Senior Project Post #5

4/6/15                               

Blog Post #5

In this section of Teaching with Poverty in Mind, Jensen discusses the school wide factors that play into the success of its students. To display what he considers to be the five main factors that make the foundation for a “high achieving” school, he uses the acronym S.H.A.R.E.  S: Support of the whole child. H: Hard data. A: Accountability. R: Relationship building. E: Enrichment Mind-Set.

S: High achieving schools have a tendency to hold high expectations, demand effort and motivation,  good behavior from their students.  High expectations are good for kids who are supported well at home. However students raised in poverty who have stronger social, academic, emotional, and health needs may need the support from teachers before demanding expectations. Well off students get this support at home usually and come to school a step ahead of low SES students. Some students may need the support they lack outside of school before they can produce to their full potential.

H: High performing schools (especially schools considered to be “high poverty”) must be willing to look beyond the state and or district standardized test scores as the full potential of a student, or the only measure of success. Schools need to look at individuals and their individual needs. By collecting data outside of the state testing, students success can be better measured.