Issues facing poorer schools

Schools in poorer socio-economical areas are facing several challenges in their efforts to meet the criteria of “No Child Left Behind.” The first of these issues is teacher retention in poor schools.  The poor schools do not have the financial resources to retain their best teachers.  Top teachers do not stay in the poor schools as once they gain experience. They move on to higher paying positions in more wealthy school districts.   Compounding this problem of teacher retention in the poor schools is the difficulty in recruiting high quality college graduates (Matthews, 2002). Richer schools use signing bonuses to entice the best college graduates to teach in their schools.  The poor schools do not have the finances to compete for the best college graduates (Dobbs, 2004). Poor schools also lack the funds to properly maintain their facilities and environment impacts the cognitive development of students especially in the early years of life. (Feldman, 2008)  Teacher recruitment is made more difficult because teacher salaries lag behind inflation (Alverez, 2007).

Poor schools are for the most part found in lower socio-economic areas such as inner cities and rural areas which historically have attitudes that downgrade the importance of education (Mandrell and Schram, 2006)

There is a lack of expectations for these students from their teachers resulting in a self fulfilling prophecy of failure.  (Gandara, 2004) The students in poor schools may show a lack of motivation to attain academic excellence. In poor schools, higher absenteeism negatively impacts academic achievement.

References

Alvarez, Brenda. (2007). Teacher Salary Lags Behind Inflation. Retrieved May 23, 2008 from http://www.nea.org/newsreleases/2007/nr071210.html

Dobbs, Michael. (2004, June 7). Poor School Sue for Funding. Page A13. Retrieved May 23, 2008 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20727-2004Jun6.html

Feldman, R. (2008).  Development across the lifespan. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Gándara, Patricia. (2004). Lowering barriers for underrepresented students. Retrieved May 23, 2008 from http://www-dateline.ucdavis.edu/020400/DL_gandara.html

Mathews, Jay. (2002, September 10). Top Teachers Rare in Poor Schools. Page A5. Retrieved May 23, 2008 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59173-2002Sep9.html