Building School and Community Linkages to Facilitate Students' Mental Health and Wellness
Washington, D.C.
Dear Colleagues,
Today, I am writing
you from Washington, DC where I am attending a three-day U.S. Department of
Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) conference for
federally-funded grant directors from across the country. As you know, in
addition to my national consulting, I am Director of the Arkansas Department of
Education's State Improvement Grant--where we are doing a state-wide scaling up
of our comprehensive school improvement and multi-tiered services model,
Project ACHIEVE (see www.arstudentsuccess.org and www.projectachieve.net).
So far at this
conference, we have attended keynote sessions with both Ted Mitchell, the
Undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Education, and Melody Musgrove, the
OSEP Director. The "take-aways" from the conference are:
* We need
to continually focus on student outcomes--specifically, all students'
academic and social, emotional, and behavioral learning, mastery, and
progress--from preschool through high school.
* We need
to especially focus on these outcomes relative to students who live in poverty,
who are minority students, and who have disabilities. These are students
who can learn, but often they need early and specific services,
supports, strategies, and/or programs.
* We need
to focus on classroom-specific interactions: (a) providing specific
instructional goals that have measurable outcomes that teachers use to evaluate
student learning and mastery; (b) delivering effective differentiated
instruction backed-up by good curricular materials that sustain student
motivation and engagement; and (c) creating positive classroom climates
complemented by great staff-student relationships that facilitate positive
student interactions and involvement.
* We need
to organize our school and district experts (e.g., counselors, instructional or
behavioral intervention specialists, school psychologists, speech pathologists,
nurses, and others) into regularly-scheduled building-level "Student
Assistance Teams" so that they can collectively use systematic data-based,
functional assessment, problem-solving processes to determine why some students
are not making academic progress or demonstrating appropriate behavior.
* The
results of these assessments then are linked to early and effective
classroom-centered services and supports that are implemented collaboratively
with classroom teachers. The problem-solving process focuses on student
services, supports, and outcomes--not on student deficiencies, labels, and placements.
A critical point in
all of this is the emphasis on skill instruction and building student capacity
and independence. This is not just about decreasing or eliminating
student problems.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
NEW Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Report: Are
the Children Well?
The
"take-aways" from my conference this week coincide significantly with
the recommendations in a NEW report that focuses on A Model and
Recommendations for Promoting the Mental Wellness of a Nation's Young People.
Focusing on enhancing
child and adolescent wellness at home, in school, and across the community,
multi-tiered services and supports for individuals who need them are
highlighted. In all, the Report targets five areas:
* Intra-personal:
Teaching children self-caring habits (for example, using exercise to reduce
stress, getting adequate rest, and holding reasonable expectations for
oneself);
* Inter-personal:
Supporting parents to engage in positive parenting; teaching young people how
to resolve conflicts with adults or peers peacefully; teaching teachers and
other adults how to have positive interactions with adolescents;
* Institutions:
Creating a positive, wellness-oriented climate within schools, businesses, and
other places where young people spend time;
* Community:
Fostering widely-shared responsibility for caring relationships; and
wellness-promoting practices, including stewardship of the natural and physical
environment; and,
* Infrastructure
and Systems: Providing supervised recreational activities for young people
throughout communities; restricting access to firearms, drugs, and alcohol;
supporting planning for community response to trauma; identifying community
strengths and building on them.
At the preschool
through high school levels, the Report recommends:
* Increasing
access to high-quality child care and early childhood education, particularly
for low-income families.
* Supporting
early childhood educators with training in classroom management,
social-emotional learning, and stress-reduction techniques.
* Encouraging
the implementation of whole-school tiered approaches to promote positive school
climate and the mental wellness of all students.
* Locating
comprehensive mental health services within schools, and increasing
partnerships with additional community resources.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Promotion to Practice
As I listen to the
presentations here in Washington, and as I read the RJ Wood Foundation report,
I am reminded of two quotes:
"If
you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there."
and
"The
devil is in the details."
Clearly, it is
important for all of us to have and know our destination. For us, the
ultimate goal is the academic and behavioral success of all students from
preschool through high school. But it is also important to know the
landmarks that we need to pass to get to the goal--for example, many of the
bulleted points in the Report discussed above.
Critically, if we do
not take the right roads, at the right times, in the right sequences, and for
the right reasons, our well-intended journey may either take longer than
expected or not end well at all.
And so, we encourage
you to look at your students and colleagues, your needs and resources, your
previous failures and your exemplary successes, and the opportunities that the
new school year affords you. Every August, we have an opportunity to do
things differently--to right the wrongs, to establish new patterns, to build on
previous successes, to craft new levels of success.
Think of three things
you can do--in the classroom, at the grade level, for the school, involving the
district--and plan them now. Have them ready to discuss in August. And be
ready to implement them on the first day of the new school year.
Rosalyn Carter once
said: "A great leader takes people where they don't necessarily want to
go. . . But where they ought to be."
While the process of
change is sometimes challenging, it is nonetheless necessary. Think. . . .
Plan. . . . and Act. And, if we can help in any way, do not hesitate to
contact us.
Best,
Howie
