Disrupting Poverty

Articles & Case Studies | Books & Publications | Webinars | Digital Learning | Events | Experts

Disrupting Poverty, developed by William Parrett and Kathleen Budge, is a professional development model based on research that shows that educators can disrupt the cycle of poverty both on an individual level in their classrooms and systemically.

Being chronically impoverished can have detrimental effects on students. With more than 51 percent of U.S. public school students qualifying for free and reduced-priced meals programs, the rate of child poverty is higher in the United States than in any other industrialized nation. Teachers and school leaders can counteract poverty's negative effects by fostering healthy, safe, and supportive learning environments and caring relationships to build students' resilience and actively engage them in their learning.

High-poverty, high-performing (HP/HP) schools regularly outperform expectations despite having a significant number of students living in poverty. Research shows what sets HP/HP schools apart is that educators don't just ask what to teach and how to teach it, they also ask why it should be taught and who should teach it.

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What the Experts Say

Articles  & Case Studies

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Disrupting Poverty in Ohio: Innovative Training Model Provides Educators Across Ohio with Strategies for Teaching Children Living in Poverty

Through a collaborative planning approach, teams from the ESC of Cuyahoga County and ASCD worked together to design and customize a regionally networked institute. This institute addressed the central question: "What does it take to disrupt poverty's adverse influence on student learning?"

Download case study (PDF)

• ASCD Inservice blog: "Turning High-Poverty Schools into High-Performing Schools: 12 Strategies That Make the Difference", October 18, 2013
• Educational Leadership: "Tough Questions for Tough Times", October 2009
• Educational Leadership: "Making Refugee Students Welcome", April 2009

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Books  & Publications

Explore free sample chapters, study guides, and author interviews.

Disrupting Poverty: Five Powerful Classroom Practices   Browse		Turning High-Poverty Schools into High-Performing Schools   Browse

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Webinars 

Access free professional development on demand and online.

• Disrupting Poverty: Five Powerful Classroom Practices with Kathleen M. Budge and William H. Parrett (February 27, 2018)
• Disrupting Poverty: Creating a Poverty Literate Culture for Student Success with William Parrett and Kathleen Budge (March 17, 2016)

Browse all ASCD webinar archives

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Digital Learning 

Podcasts

PD In Focus Learning System

Designed with both blended and group learning in mind, these PD In Focus^® platform channels feature videos, resources, and strategies from schools that are successfully meeting the needs of students living in poverty while encouraging them to become high achievers.

ASCD Video

The Disrupting Poverty Video Series is available on ASCD Streaming Video and DVD. Learn what HP/HP elementary and secondary schools do to help students succeed and how you and your school can adopt the same practices to disrupt the cycle of poverty and lift students to achievement.

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Events 

William Parrett and Kathleen Budge regularly present at ASCD conferences and facilitate Pre-Conference Institutes throughout the year on the topic of Disrupting Poverty, including events and sessions listed here.

• Leaders Disrupting Poverty: Five Powerful Classroom Practices, November 7, 2019 (One-day Pre-Conference Institute)
• Leaders Disrupting Poverty: Creating School and Classroom Cultures for Student Success, 9:45 a.m.–10:45 a.m., November 8, 2019 (ASCD Conference on Educational Leadership session)
• Disrupting Poverty: Five Powerful School and Classroom Practices, 8:30–11:30 a.m., March 13, 2020 (Half-day Pre-Conference Institute)
• Schoolwide Integration of Social and Emotional Learning: Lessons Learned from High-Performing, High-Poverty Schools, 12:30–3:30 p.m., March 13, 2020 (Half-day Pre-Conference Institute)

Learn more about ASCD conferences and events

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Find Experts on Disrupting Poverty

ASCD Faculty members are available for on-site capacity-building professional development on disrupting poverty. ASCD can design a precise professional development plan, organized around our field-tested solutions, with a focus on the education foundations that make sense for you.

Meet the Disrupting Poverty Cadre members

Download the Disrupting Poverty Cadre brochure (PDF)

Contact the Program Team for a free consultation

William Parrett

Kathleen Budge

William Parrett and Kathleen Budge Authors William Parrett and Kathleen Budge lead ASCD's Disrupting Poverty cadre and bring a wealth of experience developed during rich and varied careers in education.

Contact ASCD for Professional Learning

For more information about ASCD Professional Learning Services, contact the Program Management Team: 

• 1-800-933-2723, ext. 5773
• 1-703-578-9600, ext. 5773
• Email

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