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Addressing the widening wealth gap that separates students around Indian Lake is one way the school district’s administrations believes it can create a level playing field for its students and improve its state report card scores in the process.
To that end, Jim Littlejohn, a presenter with Ruby Payne’s aha! Process Inc., visited the district Monday and offered a presentation called A Framework for Understanding Poverty.
He spoke to staff throughout the day, addressed the board at the regular monthly meeting and then had a session for parents.
Figures released in this year’s State of the District report show that 51 percent of students are at or below the poverty level.
Mr. Littlejohn based his presentation on 10 main principles, including:
• building relationships of mutual respect;
• teaching students hidden rules of school;
• analyzing resources of students;
• teaching formal register, or the language of school and work;
• teaching abstract processes;
• teaching mental models;
• teaching students how to plan;
• using the adult voice to change behaviors;
• understanding family resources and dynamics; and
• teaching how to ask questions.
Superintendent Pat O’Donnell told board members that understanding how to reach students who live in poverty is one of the key ways to improve upon the district’s “Gap Closing” score, which like five of six local schools was an F, as reported in Saturday’s Examiner.
Read complete story in Tuesday’s Examiner.
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