Table Of ContentMULTICULTURAL EDUCATION SERIES
JAMES A. BANKS, Series Editor
Reaching and Teaching Students in Poverty: Mathematics for Equity:
Strategies for Erasing the Opportunity Gap, A Framework for Successful Practice
2nd Edition NA'ILAH SUAD NASIR, CARLOS CABANA, BARBARA SHREVE,
PAUL C. GORSKI ESTELLE WOODBURY, AND NICOLE LOUIE, EDS.
Deconstructing Race: Race, Empire, and English Language Teaching:
Multicultural Education Beyond the Color-Bind Creating Responsible and Ethical Anti-Racist Practice
JABARI MAHIRI SUHANTHIE MOTHA
Is Everyone Really Equal? An Introduction to Key Black Male(d): Peril and Promise in the Education of
Concepts in Social Justice Education, Second Edition African American Males
ÖZLEM SENSOY AND ROBIN DIANGELO TYRONE C. HOWARD
Teaching for Equity in Complex Times: Negotiating LGBTQ Youth and Education: Policies and Practices
Standards in a High-Performing Bilingual School CRIS MAYO
JAMY STILLMAN AND LAUREN ANDERSON Race Frameworks:
Transforming Educational Pathways for Chicana/o A Multidimensional Theory of Racism and Education
Students: A Critical Race Feminista Praxis ZEUS LEONARDO
DOLORES DELGADO BERNAL AND ENRIQUE ALEMÁN, JR. Class Rules:
Un-Standardizing Curriculum: Multicultural Teaching in Exposing Inequality in American High Schools
the Standards-Based Classroom, 2nd Edition PETER W. COOKSON JR.
CHRISTINE E. SLEETER AND JUDITH FLORES CARMONA Teachers Without Borders? The Hidden Consequences of
Global Migration, Diversity, and Civic Education: International Teachers in U.S. Schools
Improving Policy and Practice ALYSSA HADLEY DUNN
JAMES A. BANKS, MARCELO SUÁREZ-OROZCO, Streetsmart Schoolsmart:
AND MIRIAM BEN-PERETZ, EDS. Urban Poverty and the Education of Adolescent Boys
Reclaiming the Multicultural Roots of U.S. Curriculum: GILBERTO Q. CONCHAS AND JAMES DIEGO VIGIL
Communities of Color and Offi cial Knowledge
Americans by Heart: Undocumented Latino Students and
in Education
the Promise of Higher Education
WAYNE AU, ANTHONY L. BROWN, AND DOLORES CALDERÓN WILLIAM PÉREZ
Human Rights and Schooling: An Ethical Framework for
Achieving Equity for Latino Students: Expanding the
Teaching for Social Justice
Pathway to Higher Education Through Public Policy
AUDREY OSLER FRANCES CONTRERAS
We Can't Teach What We Don't Know: Literacy Achievement and Diversity:
White Teachers, Multiracial Schools, Third Edition Keys to Success for Students, Teachers, and Schools
GARY R. HOWARD KATHRYN H. AU
Teaching and Learning on the Verge: Understanding English Language Variation
Democratic Education in Action in U.S. Schools
SHANTI ELLIOTT ANNE H. CHARITY HUDLEY AND CHRISTINE MALLINSON
Latino Children Learning English: Steps in the Journey
Engaging the “Race Question”:
Accountability and Equity in U.S. Higher Education GUADALUPE VALDÉS, SARAH CAPITELLI, AND LAURA ALVAREZ
ALICIA C. DOWD AND ESTELA MARA BENSIMON Asians in the Ivory Tower: Dilemmas of Racial Inequality
in American Higher Education
Diversity and Education: A Critical Multicultural Approach ROBERT T. TERANISHI
MICHAEL VAVRUS
Our Worlds in Our Words: Exploring Race, Class, Gender,
First Freire: Early Writings in Social Justice Education and Sexual Orientation in Multicultural Classrooms
CARLOS ALBERTO TORRES MARY DILG
(continued)
MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION SERIES, continued
Culturally Responsive Teaching, Second Edition Multicultural Strategies for Education and Social Change
GENEVA GAY ARNETHA F. BALL
Why Race and Culture Matter in Schools Beyond the Big House
TYRONE C. HOWARD GLORIA LADSON-BILLINGS
Diversity and Equity in Science Education Teaching and Learning in Two Languages
OKHEE LEE AND CORY A. BUXTON EUGENE E. GARCÍA
Forbidden Language Improving Multicultural Education
PATRICIA GÁNDARA AND MEGAN HOPKINS, EDS. CHERRY A. MCGEE BANKS
The Light in Their Eyes,10th Anniversary Edition Education Programs for Improving Inter group Relations
SONIA NIETO WALTER G. STEPHAN AND W. PAUL VOGT, EDS.
The Flat World and Education City Schools and the American Dream
LINDA DARLING-HAMMOND PEDRO A. NOGUERA
Teaching What Really Happened Thriving in the Multicultural Classroom
JAMES W. LOEWEN MARY DILG
Diversity and the New Teacher Educating Teachers for Diversity
CATHERINE CORNBLETH JACQUELINE JORDAN IRVINE
Frogs into Princes: Writings on School Reform Teaching Democracy
LARRY CUBAN WALTER C. PARKER
Educating Citizens in a Multicultural Society, The Making—and Remaking—of a Multiculturalist
Second Edition CARLOS E. CORTÉS
JAMES A. BANKS Transforming the Multicultural Education
of Teachers
Culture, Literacy, and Learning
MICHAEL VAVRUS
CAROL D. LEE
Learning to Teach for Social Justice
Facing Accountability in Education LINDA DARLING-HAMMOND, JENNIFER FRENCH, AND
CHRISTINE E. SLEETER, ED. SILVIA PALOMA GARCIA-LOPEZ, EDS.
Talkin Black Talk Culture, Difference, and Power, Revised Edition
H. SAMY ALIM AND JOHN BAUGH, EDS. CHRISTINE E. SLEETER
Learning and Not Learning English
Improving Access to Mathematics
NA’ILAH SUAD NASIR AND PAUL COBB, EDS. GUADALUPE VALDÉS
The Children Are Watching
“To Remain an Indian” CARLOS E. CORTÉS
K. TSIANINA LOMAWAIMA AND TERESA L. MCCARTY
Multicultural Education, Transformative Knowledge,
Education Research in the Public Interest and Action
GLORIA LADSON-BILLINGS AND WILLIAM F. TATE, EDS. JAMES A. BANKS, ED.
REACHING
AND TEACHING
STUDENTS IN
POVERTY
Strategies for Erasing
the Opportunity Gap
SECOND EDITION
Paul C. Gorski
Published by Teachers College Press, 1234 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY
10027
Copyright © 2018 by Teachers College, Columbia University
Cover images: Row of pencils by DNY59, last pencil by NickS, both via iStock.
Graph paper by Rawen713, via Deviantart.com.
Permissions acknowledgments appear at the ends of Chapters 4 and 5
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy,
or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the
publisher. For reprint permission and other subsidiary rights requests, please
contact Teachers College Press, Rights Dept.: [email protected]
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Gorski, Paul, author.
Title: Reaching and teaching students in poverty : strategies for erasing the
opportunity gap / Paul C. Gorski.
Description: Second Edition. | New York : Teachers College Press, [2018]
Series: Multicultural Education Series | Includes bibliographical references and
index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017039599 (print) | LCCN 2017040675 (ebook) | ISBN
9780807776728 (ebook) | ISBN 9780807758793 (paperback : acid-free paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Children with social disabilities—Education—United States. | Poor
children—Education—United States. | Educational equalization—United States.
| Poverty—United States.
Classification: LCC LC4091 (ebook) | LCC LC4091 .G595 2018 (print) | DDC
371.826/94—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017039599
ISBN 978-0-8077-5879-3 (paper)
ISBN 978-0-8077-7672-8 (ebook)
Printed on acid-free paper
Manufactured in the United States of America
25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Ma and Grandma.
I am me because you are you.
Contents
Series Foreword James A. Banks xi
Acknowledgments xix
1. Introduction 1
Definitions and Distinctions 6
Two Important Conceptual Shifts 9
The Remainder of the Book 10
Reflection Questions and Exercises 12
2. Imagining Equitable Classrooms and Schools for
Students Experiencing Poverty: An Equity Literacy Approach 13
Introducing Equity Literacy 16
What the “Equity” Means in Equity Literacy 19
The Four Abilities of Equity Literacy 20
Equity Literacy Principles for Educators 23
Conclusion 35
Reflection Questions and Exercises 35
3. The Inequity Mess We’re In: A Class and Poverty Primer 37
Poverty Awareness Quiz 37
An Introduction to Poverty, Wealth, and Economic Inequality 40
The Unequal Distribution of Poverty 47
Conclusion 55
Reflection Questions and Exercises 55
4. Embracing a Structural View of Poverty and Education:
Ditching Deficit Ideology and Quitting Grit 57
Poverty Attribution and the Importance of Ideology 57
The Dangers of Deficit Ideology 60
Meet Deficit Ideology’s Cousin, Grit 61
vii
viii Contents
The Hope of Structural Ideology 63
An Exercise in Structural Framing and Language 64
Conclusion 65
Reflection Questions and Exercises 66
5. The Trouble with the “Mindset of Poverty”
and Other Stereotypes about People Experiencing Poverty 67
A Hint of Truth? The Nature of Poverty Stereotyping 71
Misperceivers Are We: Questioning Common
Stereotypes about Families Experiencing Poverty 73
The Dangers of Stereotypes and Stereotype Threat 82
Conclusion 84
Reflection Questions and Exercises 84
6. Class Inequities Beyond School Walls
and Why They Matter at School 85
The Unlevel Playing Field of Poverty 87
Why the “Achievement Gap” Is Really an Opportunity Gap 96
Conclusion 98
Reflection Questions and Exercises 98
7. The Achievement—er, Opportunity—Gap in School 99
The Great Unequalizer? 102
Opportunity Gaps and Neoliberal School Reform 116
Conclusion 122
Reflection Questions and Exercises 122
8. Teaching Students Experiencing Poverty in Effective,
Equitable, and Even Data-Informed Ways:
Curricular and Pedagogical Strategies 123
A Couple Caveats 124
Instructional Strategies That Work 125
Conclusion 141
Reflection Questions and Exercises 142
9. The Mother of All Strategies: Nurturing
Equity-Informed Relationships with Students and Families 143
Equity-Informed Relational Commitments 144
Conclusion 158
Reflection Questions and Exercises 159
Contents ix
10. Cultivating School Change through Equity Literacy:
Commitments and Strategies for School and District Leaders 161
Shaping Institutional Culture around an Ethic of Equity 163
Cultivating Equity Literacy in Faculty and Staff 168
Creating Policies and Practices to
Redistribute Access and Opportunity 172
Conclusion 176
Reflection Questions and Exercises 176
11. Expanding Our Spheres of Influence:
Advocating Change for the Educational and Societal Good 177
Policy Advocacy for Educational Equity 178
Policy Advocacy for Societal Justice 183
Conclusion 185
Reflection Questions and Exercises 185
Conclusion 187
References 191
Name Index 215
Subject Index 221
About the Author 233
