Section 1: Academic Achievement - National Center for School ...

more affluent, stable neighborhood students. However, there were some clear differences of
the” haves” and “have nots” families and their students. Even though our school made
conscious efforts to make the differences invisible at school, the integration didn’t permeate
much beyond the school walls. The “haves” tried to cross the boundaries but didn’t
understand the fragile plight of the homeless/highly mobile. The “have nots” didn’t have the
resources, the social register and sometimes motivation to associate with the others. “In the
shadows of poverty, off the highways of prosperity, the distance from aspiration to
achievement is strewn with social policies and obstacles whose number, intensity, and
complexity is disheartening and debilitating.” (Cooper) I wanted to do something to
improve the situation and blur the lines that were starting to be drawn in the sand.
When my principal first shared the idea of this project, Web Based Professional Development
(WBPD) to study the effect of homelessness on elementary schoolchildren, I was quite
excited. This was an opportunity to better understand the dilemma of homelessness and
education and be able to create some solutions for the students and their families in our
school. When Lowry Elementary was accepted into the WBPD, we thought we were going to
do a group project all together. However, it quickly became clear that we would each do our
own project, thus allowing each of us to follow/pursue our individual passion. We met on a
regular basis to discuss our thoughts and ideas. It was very helpful to have such a group so
we could brainstorm and problem-solve together. Other researchers did not have this
advantage to the extent that we did. In the absence of an on-site group, the on-line chats and
discussions are invaluable for checking in, seeing if you’re on the right track, bouncing
around ideas or just sharing insights.
There seemed to be so many areas for us to fix from feeding and clothing students, to
improving their living situations to more realistic education-based solutions such as, assisting
with school supplies, making enrollment easier and integrating them into the school culture.
Certainly, fund-raising was a common theme. Most of our ideas had a common theme of
giving tangible items to our students and their families. However, referring to the old saying,
“Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime,”
we didn’t want to just alleviate a short-term problem but help them be more self-sufficient.
Action Research to Study Homelessness and High Mobility in School Communities 32