Author: James Croteau

When seeking community input, often the question asked is “What services do you need?” Without a larger frame of reference, responses tend to be personal and short term. A better way is to provide a frame of reference related to a gap in outcomes identified from a systematic needs assessment. Community input should be solicited…

Ruby Payne stresses the importance of teaching cognitive strategies as essential to help students from poverty be successful in school and life. Her logic goes something like this: If an individual lives in a random, episodic and unpredictable environment, he or she has not developed the ability to PLAN. If and individual cannot plan, he/she…

As suggested by Roger Kaufman, the outcome for any educational system should be a graduate who is ready to be a contributing member of society not under the care, control or custody of any person, place or thing. Simply put, a person who gives back rather than takes from the community and is free to…

Our society, and really most societies, operate with certain unwritten but clearly understood class rules. Most people, however, and especially children, do not realize or understand the rules of classes they do not belong to. Ruby Payne reminds us that many assumptions about individual’s intelligence and approaches to school or work may relate more to…

One of the challenges that children face in school is that the Casual language used in their home is significantly different that the Formal language used at school. Many lower income students not only have a lack of books at home but family members use a casual register with limited vocabulary, many general words, often…

Ruby Payne defines poverty as: “The extent to which an individual does without resources.” The important resources are defined as: FINANCIAL: Having money to purchase goods and services. EMOTIONAL: Being able to choose and control emotional responses, particularly to negative situations, without engaging in self destructive behaviors. MENTAL: Having the mental abilities and acquired skills…

For over 35 years Ruby Payne has been trying to share her observations regarding children and poverty. Here are a few to think about. POVERTY IS REALTIVE Poverty exists in relationship to a desired state. And it is not always related to money. If everyone around you is in the same situation, it may be…

My concern with most needs assessments is with the definitions and use of the terms “outcomes” and “needs”. The. traditional approach is to inventory and assess how existing programs are doing and seek to identify what more is needed to meet the demand in the community. What is called for first is a gap analysis…