Foster Care, Prison, Homelessness: A Hard Look at Teaching Vulnerable Students

Among the biggest challenges in educating the 50,000 incarcerated students who live behind bars is finding and keeping good people to teach them. "Recognizing that teachers need to be certified and trained not just on their content areas but also on the unique needs of youths who are in a juvenile justice setting is critical," said Kate Burdick, a staff attorney at the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center. Schools inside juvenile justice facilities compete with traditional districts to attract teachers over professional development and support. The Education Week Research Center analyzed how much time students actually spend learning in the classroom at U.S. correctional schools. In some places, it's as little as 6 hours per week.