Pay Attention to the External Realities

by Kathleen Fuller, Pharm.D., PGY2 Pharmacotherapy Resident, University of Maryland

With the recent midterm elections, public education reform has again been the center of much media buzz. The documentary Waiting for Superman¹, directed by Academy Award-winning director Davis Guggenheim, identifies some of the major problems with the current American public education system, while also offering a glimpse of possible solutions. The film highlights the success of public charter school programs including the Harlem Children Zone (HCZ)² and the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP)³. These programs are built on the concept that education must extend beyond the school day to correct for the external factors that influence how learning occurs in the classroom. While these programs have been developed for primary education, they offer lessons that are applicable to both adult and patient education.

The Knowledge is Power Program

"Every day KIPP students across the nation
 are proving that demographics do not define destiny."³

Started as single school in 1994 by Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin, the KIPP network now consists of 99 schools in underprivileged areas of 20 cities nationwide enrolling 26,000 students. The program is based on five pillars: high expectations, choice and commitment, more time, power to lead and focus on results. The programs are rigorous and both the school days and the academic years are extended. Curriculum is built around character, leadership and community involvement, as well as traditional subjects. But what may be most important, high expectations are placed on children who may otherwise not be expected to graduate high school or attend college.³

Over 85% of KIPP students enroll in college, compared to less than 40% of low-income students nationally. And 100% of KIPP 8^th grade classes do better on state tests for math and language arts than their district averages.³

The Harlem Children’s Zone

"A child is more than just the test scores they get inside a classroom.
They live in families and communities. And where those families
and communities are struggling we have a responsibility
to help those children."² – Geoffrey Canada

Recognizing that the unique struggles the children of Harlem, NY faced were contributing factors to the poor performance of the schools in that district, Geoffrey Canada founded the HCZ in 1997. The HCZ targets a 100 block area and serves over 10,000 children. Using a community based approach the program aims to "give poor children the things middle-class children take for granted".⁴ This includes programs that educate expectant and new mothers, pre-K programs, after school programs, fitness and nutrition education, internship placement, college preparatory programs with one-on-one counseling sessions, and public health initiatives.²

One of the public health initiatives provided free asthma screening in the HCZ and then deployed case managers to visit the homes of children identified as having asthma to educate on medical assistance programs and environmental trigger control. Counselors went as far as to assist tenants in contacting the building managers of apartment buildings to demand necessary repairs and rodent extermination.⁵ Far-reaching, all-encompassing interventions, such as this, characterize the work of the HCZ and impact every aspect of life for the children enrolled in this program.

An independent study compared winners of the HCZ enrollment lottery to those that entered the lottery but did not win. They concluded that "the effects in middle school are enough to reverse the black-white achievement gap in mathematics."⁶

Application to Adult and Health Education

While adult learners may not be as impressionable as the students targeted by the HCZ and KIPP programs, external factors certainly impact their educational performance.  The theories applied in these programs can be extended to adult education.

How many of the students in your program are the primary caregiver for children or parents? How many have jobs outside of your program? How many do not have the technological literacy or access to the technology necessary for your program? Ask adult learners to reflect on their experiences to identify perceived barriers to achievement.

Develop a technology primer course. Distribute literature regarding child or elder care services in your area. Create flexible deadlines that can accommodate rigorous work schedules. And finally the strategies need to be implemented and assessed.

The principles are even more important when educating patients. Patients present from tremendously varied backgrounds and living situations. It may be easy to tell your patient with heart failure to avoid prepackaged foods with high salt content. But it is harder to walk down the aisles at the discount grocery store and find such foods in the same price range. As the HCZ asthma program illustrates, educating patients to recognize environmental triggers is different than walking through their homes and coaching them on strategies to realistically modify these triggers.

While you or I may not be in a position to implement the types of sweeping change we have seen from Geoffrey Canada, Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin, each of us can start small by analyzing the students and patients we teach to identify how their external lives affect our educational efforts.

1. Guggenheim D (director). Waiting for Superman [Movie]. Paramount Pictures; 2010.

2. Harlem Children’s Zone [Internet]. New York (NY): Harlem Children’s Zone. Updated 2009.

3. Knowledge is Power Program [Internet]. San Francisco (CA): KIPP Foundation.

4. Sayles M. Geoffrey Canada [Internet]. New York (NY): The New York Times; 2010 Oct 12.

5. Perez-Pena R. An Everyday Struggle for Breath; Childhood Asthma Project Reaches out in Harlem. New York (NY): The New York Times; 2003 May 1.

6. Whitehurst GJ, Croft M. The Harlem Children’s Zone, Promise Neighborhoods and the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education. Washington (DC): The Brookings Institution; 2010 Jul 20.