Accessibility for Low-Income Students

Contributed By: Marisella Rodriguez

The first session of the 2018 spring quarter focused on promoting accessibility for low-income undergraduate students. The objectives of this session were to better understand the barriers and challenges facing low-income students in higher education and share applied strategies to promote their success.

Gorski (2018) advances a compelling argument for instructors to differentiate the terms low-income and poverty. Gorski (2018) suggests that instructors should focus on how poverty affects their students, rather than low-income, given that poverty encompasses issues related to “basic human necessities, such as food, clothing, housing, health care, and education” (7-8). By focusing on poverty, instructors begin to acknowledge the significant barriers facing student success in the classroom.

The traditional undergraduate living on-campus and enrolled at UC Davis during the 2018-2019 year spends $33,072 on expenses (excluding health insurance costs) (see “Cost of Attendance”). We used this figure as a reference point in brainstorming and discussing potential challenges facing students in poverty that might impact academic performance. We compiled a non-exhaustive list:

• Many high achieving students in poverty are likely unable to attend UC Davis given the high cost of tuition and living expenses.
• Students may have difficulty regularly attending class sessions when working one or more part-time jobs.
•           Students in poverty may feel stigmatized when having to publicly ask questions regarding campus resources and discussing needs for accommodation.
• Students working part-time jobs will likely have difficulty attending office hours or have limited time and space to build mentorship relations.
• Students in poverty might have limited resources to purchase textbooks, technologies, and other classroom supplies.
• Students in poverty may have limited time, energy, and attention to participate in collaborative projects or other assignments designed to be completed outside of the regularly assigned class periods.

To mitigate these challenges, Gorski (2018) encourages instructors to practice equity literacy. Equity literacy is “the knowledge and skills educators need to become a threat to the existence of bias and inequity in our spheres of influence” (Gorski 2018, 17). In other words, instructors should educate themselves on how to create and reinforce equitable learning environments. Equity literacy requires (1) the knowledge to recognize and understand the challenges facing students in poverty, (2) the continued practice of improving the capacity to support diverse students, and (3) the lasting will to promote these practices in our respective academic spaces. We also compiled a non-exhaustive list of practical strategies that can help cultivate equity literacy (adapted from Gorski 2018):

• Have high expectations for all students.
• Make course material relevant to the lives of students in poverty.
• Teach about poverty and class bias when relevant to course material.
• Examine learning materials for the presence of class bias.
• Work with the families of students in poverty to identify and mitigate performance barriers.
• Educate yourself!

References:

Gorski, Paul C. 2018. Reaching and Teaching Students in Poverty: Strategies for Erasing the Opportunity Gap. Second Edition. Columbia: Teachers College Press.

University of California, Davis. “Cost of Attendance.” Online: http://financialaid.ucdavis.edu/undergraduate/cost.html. Accessed April 18, 2018.