Socio-economic differences in the classroom

Percy L. Abram, PhD describes how his school handles socioeconomic differences among students
Parenting and Family Advice | Managing socioeconomic differences in schools
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Socio-economic differences in the classroom

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We actually begin the year at our open houses by having our teachers speak specifically about the differences that are in the class. We have rules that are set up school wide about gifts to teachers. Rather than individual families giving gifts to teachers, those are forbidden in our school. And everyone makes a contribution anonymously to the teacher and we go out and purchase gifts. So everyone is able to give what they can to purchase a teacher gift. We schedule events at our school around working parent schedules. So we have working parent education coffees in the morning so that we can bring in families who are able to right after drop off working with us. We schedule parent education opportunities in the evening. So for dual working families, they know that after they pick up their kid there's going to be an opportunity for them to avail themselves of the same resources and expertise as other families as well. We try to have school related events on weekends as well, because we know how difficult it is for some families to find any time during the school day to be at the school. And we will do pot lucks on the weekends so that we have an opportunity to build community at a time that's convenient for a diverse group of families.

Percy L. Abram, PhD describes how his school handles socioeconomic differences among students

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Percy L. Abram, PhD

Head of School

Percy Abram is the Head of Gateway School.  Gateway School is a Kindergarten – 8th grade independent school in Santa Cruz, CA.  Prior to joining Gateway School, Dr. Abram was the Upper Division Director at Brentwood School in Los Angeles.  An LA native, Dr. Abram received his B.A. (Economics) and M.A. (Education) degrees from UCLA, and his M.A. (Sociology) and Ph.D. (Education) from Stanford University.  Dr. Abram and his wife are the parents of a 10-year old daughter and 7-year old son, and despite running a school and being responsible for 260 students each day, he still finds parenting his most challenging job.

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