The achievement gap is one of the most talked about issues in U.S. education. It shows up in grades, standardized test scores, course selection, dropout rates, and college completion. This book argues that the focus on the gap is misplaced. Today, we need to look at the societal factors that have accumulated over time and have resulted in poverty level pay for teachers, lack of resources in out poorest schools and an abundance of children entering our schools unprepared. Dr. Wages has written a detailed, well documented book that can serve as an informative resource to create an awareness of the multidimensional and complex issues of poverty.

Nuanced interconnections of poverty and educational attainment around the UK are surveyed in this unique analysis. Across the four jurisdictions of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, experts consider the impact of curriculum reforms and devolved policy making on the lives of children and young people in poverty. They investigate differences in educational ideologies and structures, and question whether they help or hinder schools seeking to support disadvantaged and marginalised groups. For academics and students engaged in education and social justice, this is a vital exploration of poverty’s profound effects on inequalities in educational attainment and the opportunities to improve school responses.

Poverty and Inclusion in Early Years Education will help practitioners to understand the experiences of young children who are living in poverty. It examines the potentially devastating impact of poverty and social exclusion on children’s chances in later life, and considers recent policy and practice reforms which have recognised the critical role played by early years settings and practitioners in guaranteeing a secure foundation for children’s future attainment. The book explores the historical, political and legal aspects of policy on poverty and social exclusion, before offering guidance on how practitioners can help to address the inequalities caused by poverty and break the cycle of deprivation. Chapters go on to address the practicalities of working with children, families and agencies to create an inclusive early years environment, and focus on issues including: developing effective partnerships with families collaborating with outside agencies encouraging awareness of different socio-economic backgrounds. With case studies, reflective questions and further reading included throughout to help the reader to apply the ideas to their own practice, the book will be an invaluable resource for early years practitioners, students, and all those wishing to promote social inclusion and tackle the impact of social exclusion and poverty in early years settings.

Shortlisted for BBC Radio 4's Thinking Allowed's second Ethnography Awards in partnership with the British Sociological Association! Educational Binds of Poverty tackles the assumptions made by many recent social and educational policy initiatives suggesting that the best way to improve educational prospects of children in poverty is through an increased emphasis upon a culture of control, discipline, regulation and accountability. In this book, Ceri Brown presents these assumptions against a review of the research literature and an original ethnographic longitudinal study into the lives of children in poverty, in order to highlight the gap between policy discourses and the lived experiences of children themselves. Through the theoretical concept of a set of ‘binds’ against educational success, the book explores four key areas that children in poverty have to navigate if they are to be successful in school. These are: material deprivation the cultural contexts of school, home and the community friendship and social capital the effects of student mobility through atypical school changes. In seeking to characterise and explain what life is like for young school children, this book questions why policy makers have a radically different frame of reference in purporting to understand how their policies will change the behaviour of those living in poverty. This leads onto a consideration of what lessons may be learned in order to contribute towards a more appropriate policy agenda that attends to the multiple binds that children in poverty have to negotiate.

This book describes the attempts that have been made to achieve an educational policy relevant to those most disadvantaged in our society; examines the different ways in which sociologists have conceptualized the related problems; and evaluates the success of the policy. He suggests that we are in need both of a more realistically defined view of what schools can do and a concerted official approach to compensatory policy.