How would our equity efforts change if we worked toward a deeper understanding of the barriers and inequities with which students and families experiencing poverty contend? In this interactive and awareness-building workshop, we will explore these barriers and inequities, how they operate, and how we might perpetuate them unintentionally in our classrooms and schools.

Our goal is to see how, when we are not vigilant in our equity approach, school policies and practices favor the most economically privileged students while disadvantaging students whose families are experiencing poverty. We will discuss evidence-based strategies for effectively removing the barriers and, as a result, more effectively engaging and supporting students experiencing poverty. We will specifically focus on instructional, relational, and leadership strategies that have proven effective both in mixed-class and in high-poverty schools.

We will also examine the damaging impact of deficit perspectives about people experiencing poverty, and consider how to shift ourselves and our colleagues from these deficit views to equity-based views.