What are best ways to get inner-city, poor high schoolers to follow rules & get their education at school?

Question

I am an educator working in the baltimore city public school system (Neighborhood/Zone Schools). I would like anyone with strategies to answer my question to help me to help the students that I service.

The students that I service are poor. Most of the students do not live with both parents. Most do not know or live with their fathers.
Many have parents that abuse alcohol or drugs. Many have been physically or mentally abused by someone in their immediate family.

The overwhelming majority are below grade level. All too often the curriculum gets watered down because the students are below grade level. Also, many of the students are graduating because of informal social promotion. This happens because teachers feel sorry for the students and/or teachers get blamed when the failure rate is too high. Schools get sanctions when the graduation rate does not meet the No Child Left Behind Act's AYP (Annual Yearly Progress) for the school's graduation rate.

Answer 1

I used to teach in a charter high school in Detroit, where most of the students came to us because they had been kicked out of their former schools. Your situation sounds exactly like the one I was in for years. The first year is the hardest because these students are used to a high teacher turn over rate (which mostly is due to the horrible behavior of the kids). What I and other teachers who survived in this school would do was to gain their trust. This is not easy to do and what works best is firm discipline (start off strict and do not be afraid to discipline). I spent countless class periods having students re enter the classroom properly, serving detention, having students eat lunch with me, write sentences, you name it. However, you must also temper your discipline with a message that you care about them. Sometimes I would lecture them about how I am benefiting them, joking with them, showing up at sporting events and dances, creating projects that they would enjoy and praising them for work well done. Above all you need patience because these problems will not go away over night but what I found was by demanding their respect and not allowing them to be failures I was able to have my classes under control by the end of the year which gave me a reputation for the next years students that "I'm not going away and I care too much to allow my students to continue to live with so little respect for themselves and others."

Answer 2

What you're asking is a societal change which occurs over a generational time period. All the problems that you listed are the reasons why inner city schools and their students have a hard time overcoming the challenges. Without role models, stability in their lives, self-esteem, and other aspects that promote a goal towards a successful life, it is nearly impossible to break the shackles of poverty.

This doesn't mean there isn't anything that you could do about it. Some ideas that I have used when I worked with inner youth include:

1) Bring in former inner city Baltimore youth that were able to succeed out of their poverty to talk to the students, give them advice, and show them that they aren't bound to poverty. If they have some to relate to, the kids are more willing to listen and to do something about reaching a goal.

2) Take them, if possible, to colleges (both community and universities) and show them the world outside of the inner city. I've noticed that when they are shown what is possible it gets them to try to achieve it. If you have vocational schools there that's another option.

3) Let them try harder things. Unless they have some sort of mental deficiencies, these kids are just as capable of learning the complex as any other.

4) The most important thing is to be there for them. You'll be surprised that just a little emotional encouragement pushes them to try harder. Even if you are the only person encouraging them, then at least they have you.

You are not going to solve this in one day. This requires the whole community/society involvement, but your grassroots efforts are what our inner cities need to bring change.

Answer 3

My Dad was a public school teacher for about 15 years before switching to teaching in private schools. The conclusion he came to on this issue is that the problems you are describing can't be solved by the school, because they don't originate with the school.

The problems your students are having are related to their home life and while you may be able to help a few students the majority of them will fall to the wayside unless you can cause changes in their home lives.

You do need to have a strict discipline in your classroom but the best advice I can give you is to encourage parental involvement. If you can't get the parents to care about their kids education than you are going to have a hard time getting the majority of students to care.

Answer 4

This is hard.
I went to Oakland public schools. The best thing I found that would get us all to listen were strict rules. If you run your classroom with clearly defined rules you can offer your kids the kind of structure they may lack elsewhere.
I know a few HS teachers in my area, they have the same conflicts.
The main problem I hear is that when the teachers lay ground rules and stick to them they are often overridden by the school administration.
I'm afraid my answer doesn't really solve anything.
Maybe you could spend some time on the playground while they have recess. It might make them feel closer to you and trust you more....?

Answer 5

as a teacher the most important thing is to develope trust and safety within your classroom. this will help the kids to open up to you as a teacher. once you have gained their trust, which is really what you have to do, things should slowly fall into place such as behavior issues and even possibly scholastically. the next thing i would do would to teach where the class lies on an average. group the kids so that lows are with highs, let them help each other. this will only work if there is trust developed between you and the kids. at this point, you dont have enough time to catch them up to 12 grade level and to be fully prepared to graduate, but you can move them along faster. also make sure to reward good behavior and attendance. kids in their situations are less likely to graduate. the fact that they are even at school is remarkable and they should know that we (the teacher) appreciate them still coming to school and are proud that they are still coming to school. lastly... often times teachers are afraid to get "personal" with their students. who would blame them with all the mess that can happen. but these kids are in dire need of love, trust, respect and stability. you must know/realize that you could possibly be the only thing in thieir life that is good, stable etc. you need to not push that away but instead embrace it. of course stay within appropriate boundries, but it is ok to take an interest in them.
i hope this has helped. it is a bit scattered, but i hope it has helped :) good luck!

Answer 6

This forum is not the appropriate forum for asking this question. If you "claim" to be an educator, why not ask colleagues who've been working in the school system for 25+ years? You are not going to solve the problems of absentee fathers, drug and alcohol abuse and the crime pandemic (where the Baltimore Police Commissioner lamented black men killing other black men for reasons that he described as "evil"). You answered your own question when you mentioned No Child Left Behind. Education has become a simple numeric equation:

Percentage of kids going to college + Percentage of kids going to Iraq/Afghanistan + Percentage of kids recycling absentee fathers, drug and alcohol abuse and crime = 100%.

Maximize all 3 subject to the following constraints:

100% college graduates means no soldiers, absentee fathers or criminals which means no Homeland Security, no police to arrest anyone, no Social Workers to remove children or collect child support checks, no lawyers to prosecute or defend anyone and no judges to sentence child support scofflaws and criminals.

100% soldiers means no college students, absentee fathers or criminals.

100% absentee fathers or criminals means no college students or soldiers going to Iraq. No judges to order child support. No police to arrest criminals. No attorneys to prosecute child support scofflaws or criminals.

The sad thing is, school bureaucrats are content earning $100K salaries because they simply pass the buck. Many of those school bureaucrats come from the same toxic environments I described. They argue that people choose their lifestyles accordingly. While I agree to an extent, I also know that for many of these people, abuse and crime are the only lifestyle they know.

Therefore, I would suggest that you delete your question because you weren't expecting a serious answer. You are not going to lose your job if your school does not meet No Child Left Behind's criteria but your school may be taken over by the State.

Answer 7

We're unwilling to take the biggest steps toward solving the problem, which would be depo provera shots for the biological fathers who aren't involved in their children's lives in a positive way, and threatened depo provera shots for any young male who doesn't keep his grades up.

Sorry, bud. Bill Cosby says, "If you have a child, be a parent."

I'll add on to that that if you're not qualified to be a parent, don't have a child.