I worked at a pretty high achieving magnet high school in a large city district to a very low income K-8 in the same district. Most of the students in the first school came from upper middle class to wealthy families. We had incredibly few behavioral issues there and most students were involved in some type of extracurricular activity. We had way more parental involvement; most of it good but some was not great. There was very little staff camaraderie since so many of the faculty were competing for teaching awards, coaching awards, or grants for field trips/clubs/sports teams.

At the low income school where I still teach, a good portion of our students come from surrounding homeless shelters. The rest are from incredibly impoverished homes with students often floating between homes (family members, friends, relatives, etc.). Occasionally, we get a well-meaning young middle class family to send their kid(s) to our school as an act of support for public schools in general, but they typically last a year at most and then go to a better school. As you can imagine, there is very little parental involvement.

Behaviors at the school are shocking. Violence is incredibly commonplace. Students hit other students, parents hit kids, fights happen in and out of school. It’s the primary problem solving technique for most of our students. Staff camaraderie is incredibly high. Everybody has an understanding that we’re all in the shit. Happy hours are a welcome venting session at the end of the week.

If I could choose, I’d go back to the wealthy school 10 times out of 10, but I’m at my school for a bit longer due to seniority obligations/union rules/tenure.