It’s All About Education: How Poverty Impacts Brain Development and Learning

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Lauri Lee, GoLocalProv Education Expert

 

View Larger +

Lauri Lee

A new research study published in Nature Neuroscience shows that children who live in poverty actually have smaller brains than their wealthier peers. Through scanning the brains of 1,100 Americans aged 3 – 20, scientists found that both the surface area and the thickness of the cerebral cortex were positively correlated with family income. Children raised in low-income homes had brains that were significantly smaller than those of affluent children. 

What does this mean for these kids when they attend school? The cerebral cortex of the brain is responsible for language, problem-solving, emotion, complex thought, comprehension, and visual and auditory processing, among other things. A deficit in any of these areas can obviously impact a child’s performance in school, as well as his or her ability to learn and acquire information. 

The researchers believe that these results may be due to the fact that children living in poverty are more likely to have poor nutrition and health care, as well as higher exposure to toxins. In addition, these children are more likely to be under stress, which has already been shown to inhibit brain growth and function. According to an article published by the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University in 2014, sustained stress can change the architecture of the brain, leading to impairments in both learning and memory. 

GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST

In addition, the new research found that parental education was also associated with the size of children’s total brain surface area; parents with higher levels of education had children whose brains were larger. This makes sense, since higher educational attainment is correlated with higher income levels. As a headline in the New York Times stated, “More Education = More Income.” 

I’ve written before about the growing achievement gap between low-income students and their middle to upper income counterparts. Does this new research mean that children of low socioeconomic status are doomed to learn and achieve less than their wealthier peers? Absolutely not – IF our society takes the steps necessary to change the current dynamic and eliminate the achievement gap. 

Dr. Martha Farah, a neuroscience professor at the University of Pennsylvania, has found that parental nurturing can have a positive effect on children’s language skills and memory. The aforementioned article from Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child also states that the presence of a sensitive and responsive caregiver, whether a parent or an early childhood education provider, can prevent elevated stress hormones in toddlers. 

By offering support to families living in poverty, we have the power to ameliorate the effects of poverty on children’s developing brains. We can increase access to nutrition programs, ensuring that infants, toddlers, and school age children are receiving the nutrients to support their growing brains and bodies. We can increase social services available to low-income parents, helping them to get the education, job skills, housing and healthcare necessary to decrease the levels of stress for their families. 

Perhaps most importantly, we can increase the number of early childhood education programs available for families with children from birth to age five. We can fund more home visiting programs that support parents in their role as their children’s first and most significant teachers. We can subsidize quality early childhood learning centers that offer safe, nurturing, and enriching environments for all infants and toddlers, so that their parents can go to school or work. 

An investment in early childhood care and education (ECCE) has been proven to be a sound one. An article in Brown University’s Political Review states that a child who never receives high quality ECCE is “25 percent more likely to drop out of school, 40 percent more likely to become a teenage parent and 70 percent more likely to be arrested for a violent crime.” The Office of the President of the United States has published a report showing a tremendous return on investment in ECCE: $8.59 for every dollar spent. 

More than 16 million children in the United States – 22% of all children living in America – live below the federal poverty level ($23,550/year for a family of four). According to the Southern Education Foundation, more than half (51%) of all students enrolled in our public schools are classified as low-income. Enhancing early childhood experiences for these children and providing social supports for their families will strengthen our nation, not just our schools. 

It’s time for the funding to follow the research. Standardized testing is not going to help reverse the growing achievement gap in our schools, but funding home visiting programs, early childhood care and education centers, and increasing social supports for poverty-stricken families will. 

It will likely take longer than a campaign cycle for us to see the results of these efforts. We need policymakers who are more concerned with the success of our children and this nation than with their own political gain. 

Lauri Lee is an independent consultant with over twenty years of experience in both public and private education, with learners from infants through adults. With experience in teaching, marketing, communications, social media, development, admissions, and technology, she is able to synthesize many of the issues facing our educational system today. She lives in Providence, RI with her family, a big dog, and a small cat. She blogs at http://www.AllAboutEducation.net and you can follow her on Twitter at @fridovichlee. 

 

Related Slideshow: RI Experts on the Biggest Issues Facing Public Education

On Friday November 22, the Hassenfeld Institute for Public Leadership at Bryant University, the Latino Policy Institute of Roger Williams University, the Rhode Island Association of School Committees, the Providence Student Union, and RI-CAN: Rhode Island Campaign for Achievement Now will host Rhode Island leaders in the public and nonprofit sectors for a symposium on "the civil rights issue of the 21st century, adequacy and equity and the State of Education in Rhode Island."

Weighing in on the the "three biggest factors" facing education in the state today are symposium participatnts Gary Sasse, Founding Director of the Hassenfeld Institute for Leadership; Christine Lopes Metcalfe, Executive Director of RI-CAN; Anna Cano-Morales, Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees, Central Falls Public Schools and Director, Latino Policy Institute at Roger Williams University; Tim Duffy, Executive Director, RI Association of School Committees; and Deborah Cylke, Superintendent of Pawtucket Public Schools.  

View Larger +
Prev Next

Sasse

"Provide a state constitutional guarantee that all children will have access to  an education that will prepare them to meet high performance standards and be successful adults.

Bridge the gap between the educational achievement of majority and minority students.  This will require the implementation of a comprehensive agenda for quality education in Rhode Island’s inner cities."

View Larger +
Prev Next

Sasse

"Revisit school governance and clearly define the roles and responsibilities of the state, school districts , neighborhood schools, and school teachers and school administrators.  Develop and implement a system to hold schools responsible for student outcomes."

View Larger +
Prev Next

Sasse

"Build a consensus and buy in of all stakeholders around  the education reform initiatives being advanced by the Board of Education."

View Larger +
Prev Next

Metcalfe

"Set high expectations and raise our standards across the state for anyone that contributes to the success of our students. From adopting the Common Core to discussing rigorous teacher evaluations, conversations around creating a culture of high expectations have to be at the center of the work."

View Larger +
Prev Next

Metcalfe

"Expand opportunities and start earlier - we must ensure that all kids have access to a high performing public school of their choice, which includes full-day kindergarten."

View Larger +
Prev Next

Metcalfe

"School facilities - with an aging infrastructure, underutilized buildings and the need to provide fair funding for school facilities for all public school students regardless of the public school they attend, this needs to be a top issue tackled by the RI General Assembly in 2014."

View Larger +
Prev Next

Cano-Morales

"Meet the academic potential of all students but especially with regards to urban schools students -- 3 out of 4 are Latinos in Providence, Central Falls, and Pawtucket." 

View Larger +
Prev Next

Cano-Morales

"Connect through specific best practices the academic successes of our students to careers jobs. Investing in schools is economic development as a whole for Rhode Island. " 

View Larger +
Prev Next

Cano-Morales

"Increase the access to -- and completion of -- higher education and post- secondary opportunities.  Poverty? Struggling families? Education and access to careers and competitive wages is the best antidote."

View Larger +
Prev Next

Duffy

"Providing adequate funding is critical -- and there are going to be pressures on the state budget, which mean stresses to meet the education funding formula.  With the predictions of the state's projected loss of revenue with the casinos in MA, education funding could be on the cutting board, and we need to ensure that it's not.  Do we need to look at strengthening the language of the constitution to guarantee funding?"

View Larger +
Prev Next

Duffy

"Implementing the common core standards will provide continuity -- and comparison -- between states now.  With over 40 states involved, we're embarking a new set of standards here."

View Larger +
Prev Next

Duffy

"Accountability and assessing student performance -- how that it's driven by the common core, we'll be able to compare the best districts in RI against the best districts in say MA.  That's the intent of the Common Core is a standardization of how we hold the system accountable."

View Larger +
Prev Next

Cylke

"Issue one is quality.  Your quality of education should not be dependent on your zip code.  And the reality is, certain cities are distressed, or whose property values are not as high, I know each town has a different capacity to fund education. There's an absolute, clear relationship between the quality of public schools, and economic development of states. There's irrefutable evidence that quality public schools can make states more competitive."

View Larger +
Prev Next

Cylke

"Issue two is equality.  In West Warwick and Providence, the per pupil spending is around $16K.  In Pawtucket it's $12.9.  What's wrong with that picture? If I'm in charge of overseeing that my students are college ready, they need to be adequate funding.  A difference of $3000 per pupil?  We're talking in the tens of millions of dollars -- more like $25 million in this case.  An exemplary school district is Montgomery County, MD -- they have roughly the same number of students, around 145,000 -- there's one funding figure per pupil. There's equitable funding for all kids."

View Larger +
Prev Next

Cylke

"Issue three is Infrastructure.  A critical issue is whether the state is going to lift its moratorium in 2014 for renovations for older schools, ore new construction.  If that moratorium is not lifted, and those funds are not available, it is critical to us here in Pawtucket. The average of my schools is 66 years, I've got 3 that celebrate 100 years this year. These old schools have good bones, but they need to be maintained.  These are assets -- and this is all interrelated with the funding formula."

 

Related Articles

 

Enjoy this post? Share it with others.

 
 

Sign Up for the Daily Eblast

I want to follow on Twitter

I want to Like on Facebook