While the Denver Public Schools support routine ongoing professional development for its instructional staff, the high poverty constituency of Kepner Middle School has made more specific staff development desirable.

Frequently students in poverty do not feel connected to school and do not see a life outside of poverty. This makes them more likely to drop out, become teenage parents, gang members and fall prey to other activities that do not lead them to positive outcomes because they cannot see themselves living any other way.

Dr. Ruby Payne (see www.ahaprocess.com) has studied these issues through extensive research into educating children who come from generational poverty and presents them in her textbook and workshop titled “A Framework for Understanding Poverty.” Dr. Payne’s research indicates that people in generational poverty believe they are fated to experience failure in academic settings, they don’t realize they have a choice and do not know how to achieve academic success.

They face challenges virtually unknown to principals and teachers in middle class or higher. As a result, there is often a gap of understanding between educators and the children they serve.

Dr. Payne’s findings have been utilized in the KEEP elective classes and work programs for many years and now her model is being introduced to the entire Kepner staff. With the goal of creating an atmosphere in which all students can flourish, Dr. Payne introduces teachers to the concepts of resources, registers of language, discourse patterns and story structure, hidden rules, discipline and support systems.
The need for this specialized training presents an additional financial burden on Kepner Middle School. KEEP is committed to raising the funds necessary to continue this valuable training.