Homeless students are among the most vulnerable children educators will encounter, but a new report highlights ways teachers can identify and nurture these students’ academic and emotional resilience.
The National Center for Homeless Education’s research report, released this week, finds that homelessness can bring about multiple risk factors for students, including high mobility, poverty and unsafe living arrangements.
Report author Jan Moore highlighted three strong indicators of resilience associated with homeless students:
• School connectedness, a student’s perceived strong relationships to supportive adults and peers in school;
• Academic press, the personal and family expectations for a student to succeed in school; and
• Academic motivation, the student’s interests and enjoyment in learning and school.
The report called for additional research tracking homeless students longitudinally to “understand and disentangle the relationships among risk factors, protective factors, and internal assets during developmental stages.” It also calls for for better research and evaluation of trauma-informed care support for students with a history of social and emotional challenges, to inform their academic interventions.
Want more research news? Follow @SarahDSparks on Twitter for the latest studies, and join the conversation.