Educating the Other America: Top Experts Tackle Poverty, Literacy and Achievement in Our Schools
Neuman, Susan (2008).
Baltimore, MD: Brooks Publishing; 356 pages. $39.95. ISBN 9781557669063.
Education is the only valid passport from poverty. –Lyndon B. Johnson
Youth with limited resources make up a generation of young Americans whose future is closely intertwined with the nation’s future. Quite simply, the U.S. needs them—and they need a society that does not overlook their potential. Youth have demonstrated the capacity to make significant contributions to our economic and social progress. A vaccine for malaria, technological advances in clean energy, or the cure for cancer could emerge from the minds of poverty-stricken youth who currently are unlikely to receive the education they need to make such contributions. In Educating the Other America: Top Experts Tackle Poverty, Literacy and Achievement in Our Schools, edited by Susan Neuman, 30 scholars from across the U.S. and The Netherlands come together to explore how to break the cycle of poverty by improving literacy and education.
The book is divided into three sections: “Poverty and Its Consequences,” “How Instruction Can Make a Difference,” and “How Technology Can Make a Difference.” Each section includes six or more chapters that examine a unique aspect of poverty and its impact on student learning and achievement. More importantly, the chapters inform readers about the research that demonstrates how to combine learning strategies that support youth within formal and informal education, communities, and families.
In the first section, readers encounter a broad research-based understanding of youth who fail to read not because of cognitive impairment, but because of the complex effects of poverty. Topics include the devastating effects of poverty on youth literacy, school achievement, social success, physical health, and future economic well-being, as well as the critical need for a new way to help teachers support the learning of high-poverty youth (within a real-world context).
Instruction can make a difference. In section two, the issues and practical benefits of instruction and the ways instructional supports may improve youths’ literacy growth and achievement take center stage. Principles covered include applying universal design to engage all youth and accommodate a wide variety of learner needs; the use of lesson-embedded technologies, not as a substitute for teachers but as a mechanism for orchestrating learning through multimedia; the debate over bilingual education and the use of instructional accommodations; and research on linguistic flexibility in African-American youth. Section two also includes thoughtful discourse on the black-white achievement gap and the use of “living stories” and multimedia stories that incorporate sound, music, and motion. Such stories can enhance vocabulary and text understanding by activating minds and imaginations.
When thinking of literacy, most of us think of reading and writing. Youth in the twenty-first century, however, live in a technology and media-suffused environment, marked by various characteristics, including (1) access to an abundance of information, (2) rapid changes in technology tools, and (3) the ability to collaborate and make individual contributions on an unprecedented scale. Thus, to be effective in the twenty-first century, all youth must be able to exhibit a range of functional and critical thinking skills related to information, media, and technology. In the third and final section of the book, the authors discuss technological innovations and how technological supports can scaffold youths’ learning and achievement. Topics in the third section include the effects of digitized “living” storybooks and their impact on youth attention and motivational arousal; the significance of one-on-one reading with youth and the multiplier effects that technological advances can have on this practice in the classroom; and theories of children’s attention to television and learning (focusing on a content-based approach) and how television can be an educational intervention that is not only cost-effective but a positive influence on social development.
Because education policy and funding decisions are largely determined at the state and local levels, school quality varies greatly across U.S. state and school districts. Differences in school resources, academic opportunities and learning environments make it difficult to provide equal opportunities to all youth. Often, the nation’s school systems seem more like obstacle courses, with the most disadvantaged youth facing the greatest obstacles. Without critical supports in their lives, poverty-stricken youth struggle to complete their education, transition to adulthood, earn a livable wage, and sustain self-sufficiency.
Today our values and norms in education, literacy, and public participation are being challenged by a shifting landscape of technology, media and communications in which youth are central actors. New media forms have altered how youth socialize and learn, which raises new issues that educators, parents, and policymakers must consider.
This book sends forth a clear message to education professionals, community leaders, policy makers, and parents that we have the tools to close the poverty gap if we can set aside our traditional “one-size-fits-all” approach to education, literacy, and achievement. Instead, we must embrace the significant role that principles of instructional design play in optimized learning and the new roles that technology affords the current generation of youth.
Reviewer Information
North Carolina State University
Mitzi Downing received her MPA form East Carolina University (Organizational Development), and her Ed.D. from North Carolina State University (Adult and Higher Education). She is currently an Extension Assistant Professor and Youth Development Specialist at North Carolina State University. Her research and program interests include diversity and inclusion, community collaborations in non-formal youth development, and school-to-work transition programs.