How to Meet the Needs of Inner City Students

From at least the late 1970s, urban public schools have not met the needs of inner city students. In large measure the reasons for this failure have been two-fold: 1) inadequate preparation by college and university teacher training programs; and 2) the particular problems of inner city life, concerning which too few educational professionals have much experience or understanding. To cope with the two abiding reasons for the failure of the public schools to meet the needs of inner city youth, officials in the public schools need to do two logical things: 1) assume that conventional teacher training has been of little use, providing for enhanced training in subject area and pedagogy; and 2) establish services as necessary, and links to existing services, that address the needs of inner city families.

Teachers emerge from college and university programs of teacher preparation filled with harmful notions about the nature of education. Professors of education convey the idea that education is not primarily the transmission of knowledge from an expert to the student, but rather an investigation that should follow the particular interests of a classroom facilitator and students. This approach has led to the devaluation of inherited knowledge and thus a dearth of information abiding in the brains of high school seniors as they collect a diploma that signifies very little.

For retraining, teachers should be given sabbaticals and scholarships to return to the university to pursue a master’s degree in a legitimate discipline in departments of natural science, math, social science, and the humanities--- not in departments of education. If they previously have been deemed to be effective as to matters of classroom management and relationship with students, they can then to return to the classroom; if not, they should serve a full year under the guidance of a teacher of deep knowledge and pedagogical excellence.

With a knowledgeable and pedagogically adept teacher in every classroom, school officials should then reach out to students and families in ways that address their greatest needs, in school and right where they live. The high percentage of unnecessary employees in public school central offices should be retrained for useful positions that actually meet the needs of students. Many of these employees should be put to use as professional tutors, who join volunteer tutors in a massive effort to pull students who are struggling out of class for intense one on one instruction in areas of math and reading. Effectively implemented, such tutorial efforts would assure grade level performance by all students in both of these key skill areas.

Other central office employees should be retrained and sent out into the community to connect with families of students with attendance issues, or who manifest any of many problems that could stem from home, neighborhood, or community. There should be school representatives who have a presence on the streets of inner city neighborhoods, talking to students and the people who inhabit their social universe about the importance of education, listening and learning about the concerns of inner city people, inquiring into the life circumstances of students, and serving as links to city and state departments of health and social services.

School representatives who go directly onto the streets and into the homes of students in this way would have to be highly adroit in their approach. It would be important that they not come off as arrogant; rather, they would have to manifest solid knowledge in dealing with life concerns of inner city people while demonstrating genuine empathy in addressing their needs. Over time, strong relationships should be formed, so that each student and her or his family have one person employed by or associated with the school district to whom they know they can turn, in full faith and trust, for help with a problem.

If inner city school districts were to offer these sorts of links to the families of students, right where they live, student attendance in cases of extended absence or truancy would greatly improve. If students knew that they had a teacher of excellence in each classroom, where something of subject area substance is learned every day, she or he would have enhanced motivation for attendance and academic diligence. As with the solution to so many problems, the key initiatives for addressing the needs of inner city students can be easily stated, in this case summarized as 1) excellent teaching and 2) effective family outreach. To achieve the necessary level of teaching excellence and family outreach services, economic and human capital will have to undergo major shifts so as to invest in the necessary training of people who interact face to face with each precious young life.

Such a shift will require great courage in the face of pressures from many people heavily invested in maintaining the status quo. But if the shift were made, we could at last meet our imperative to provide excellent education to all people, regardless of their economic standing or life circumstances. In effectively addressing the needs of inner city youth, we would have taken giant steps toward the attainment of democracy.