Lumpkin, Tiffany T
(2019)
Our Children, Our Impact: Analyzing Student Stressors and the Impacts on Academic Achievement Outcomes for Students at Community Partnership Schools.
Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
Violence, substance abuse, homelessness, physical and mental abuse, neglect, medical concerns, secondary caregiving, and hunger are all challenging obstacles that can alter the life of a student. Social environments play a larger role than previously accepted in typical and atypical development. While learning requires a biological base, it can be greatly diminished and increased by social conditions (Haight & Taylor, 2013). Stressful environments with a lack of quality caregiving, chronic toxic stress, and genetics can lead to neurological compromise (McEwen & Gianaros, 2010). The stress of living in poverty, can affect brain development. Eric Jensen (2009) examines the ways in which poverty harms children, families, and communities across the United States and demonstrates pro-social frameworks that schools can utilize to improve the academic achievement of economically disadvantaged students.
This research study aims to shed light on Community Schools as an answer to narrowing the achievement gap by mitigating students' external environmental stressors. Survey and interview research were conducted with the school’s administration, staff, and community partners to explore the specific stressors faced by students, families, and the community, and their ability to meet the community’s needs with supportive services to ensure student success.
Schools are understood to be institutions where inequality is reproduced and, simultaneously, where opportunity is produced (Downey & Condron, 2016). Across the United States several school districts designated schools to become a part of the community effort to act as a hub for local partners and community resources and to provide an environment for students and families to thrive. The setting of this single site case study takes place in Western Pennsylvania, in a local kindergarten to fifth grade Community Partnership School (CPS) that in the 2018-2019 school year held the largest number of students about 500 in Western Pennsylvania. This CPS is in a historically rich African American community, plagued by poverty with gentrification on the horizon. With the understanding that no two communities are the same, this CPS seeks to aid students and families with services that address poverty, adequate health care, exposure to violence and crime, exposure to drugs, abuse/neglect, and hunger/nutrition.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
|
| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
|
| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
16 December 2019 |
| Date Type: |
Publication |
| Defense Date: |
6 November 2019 |
| Approval Date: |
16 December 2019 |
| Submission Date: |
26 November 2019 |
| Access Restriction: |
No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately. |
| Number of Pages: |
141 |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
School of Education > Administrative and Policy Studies |
| Degree: |
EdD - Doctor of Education |
| Thesis Type: |
Doctoral Dissertation |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
Community Partnership Schools
Community Schools
Achievement Gap
Opportunity Gap
No Child Left Behind |
| Date Deposited: |
16 Dec 2019 14:49 |
| Last Modified: |
16 Dec 2019 14:49 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/37901 |
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