Poverty, Families, and Schools

Poverty affects children's educational success through family processes and neighborhood factors. Within the family, the type of talk children hear at home, their educationally relevant experiences, and the beliefs parents have about children's development as well as the nature of interactions predict educational achievement. How families relate to children's teachers also matters, as do neighborhood factors. In 2009, more than one in five children in the United States lived in families whose incomes fell below the federal poverty line ($21,756 for a family of four). The number of children living in poverty is higher than it has been in at least the past decade and higher than it is for other industrialized nations. Children growing up in families whose [Page 1682]incomes fall at or below ...