Children of Poverty
School offers a safe haven for learning, but no easy answers
The rules are perfectly clear at Buffalo's Dr. Lydia T. Wright School of Excellence, where pupils are disciplined for talking in the hallway, chewing gum or not tucking in their uniform tops.
A color-coded system is used to grade every elementary school pupil's behavior every day. In the middle school years, behavior is judged daily on a classwide basis to teach cooperation and collective responsibility. "We can't control violence in the streets," said Mary Jo Conrad, the principal. "We can't control singleparent families. We can't control poverty. But there are certain things we can control. We expect that children are going to behave. We expect that they are going to be successful."
The system works, said Xavier Wimes, an eighth-grade pupil."It's a great environment here," he said. "It's safe."
Lydia T. Wright has 867 pupils in prekindergarten through eighth grade.
Nearly 90 percent of them are from families with incomes below the poverty level, and about 98 percent are African-American. Overall, 86 percent of the students in the Buffalo Public Schools are poor, and 74 percent are from minority groups.
Many of the Lydia T. Wright pupils live in dangerous neighborhoods, are exposed to violence and drug-dealing, and have few healthy options outside of class.
In many ways, Lydia T. Wright is a haven from the troubles poor pupils face growing up - it is a place where uncertainty and fear are left behind, where anything is possible and where adults are there to help.
And most of all, where children face opportunities and not obstacles.
"Poverty is a factor, but it has nothing to do with your brain," said Buffalo School Superintendent James A. Williams. "When you get poor people believing in something like education, you get results."
Discipline is just the first element, necessary for teachers and pupils to focus their energies on learning and personal growth.
Marc Sonnenberger, a guidance counselor assigned to Lydia T. Wright on a half-time basis, feels a sense of teamwork and urgency when he visits classrooms.
"There's an energy, there's a buzz, there's a vibe," he said.
Tasha Shepherd, a fourth-grade teacher, assigns extra classwork and homework for pupils who are behind and finds ways to involve hard-pressed families, even if it means having an older brother or sister serve as a tutor.
Like many teachers in Buffalo schools, she spends as much as $400 a year of her own money on materials and supplies for pupils whose families can't afford them.
"I'm a teacher," Shepherd said. "I've got to make it happen. I have to try every angle, every strategy possible. If I sit back and wait, those things may not come."
Another teacher took a pupil and his grandmother shopping for Christmas gifts they otherwise couldn't afford.
"She gave him his first Christmas," Xavier Wimes said.
But there are no magic answers to childhood poverty.
Despite highly individualized instruction in reading and writing at the early grades, 56 percent of the school's fourth-graders scored below grade level last year on the state's English language arts test, and so did 68 percent of the eighth-graders.
On the state's math exam, 56 percent of the fourth-graders were below grade level, in addition to 75 percent of the eighth-graders.
While those scores are roughly comparable to Buffalo's districtwide figures, they are far below state averages and outcomes for more affluent local suburban districts.
Within about three years, Conrad wants to raise proficiency rates on those assessment tests to close to 90 percent.
"We are not where we need to be," she said.
Williams said Lydia T. Wright School "is on the right track" because Conrad and her staff are working together with a common purpose.
"When you get their attention you can talk to kids and educate them," he said. "It's a tough world out there. You have to instill values. Children have to feel important."
Since resources from the school district fall far short of the need, Conrad has established an extensive network of outside help.
"If there's a need, you have to fill it," Conrad said. "That's just the reality of it."
A social worker is at the school four days a week as a result of a partnership with Kaleida Health.
Corporate sponsors raised $76,000 for a playground and provided manpower to help build it.
A school renovation and expansion that was finished in 2003 provided a gross motor room, but no equipment. Rite Aid stepped in with a $5,000 grant.
Last year, 21 BlueCross BlueShield employees tutored pupils and took them to arts performances.
Those efforts reflect the personality of the school, said Felicia Hollingsworth, who has three children at Lydia T. Wright, which is located at 106 Appenheimer, near Erie County Medical Center.
"A lot of the teachers and staff members here have that warm, caring attitude," Hollingsworth said. "Hugs, the calmness in the voice, the way they talk to children. It lights up the children's faces. It can change their attitudes."
But the nasty consequences of poverty, crime and family problems are never far from the surface.
Pupils often come to school angry, hungry, afraid or disillusioned.
"I have to be able to teach them that you can have a tough morning, but you're in school now. It's OK. You can't let it affect your day. There's no, "Oh poor me,' " Shepherd said.
She recently comforted a girl whose cousin was killed in a shooting. "I'm there to listen," Shepherd said. "I'm there for her."
Many pupils start kindergarten already behind in basic literacy skills.
Because of its test scores, Lydia T. Wright is considered a "school in good standing" under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. As a result, many pupils exercise their option under the law to transfer there from lower-performing schools and need to be acclimated to a new system.
But despite its challenges, the school has created an atmosphere where pupils feel safe, cared for and free to learn and grow.
"It's like home," said Vance Stinson, an eighth-grader. "At the end of the school year, you don't want to leave. Teachers are like mom and dads. Peers are like brothers and sisters."
The impact of poverty is acknowledged and dealt with at Lydia T. Wright but never used as an excuse.
Shepherd summarizes the message to pupils this way: "You've got the key to success right here. You can do it."
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