St. Louis CofCC Blog

St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Street violence “part of achievement gap” in urban schools

(snip)

The toll that kind of fear exacts on youth is becoming increasingly evident as researchers draw a line between classroom performance and the trauma and violence encountered by urban students.

It’s a correlation, the experts are discovering, that leads to under-achievement if not outright academic failure in places such as St. Louis.

The research merely demonstrates that a very high percentage of students in urban (read: black and Hispanic) public school districts have witnessed violent crimes. It does not prove any real links between this and poor performance in school, except that those children who witness crimes suffer “a loss of self-confidence” and “a negative self-image.” And since we’re supposed to assume that there is a necessary link between self-esteem and school performance, then the conclusion is obvious. The dirty little secret is the black children tend to have high self esteems as a matter of hard-wiring, and modern public education only makes it higher, yet this has not translated into narrowing the “achievement gap.” If it is true that witnessing violence lowers your self esteem, that doesn’t mean that raising it again will mean that you’ll do any better in school.

Otherwise, even this article and the studies it speaks of merely tell us that many “urban” students who witness violent crimes just happen to do poorly in school. That said, maybe both the violence and academic under-achievement are both effects of the same cause.

Whatever the case may be, prepared to open your wallet:

Pia Escudero, the project coordinator for the Trauma Services and Adaptation Center for Schools and Communities, an acclaimed intervention program serving the Los Angeles Unified School District, said cities ignore the link between violence and learning at their own peril.

(snip)

Although some St. Louis agencies deal with the emotional aftermath of violence, the St. Louis Public Schools do not have specific programs to deal with the issue.

(snip)

Spurred by findings similar to the St. Louis research, the Los Angeles program got its start 20 years ago with the support of schools, social service agencies, mental health organizations and the University of California at Los Angeles.

(snip)

In response to those numbers, the center dispatches mental health workers, school counselors and, increasingly, teachers to assist students with the consequences of living where the sound of gunfire is ubiquitous.

“You can’t just teach the counselors,” said Escudero. “You need to teach the teachers, too, or it won’t help.”

(snip)

Cleveland’s initiative began in 1997, when Mental Health Services joined with social services, law enforcement, the schools and Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital to form the “Children Who Witness Violence Program.”

Under the program, when children are exposed to domestic violence or the death or injury of a loved one, police summon an “EMS response for social services.” If necessary, counselors assist the family with funeral arrangements, provide food and even advice on how to deal with the media.

From that point, the children are monitored and assessed. Schools are placed on alert. Within 90 days, a referral is usually made for long-term counseling. Approximately 40 percent of the families take advantage of the offer, said Rosemary Creeden, the program manager.

The program has been so successful at treating the “emotional consequences” of violence for immediate families that Creeden hopes to expand the service to children once, twice or more removed from violent acts.

What this means is that, based on the fallacious assumption that violence begets trauma begets school failure, there is a cottage industry, the Trauma Mitigation - Industrial Complex if you will, that will demand full funding from governments, foundations and charities, and will bloat year in and year out. Not that it will actually stop violence — it can’t afford that — and not that there will be any long term educational improvements in urban areas.

Sounds nothing like McCain on Iraq. I bet the difference is that gooey black stuff.

Either way, neither Iraq nor Haiti is worth the bones of one single Pomeranian grenadier.