Michele Wages 
Culture, Poverty, and Education 
What’s Happening in Today’s Schools?

Most changes in educationincluding the rise of standardized testing, holding teachers accountable for their students’ academic performance, and rewriting math and reading standardsdon’t address poverty. Understanding the relationship between poverty, class, and education for decades has been framed through studies on the behavior and culture of poor students and their families. Educators are caught up in the history of classism and are often guilty of buying into the mindsetincluding the implementation of activities and strategies for working with ‘;parents’ in poverty or ‘;students’ in povertythat leads them to believe in the need to ‘;fix’ the poor instead of eliminating the inequities that oppress them. So it is not just one or the other; nature or nurture, poor or not poor. Poverty is a potential outcome for all of us. Culture, Poverty, and Education: What’s Happening in Today’s Schools? is intended to not only discuss 5 myths about the culture of poverty and its effects on education, but provide some resources on alternatives for educator’s to better address this growing barrier to student achievement in today’s schools.