Topic: A Framework for Understanding Poverty including Boys in Poverty

This workshop is based on Ruby Payne’s book A Framework for Understanding Poverty, which has sold more than 1.5 million copies.

When viewed through an economic lens, poverty can be defined as an absence of resources. Since 1995, Framework’s basic premise is that the middle-class understandings of those who work with children and adults in poverty are often ill-suited for connecting with and helping people build up resources and rise out of poverty. This workshop will explore class differences and how you can improve success of low socioeconomic status students.

Now, 18 years and 1.5 million copies later, Framework has evolved and covers the key intersections of people in poverty with those who serve them, including:

• Educators—from preschool to postsecondary
• Social workers, healthcare workers, law enforcement, and judicial systems
• Employers and business leaders
• Communities of all sizes, including municipal and faith communities
• Individuals, parents, and intergenerational families

In addition, this workshop will touch on issues that affect boys who come from poverty, as well as those that come from middle class. Why is this important? Because boys account for 85% of the discipline problems in schools. They also constitute the largest populations in special education, Title I, and those who have reading and writing problems. Boys are the ones who have committed the violent acts in America’s schools, and they are the most likely to drop out of school. Ruby will briefly cover the “why” behind male behavior in schools and what schools can do to begin making school more “boy friendly.”