The Relationship Between Students Living in Poverty and Those Who Teach Them - Abstract - Key Findings on Educational Achievement

Oct 15, 2026

The relationship between students living in poverty and their academic outcomes shows a clear correlation with low achievement. Poverty can limit students’ knowledge and experiences before school and restrict access to resources such as libraries, early development programs, medical care, and consistent nutrition. Stresses in low-income households can affect behavior, social connections, attendance, and readiness to learn. Educators are urged to recognize poverty’s impact, build supportive classroom relationships, and partner with community groups to create opportunities that strengthen students’ learning and pride.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages5

Reading Time13 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Correlation Between Poverty and Academic Achievement

How Poverty Affects Learning Needs

Community and School Resource Gaps

Classroom Responses and Support

The Relationship Between Students Living in Poverty and Those Who Teach Them Suzanne Calder Abstract There is a correlation between students living in poverty and low academic achievements. Students who live in poverty often come to school with less knowledge and experiences than their peers. Communities these students live in, and the schools they attend, do not always have the resources to attain higher educational accomplishments. Educators must recognize poverty as an issue and build relationships with these students while in their classrooms and schools. Educators should also partner with members of the communities to create projects where students can have pride in their academic accomplishments, and also within the communities in which they live. Students living in poverty attain lower levels of education (Palomar-Lever & VictorioEstrada, 2017), so educators need to support these students for them to become more successful (Palomar-Lever & Victorio-Estrada, 2017) . Poverty affects students across our nation (Khanna & Meisner, 2018), including several families in my community, Portage la Prairie (Citizens for Public Justice, 2017) . As an educator in my community, I have worked with many students who live below the poverty line. Children who live in poverty do not get much of an opportunity to escape it, because they come from homes where the parents are struggling (Bryce, Iglesias, Pullman, & Rogova, 2016) . These children live in communities that have high levels of poverty (Neuman, Kaefer, & Pinkham, 2018), and they go to schools that do not have the resources for them to obtain a high level of academic success (Neuman et al. , 2018) . With these obstacles that our students face, “poverty remains the biggest obstacle to education”(Birdsong, 2016, Conclusion section, para. 1) . As teachers, we need to learn how to help our students through these barriers. Teachers are an important influence in students’ lives, but we should also look to our schools to lead changes that will provide an encouraging environment for students (Turner & Juntune, 2018) . Partnerships between schools and community groups can have a promising effect on those students living in poverty (Thompson, n.d. ) . The school culture must learn to recognize and understand the signs of students living with poverty, and provide them a safe and reassuring setting to develop into effective citizens for our society. Poverty Affects Academic Achievement Many homes are filled with love, but for those living in poverty, love does not always overcome the deficiencies that poverty can create in a home, community, or school, or the implications it can have on academic success (Jensen, 2009) . Living in a home that is under alot of stress can result in children’s needs not being met, which in turn can affect children’s academic performance. Children living in poverty may lack access to adequate medical care, which can affect their brain development, causing a ripple effect on their academic success (Spies, Morgan, & Matsuura, 2014) . These children do not always receive the nutrition they require to grow developmentally, and they may not be healthy enough to stay consistently in school. Absenteeism affects children’s ability to advance their learning and to make relationships with teachers necessary for them to understand their learning style (Spies et al. , 2014) . Many of these stressors can also influence students’ behaviour at school, consequently affecting their social lives (Jensen, 2009) . When children lack friends at school, it is more difficult for them to want to remain there to learn. It is unfortunate that children are born into home situations that they do not have control over, but if we, as educators, understand that they did not choose this path, then we need to support them when they come to school (TeAchnology, n.d. ) . Research shows that living in a community of low-income families has a correlation with attaining low academic ach

FAQs

How does poverty relate to students’ academic achievement?

Students living in poverty often show lower academic achievement, partly because they enter school with fewer knowledge and experiences and face resource limitations in their communities and schools.

What factors of poverty can harm learning outcomes?

Stress at home, limited access to medical care and nutrition, and increased absenteeism can affect brain development, health, behavior, and students’ ability to advance learning and engage with teachers.

What should educators and schools do in response?

Educators should recognize poverty as an issue, build trusting relationships within classrooms, and partner with community members to develop projects that support students’ pride and educational success.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Anna Hans