Berliner and Whitman Notes

Mini-assignment: Compare and contrast these two readings (Berliner and Whitman{Gary has given hard copy doc from the Whitman book- read for this from nyu classes ka pdf}). What are the implications for social advocacy? What kind of school might address Berliner’s concerns? (Upload 3-4 double spaced pages to “assignments” in NYU Classes)

David Berliner - Out-of-School Factors Influence Student Achievement

• NCLB aims at bridging achievement gap between classes and races.

• Important to address osf factors as they affect

7 common osf factors:

1. low birth-weight and non-genetic prenatal influences on children;
2. inadequate medical, dental, and vision care, often a result of inadequate or no medical insurance;
3. food insecurity;
4. environmental pollutants;
5. family relations and family stress;
6. neighborhood characteristics
7. extended learning opportunities (pre, after , summer school etc that may be +ve or –ve)

• The cause physical, sociological and psychological problems that lead to neurological damage, adhd, absenteeism, poor linguistic development, oppositional behavior.
• Most of these OSF factors act in combination with one another and the fact that they have limited resources pose as a huge challenge for schools especially in the disadvantaged communities as compared to schools serving the high income communities.

OSF 1: Low Birth-Weight And Non-Genetic Prenatal Influences On Children

• School achievement measures show racially contrasting outcomes.
• Educational policies attribute it to school mechanisms
• But some of this gap is because of social practices among low-income communities
• Low Birth Weight kids have more cognitive and behavioural problems
• The associated cognitive and behavioral problems are addressed in public schools where students receive specialized services to meet their considerable needs. Meeting student needs (specialized or not) represents a task all schools must address. However the concentration of low birth weight among poor and African American families in high-poverty schools increases the school’s responsibilities dramatically.
• Preterm children are born more frequently black americans- these kids are expected to have most cognitive and behavioural issues
• LBW kids have low Apgar score.
• Show signs of hemorrhaging, oxygen deficienes that have an effect on brain fuction
• Important to invest in them and their parents long before kindergarten
• Birth weight affects intelligence- they are correlated
• Alcohol, tobaxxo and cocaine use is higher in poor neighbourhoods- lead to reduced head circumference, reduced cortial gray matter and reduced total brain volume
• Alcohol, smoking during pregnancy has a huge chance of impairing the infant.
• Amphetamine and methamphetamine have detrimental effects- far worse that the smoking and drinking can have on neonates
• Poor people less likely to take flu shots if they aren’t free- this affects the baby
• Influenza during pregnancy leads to schizophrenia
• CMV viral infection in pregnancy associated with autism and learning disorders.
• Maternal obesity, stress, anxiety, depression all have effects on babies
• Mental problems in different income groups are not randomly distributed
• Tells us that we cant just attribute achievement gap to performance of teachers in schools that serve the poor.

OSF 2: Medical Care and Schooling

• Difficulty to teach classes where there is excessive studet/family illness
• Most people in poor communitues are not medically insured.
• Since they aren’t insured they don’t get the requisite medical assistance
• Leads to more absenteeism and drpputs
• Kids don’t come not only because of their own health but also coz they have to care for their siblings and parents
• Again, this challenge isn’t distributed among all racial classes equally.
• Poor communities have more ppl who are uninsured and who require medical assistance
• This affects schools that serve this poor and minority community
• It negatively affects achievement since kids don’t come to school
• This problem is rampant not only woth uninsures but also woth the underinsured.
• Because they find it difficult to pay their bills and imsurances cover only certain illnesses, they tend to resemble the uninsured in terms of getting treatment
• Medical attention can help these groups.
• Study shows that if medical help is provided(Head Start program), mortality rate comes down among kids
• Similar is the case for dental care as well as vision probelms
• Untrearted dental issues can affect a studetns behviour in school
• Kids from poor communities very often never see a vison specialist even they need attention
• Vision scheening in school has a high failure rate as compared to eye care professional
• Children from poor families more likely to be in less optimal health as compared to their high income counterparts.
• Health and income are interrelated
• Schools without nurses or with high ratio of student to nurses are invariable schools that serve the poor.
• Universal medical coverage being discusses can alleviate these problems and thereby address the osf factor that can help narrow the achievement gap

According to Brown and Beardslee (2008), 45.7 million U.S. citizens lacked any health insurance coverage in 2007. Although an absence of health insurance alone does not equate to illness, it does contribute to the ability of students to gain academic achievement. Their research has shown a strong correlation between student health and academic success. In addition to not addressing chronic or acute medical conditions that can effect learning, a lack of medical insurance and proper medical care prevents many families from acquiring the necessary prescription drugs that control medical problems. Finally, lack of dental care and vision care prevent learners from fully participating in school