Poverty

Articles | Books & Publications | Webinars | Online Learning | Videos | Experts & Events

Poverty imposes social, cognitive, health-related, and stress-related challenges on students every day, and all these factors affect students’ ability to learn.

Educators can help improve the academic achievement and life readiness of economically disadvantaged students by creating healthy environments, supportive schools, and targeted instruction.

Related Topics and Terms

By the States

ASCD’s 50-state Whole Child snapshots feature data that provide a more comprehensive picture of child performance and well-being.

What the Experts Say

Hear what ASCD's authors and experts have to say about poverty. 

Articles 

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Educational Leadership

• Culturally Diverse Classrooms (March 2015 theme issue)
• Overcoming the Challenges of Poverty (June 2014)
• Ways to Help Low-Income Students Meet the High Expectations of the Common Core State Standards (May 2013)
• The Faces of Poverty (May 2013 theme issue)
• How High-Poverty Schools Are Getting It Done (April 2013)

Education Update

• Five Ways to Support Diverse Families (May 2015)
• Whole Child: From Rhetoric to Results (April 2015)
• Three Ways to Engage Parents in High-Poverty Settings (September 2014)
• Aligning Health and Education in Today’s Economic Context (July 2013)
• Fighting the Female Dropout Phenomenon (December 2011)

ASCD Express

• Supporting Students and Teachers in a Turnaround School (September 26, 2013)
• The Faces of Poverty (May 9, 2013 theme issue)
• Schools, Families, Communities (May 12, 2011 theme issue)
• Poverty, Diversity, and Schooling (January 6, 2011 theme issue)

Find more articles about poverty

Books & Publications

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

• Disrupting Poverty: Five Powerful Classroom Practices (2018)
• Rethinking Homework: Best Practices That Support Diverse Needs, 2nd edition (2018)
• Engaging Students with Poverty in Mind: Practical Strategies for Raising Achievement (2013)
• Turning High-Poverty Schools into High-Performing Schools (2012)
• Aim High, Achieve More: How to Transform Urban Schools Through Fearless Leadership (2012)
• Creating the Opportunity to Learn: Moving from Research to Practice to Close the Achievement Gap (2011)
• Create Success!: Unlocking the Potential of Urban Students (2011)
• Raising Black Students' Achievement Through Culturally Responsive Teaching (2010)
• Teaching with Poverty in Mind: What Being Poor Does to Kids' Brains and What Schools Can Do About It (2009)

Find more books about poverty

Quick Reference Guides

ASCD Quick Reference Guides cover fundamental education topics in a handy format that's perfect for time-pressed study groups or individuals. Written by recognized experts, the guides are packed with instructional tips and solutions that you can put into practice right away.

Teaching Students from Poverty

Browse all Quick Reference Guides

Webinars and Podcasts 

Webinars

• Disrupting Poverty: Five Powerful Classroom Practices with Kathleen M. Budge and William H. Parrett (February 27, 2018)
• Excellence Through Equity: Five Principles of Courageous Leadership to Guide Achievement for Every Student with Alan M. Blankstein and Pedro Noguera (June 3, 2016)
• Disrupting Poverty: Creating a Poverty Literate Culture for Student Success with William Parrett and Kathleen Budge (March 17, 2016)
• Closing the Attitude Gap: How to Fire Up Your Students to Strive for Success with Baruti Kafele (October 8, 2013)

Podcasts

ASCD Learn Teach Lead Radio is a partnership between ASCD and BAM! Radio Network, the world's largest all-education talk radio network. Each episode of the show is hosted by an ASCD Emerging Leader and features guests such as ASCD authors, leaders, presenters, and educators from all roles.

• Strategies for Building Relationships with Students in Poverty
• Vocabulary Matters: 101 Ways to Help Students Overcome Word Poverty
• Moving From a Low-Trust to High-Trust School Culture

Online Learning  

PD Online^® Courses

• Teaching with Poverty in Mind
• Parents as Partners in Schooling, 2nd Edition
• Embracing Diversity: Effective Teaching, 2nd Edition
• Embracing Diversity: Global Education, 2nd Edition
• Embracing Diversity: Managing Diverse Schools and Classrooms, 2nd Edition

Find more online courses that address poverty

Videos 

• Disrupting Poverty Video Series (2016)
• Engaging Students with Poverty in Mind Two Program Series (2014)
• Motivating Black Males to Achieve in School and in Life (2011)
• Teaching with Poverty in Mind Two Program Series (2010)

Experts & Events

ASCD Faculty members are available for on-site capacity-building professional development on poverty and disrupting its effects. 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 ASCD Disrupting Poverty Cadre

Learn more about ASCD Professional Learning Services

ASCD Conferences, One-, Two-, and Three-Day Institutes, and other special events frequently feature sessions about poverty.

Learn more about ASCD Conferences and Events