also increase students stress and lead to students being withdrawn. Prolonged exposure to
poverty can cause stress at a level that can affect childrens brain development and brain health
(Brooks-Gunn & Duncan, 1997). These health concerns directly affect educational achievement
by creating distractions that make academic achievement more difficult for high-poverty
students.
The level of education obtained by parents often influences poverty. Students from highpoverty households face significant academic challenges in their home environment. While
parents may feel very strongly about the importance of education, they may be unable to help
their children work on homework or developing an academic vocabulary. Many parents of high-

IMPACT OF POVERTY ON EDUCATION

poverty households are unprepared, and possibly ill equipped, to send their children to school.
Occasionally, well-meaning educators will hear comments like these from students in their
classroom: I couldnt do the homework online last night because my mom didnt pay the bill
and the power got shut off (Anonymous student, 2014). Parents may not be able to afford many
of the resources or materials that their child will need to be successful in school. This results in
children of poverty not having the skills necessary to be ready for school when they reach school
age (Ferguson, Bovaird & Mueller, 2007). These children are essentially starting behind their
high-income peers and if significant changes to the home environment are not made, these lowincome students can continue to fall further and further behind.
Children in low-income families often do not receive the stimulation that their peers from
high-income families receive. Since parents of low-income families have often received less
schooling, they may be missing the necessary skills to fully prepare their children to start school.
Improving a students academic vocabulary through a higher level of cognitive stimulation at
home could prevent many high-poverty students from falling so far behind in the classroom (Guo
& Harris, 2000). Teachers believe that this is directly influenced by parents level of education.
Therefore, if a childs parent has more education, then the child is more likely to have a stronger
vocabulary when they start school. This may lead to a greater opportunity to use that vocabulary
at home, improving their understanding of essential terms.
On the other hand, if a childs parent has less education, the child is more likely to have a
weaker vocabulary and may only receive vocabulary help and practice in a formal school setting.
When individuals observe vocabulary test data they can see the results of this disadvantage for
low-income children. Reports conclude that children from low-income households score
substantially lower on vocabulary and communication skills than children from high-income

IMPACT OF POVERTY ON EDUCATION

households (as cited in Ferguson et al., 2007). Decreased vocabulary skills put high-poverty
students at a disadvantage when compared to their low-poverty peers in most subject areas.
Vocabulary and communication skills are important for students reading directions in math,
understanding a process in science or completing a reading assignment in English.
This disadvantage expands beyond vocabulary and communication scores by influencing
math scores as well. In a study by Lauen and Gaddis (2013), students from low-income
classrooms scored lower than students from high-income classrooms on math tests. These results
were consistent through every grade level and actually increased over time. This suggests that as
students spent more time in poverty, they fell further behind in school (Lauen & Gaddis, 2013).
Some teachers feel that academic challenges in students home environments has the greatest
impact on academic achievement and therefore is the most logical place to attempt to start to
make improvements.
While poverty currently has a significant negative impact on students, the effects of
poverty can be countered with the appropriate policy. School and state policies focused on
improving adult and early childhood education can help curve the effects of poverty. If many
students are not getting the cognitive stimulation at home necessary to promote academic
achievement, then adult education needs to be improved. Ferguson et al. (2007) argues that
improved adult education will allow parents a better opportunity to help their children on
homework and engage their children at high level cognitively, which can improve low-income
students readiness for school. Improving early childhood education programs could have a
similar effect. If low-income students are unable to get the needed cognitive stimulation at home,
then they should have the opportunity to get the needed stimulation in a classroom before the age
of four or five. Instead of allowing high-poverty children to enter school already behind, these

IMPACT OF POVERTY ON EDUCATION

programs could work to bridge the gap preventing these students from falling behind in the first
place. Appropriate educational policy could serve to negate or lessen some of the severe effects
of poverty making students better prepared when they enter school.
Poverty is one of many educational issues that continue to impact students around the
world. Childhood poverty has been closely associated with dropping out of school, low academic
achievement, teenage pregnancy, and poor mental and physical health (as cited in Guo & Harris,
2000). Students from low-income households likely suffer from poorer physical and social health
as a result of the conditions of poverty than students from high-income households. Additionally,
students growing up in low-income households are more likely to fall behind grade level when it
comes to vocabulary and math than their high-income peers. While the issue of poverty proves
significant, only limited changes have been made in reducing the achievement gap. Appropriate
educational policy reforms will serve to better prepare high-poverty students for school and keep
them from falling through the cracks and falling behind in the beginning.

IMPACT OF POVERTY ON EDUCATION

References

Brooks-Gunn, J., & Duncan, G. J. (1997). The effects of poverty on children. The Future of
Children, 7(2), 55-71.
Engle, P. L., & Black, M. M. (2008). The effects of poverty on child development and
educational outcomes. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1136(1), 243-256.
Ferguson, H. B., Bovaird, S., & Mueller, M. P. (2007). The impact of poverty on educational
outcomes for children. Paediatr Child Health, 12(8), 701-706.
Guo, G., & Harris, K. M. (2000). The Mechanisms Mediating the Effects of Poverty on
Childrens Intellectural Development. Demography, 37(4), 431-447.
Lauen, D. L., & Gaddis, S. M. (2013). Exposure to classroom poverty and test score
achievement: Contextual effects of selection? American Journal of Sociology, 118(4),
943-979.