How Many More Children Need to be Gunned Down in our Schools and on our Streets?

A Historical Plea to Protect our Children from the Politics of Polarization

[CLICK HERE to read this Blog on the Project ACHIEVE Webpage]

Dear Colleagues,

Introduction: Another Heartbreaking Opportunity

   My cell phone rang at 3:49 PM Uvalde Central Time. Tuesday, May 24, 2022

   It was a close colleague of mine, also a Past-President of the National Association of School Psychologists, who lives in Atlanta. Her voice was both frenetic and frank.

   “Are you watching the News?”

 

   “No. . . what’s going on?”

 

   “It’s happened again. . . elementary school students killed in their classrooms in Texas. Why G-d? What are people thinking? Why is this allowed to keep happening?”

 

   “Oh no!. . . you know that every time I walk into my schools, I remind myself that it can happen here.”

 

   “And it’s not just the schools. The streets. . . of Atlanta, Chicago, Baltimore. They are killing our children. . . . “

_ _ _ _ _

   Yes, it has happened again. Nineteen elementary school children—all about the age of my Grand-daughter—and two teachers. . . mothers, dedicated professionals, heroes. Fifteen others were sent immediately to the local hospital. Four are still hospitalized at this time (Thursday, May 26).

   All of those murder have been identified. They are not coming home.

Alexandria Aniyah Rubio, 10 years old

Alithia Ramirez, 10 years old

Amerie Jo Garza, 10 years old

Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez, 10 years old

Eliahana Cruz Torres, 10 years old

Eliahna Garcia , 10 years old

Jacklyn Cazares, 9 years old

Jailah Nicole Silguero, 10 years old

Jayce Luevanos, 10 years old

Jose Flores, 10 years old

Layla Salazar, 10 years old

Makenna Lee Elrod, 10 years old

Maite Rodriguez

Miranda Mathis, 11 years old

Neveah Bravo, 10 years old

Rogelio Torres, 10 years old

Tess Marie Mata

Uziyah Garcia, 8 years old

Xavier Javier Lopez, 10 years old

Eva Mireles, 4th Grade Teacher

Irma Garcia, 4th Grade Teacher

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   How do you respond? What do you say?

   How do we finally decrease the chances that this will occur again—knowing that there are only progressive, and not ultimate or permanent, solutions?

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The Facts

   It is easy to “factualize” the murder of school children with weapons of war.

   According to Education Week, there have been 77 previous incidents of gunfire on school grounds this year, resulting in 14 deaths and 45 injuries.

   It’s been 24 years since five people were killed at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas; 23 years since 13 were killed at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado; nearly 10 years since 26 were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut; and four years since 17 people were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. . . and on and on. . .

   And then, there are the killings of children and adolescents on our streets and in their homes. On April 22nd of this year, the New England Journal of Medicine (Reuters News Service) reported that:

More children and teenagers in the United States were killed by guns than any other cause in 2020, according to a mortality analysis by researchers from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

 

Guns surpassed car crashes as the top cause of death in America for those aged 19 and under in 2020, the analysis, based on recent mortality data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, shows.

 

That is the first time guns have been the leading cause of death for this age group, according to the study, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine as a letter to the editor.

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But It’s Not Just the Guns: Mental Health Needs to be On the Table

   Now just a few days after the Uvalde shootings, an initial biography of the 18-year-old killer has emerged.

Teased or bullied early in his school career for speech problems, his clothing, or his family’s socio-economic status, the killer also had some tell-tale mental health issues: few friends, anger and aggression—including with his mother, threats and inappropriate social media messages to girls, academic failure and school absences, allegations of him hurting cats, self-injurious behavior.

   A survey, published by the Springtide Research Institute just one day before the Uvalde mass murder (May 23, 2022), reported that almost a third of the students who thought about visiting a school counselor, therapist, or psychologist ended up not doing so because “they didn’t think their issues ‘were big enough to bother someone with’ or felt like they would be judged.”

   Covered in K-12 Dive, this survey involved a nationally representative sample of 4,038 teens and young adults. Among the other findings:

·        45% of the respondents said they hesitate to see a therapist because their parents don’t take their concerns seriously, 53% said they wouldn’t want their parents to know they were meeting with a school counselor or therapist, and 51% said they fear school staff might treat them differently or give them fewer opportunities at school.

·        Relative to fears regarding a “mental health stigma,” Hispanic and Latino students were most likely to say they hesitated speaking with a counselor or therapist out of fear of judgment, while Black students were most likely to say their parents or guardians don’t take their mental health concerns seriously.

   In addition, the K-12 Dive article reported that:

·        Relative to LGBTQ students, 76% reported feeling greater levels of poor mental health, emotional abuse by a parent or guardian, and suicide attempts, according to data released in April (2022) by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That’s compared to 37% of heterosexual students feeling that way

·        The CDC data also showed that Black students, along with Asian students, were the groups most likely to say they experienced racism. In Springtide Research Institute’s survey, Black students also were the least likely to say they have a trusted adult at school and most likely to say their school mental health professional ”might not understand me or the challenges I am having” due to racial or ethnic differences.

·        A separate survey, released in early May (2022) by The Trevor Project, found recent declines in the share of LGBTQ students saying their mental health was poor most of the time or always during the pandemic. Despite this, nearly two-thirds of LGTBQ students said they could not get the mental health counseling they sought in the past year.

   Clearly, there are many mental health issues and needs in our schools today. And there are not enough mental health professionals available—even though enough money is available right now to hire them.

   Thus, many of our students are not getting the attention, support, and psychological care that they need.

   Summer is almost here. Some of our students may internalize their emotions toward self-harm and other physical problems; others may externalize their emotions through aggression and acts of violence.

   Some may do both.

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History versus Politics

   There’s no skirting around the issue.

   What began as a historical right to defend our country and its sovereignty has become a political issue that allows assault weapons to be purchased by 18-year-olds.

   The 2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (adopted on December 17, 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights states:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

   The vast majority of Americans in this country—on both “sides of the aisle” favor different facets of gun control. And yet, what has been acknowledged by many of our Representatives, remains unresolved by some of our Senators.

   Even if you are not a fan of CNN, please indulge me and listen to John Avlon’s piece today (May 26, 2022):

_ _ _ _ _

   Unfortunately, I have had to write more than half a dozen Blogs responding to school shootings that have occurred, and how they might have been prevented.

   The September 8, 2018 Blog followed the killing of 17 people at Parkland High School (FL) the Valentine’s Day before. Anticipating the largely useless Federal Commission on School Safety Report, I emphasized (a) the successful gun legislation already enacted by many states; (b) how schools could address the social, emotional, behavioral, and mental health needs of students; and (c) the steps that schools can take to develop a targeted Violence Prevention Plan that includes important threat assessment procedures.

[CLICK HERE for September, 2018 Blog:

“Preventing School Shootings and Violence. States (Wisely) Not Waiting for the Federal Commission on School Safety Report: The Guidance You Need is Here and Available”]

   Much of the functional information in this Blog is still relevant.

   And yet, perhaps today, we need more emotion—as we try to deal with another school massacre—than information.

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It’s OK for Emotion to Drive Decision-Making

   Many know that I often emphasize the importance of teaching students emotional awareness, control, communication, and coping skills. And this week’s Uvalde horror has triggered a wide range of emotions across the country.

   For some, there is anger that another 21 individuals will soon be buried, and that countless families and an entire community has been devastated.

   For others, there are renewed waves of trauma—for example, in Parkland, Newtown, Littleton, Jonesboro, and elsewhere—echoing reminders of past events and losses.

   Critically, for change to occur, we must sometimes express our strong emotions. . .our outrage, our hopelessness, our resolve.

   Indeed, in order to cope, we sometimes must communicate these emotions. . . while maintaining both the control and awareness that emotion can drive decision-making.

   Many of us have tried to address the importance of gun control (not gun prohibition) and the need to destigmatize mental health services using logic, facts, and debate.

   Maybe it is time to emotionally react as Steve Kerr did, so that the emotional grief of Adalynn Ruiz can be eliminated in the future.

   Steve Kerr, the coach of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, lost his Dad to gun violence. And, Adalynn Ruiz is the daughter of Eva Mireles—one of the teachers killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde both just two days ago.

   Please listen to their words.

From Steve Kerr:

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From Adalynn Ruiz (from her Facebook post):

To the half that makes me whole,

Mom, I have no words to describe how I feel right now, tomorrow, and for the rest of my life. I never thought that I would be here writing this type of post for you.

Mom, you are a hero.

I keep telling myself that this isn’t real. I just want to hear your voice. I want to hear you talking to our dogs with that silly voice you make so high that wakes everyone up in the morning. I want to hear you say “Nanis, wake up already, man!” Because I keep snoozing my alarm.

I want to hug you one last time and I want to feel the calluses on your hands because you were not only a teacher during the day, but the most hardworking cross fitter in the afternoon. I want to be able to get out of work and expect your call at 4:30 every day because that’s the first thing you would do as soon as you got out. I want to see you sitting on the couch you claimed was only yours sitting with our dogs.

I want to send you Tik Toks and say them over and over until dad gets tired of us. I want to annoy you and wake you up from naps just so you can check on my chicken and make sure I didn’t under cook it. I want to sing karaoke with you and hear you sing “ shine bright like diamond!” In your loudest voice, I want to fight with you for the stupidest things and then laugh with you after . I want everything back.

I want you to come back to me, Mom. I miss you more than words can explain. My beautiful mom, thank you for the funniest memories. Thank you for the best times of my life. Thank you for being my best friend. Thank you for being the best mom anyone could ask for.

You are so known by many now and I’m so happy that people know your name and that beautiful face of yours and they know what a hero looks like.

I don’t know how to do this life without you, but I will take care of dad. I will take care of our dogs and I will forever say your name so you are always remembered, Eva Mireles, 4th grade teacher at Robb Elementary who selflessly jumped in front of her students to save their lives.

My heart will forever be broken. My best friend, my twin was taken from me. Thank you for loving me in the best ways and for raising me to become so strong. Everyone who knows you knows how outgoing and funny you were and I will miss your laugh forever. I want to thank you mom, for being such an inspiration to me. I will forever be so proud to be your daughter. My sweet mommy, I will see you again.

Thank you so much to everyone who has reached out during this difficult time, my family will always be so grateful for all of the love and support. Thank you for remembering my mom and sharing what a Hero she is. My condolences go out to all of the families who were affected by this tragedy. God bless you all and please hold y’alls’ mommas tight for me.

_ _ _ _ _

  There are no more words.

  Let’s take the prevailing politics out of our original history.

   If we care about life, let’s protect the lives of our children. Let’s keep them alive. Gun control and mental health services will not eliminate the problem, but they certainly can’t make things any worse.

Howie

[CLICK HERE to read this Blog on the Project ACHIEVE Webpage]

Reconceptualizing Professional Development for the Coming School Year

Moving Away from Fly-by, “Spray and Pray,” and Awareness-Only Training

[CLICK HERE to read this Blog on the Project ACHIEVE Webpage]

Dear Colleagues,

Introduction: An SEL Needs Assessment

   During the past week, I was on the West Coast completing a Social-Emotional Learning/Positive Behavioral Support (SEL/PBS) Needs Assessment with a small inner-city school district.

   Even before the Pandemic, the District had significant student discipline, classroom management, and student self-management issues.

   But these have been exacerbated by (a) two years of isolated virtual and pod-driven hybrid instruction; (b) a largely new teaching staff that did not receive appropriate pre-service training and supervision in classroom management; (c) an experienced teaching staff that believes that “discipline” should be handled by the administration; (d) a student body that has low morale, and is socially dominated by cliques and “in-groups” competing for status and (social media) attention across the school’s “peer pecking order;” and (e) an intolerance of individual differences across gender, race, socio-economic status, academic proficiency, and gender identity—that includes some members of the staff.

   The goal of the Needs Assessment was to identify the District and its schools’ organizational, school, staff, and student “SWOT” status: the strengths and assets, opportunities and resources, weaknesses and limitations, and threats and barriers to students’ social, emotional, behavioral, and mental health success.

   I physically walked into the District having (off-site) analyzed at least four years of comprehensive multi-tiered organizational and professional development, curriculum and instruction, academic and behavioral, and general and special education information, data, and outcomes.

   I also asked each school’s administrative and staff leaders—ahead of time— to complete self-evaluations of their SEL/PBS, multi-tiered system of supports, and internal SWOT statuses.

   And finally, I asked all of the staff (including paraprofessionals, secretaries, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, and custodians) to individually complete a School Climate, Safety, and Discipline survey.

_ _ _ _ _

   Once on-site, I spent three days doing “walk-throughs” in many of the District’s schools. But the bulk of my time was spent interviewing different staff and student constituencies from across the District.

   Significantly from my perspective, some of the most compelling interviews were with the different randomly-chosen and mixed groups of elementary, middle school, and high school students, respectively.

   As the primary recipients of our educational services, these students provided an important “reality check” that both supported and extended some of the perspectives of the adults that I shared time with. And, indeed, even if some student statements were not entirely accurate, their perceptions were their realities of what they were seeing and experiencing in their respective schools.

_ _ _ _ _

   In the end, I will write a Needs Assessment report, deliver it in one or more discussion group sessions, and hope that I will be invited back to provide some of the essential multi-level professional development that is essential to my proposed Action Plan and its specific goals and activities.

   Critically, many districts and schools have been through these needs assessments and the resulting cycle of “school improvement” activities too many times. . . without substantial or sustained student success.

   While there are many reasons explaining the lack of progress, one important one is how some schools conceptualize and deliver professional development.

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A Critical School Improvement Barrier: Incomplete Professional Development

   As noted above, one of the reasons why many school improvement initiatives fail is their approach to professional development.

   Indeed, even when selecting the “right” or “best” research-to-practice curricula, classroom management and engagement strategies, compensatory and multi-tiered interventions, and/or other services and supports, too many schools implement these using professional development approaches that focus on fly-by, “spray and pray,” awareness-only “training.”

·       Fly-by/One-and-Done Training typically involves outside “expert” presenters who (a) are largely unknown to the staff, (b) provide one or two on-site or virtual whole-group professional development sessions, and (c) are never seen from again. 

Staff, here, often have not been involved in either the selection of the topic or the speaker, they are expected to independently apply the information to their classrooms or work settings, and the time to fully understand the content is often not available.

_ _ _ _ _

·       Spray and Pray Training often overlaps with the Fly-by/One-and-Done Training.

This training almost exclusively provides just knowledge, information, and content. Even when it alludes to classroom skill and application, it rarely provides this during the training.

Moreover, there typically are no small group opportunities to work with the presenter in the days after the in-service session—where the presenter can model, coach, and provide technical assistance to the teachers in their own classrooms and with their own students.

Descriptively, Spray and Pray Training often aligns with the “sit and git” approach to professional development.

However, even when presenters embed small collaborative group and applied activities into their sessions, they often do this while cutting down the comprehensive information that staff need to fully understand the topic.

This occurs because presenters are rarely afforded enough time to fully share their expertise, because too many districts and schools try to jam too many topics and presentations into the precious few professional development days that they have each year.

_ _ _ _ _

·       Awareness-Only Training continues the trend above. This training either is designed only to increase staff awareness of (not skill and application with) a specific topic area, or it only results in that outcome.

At most, this kind of training results in staff who may understand the information, but do not know how to functionally implement the information in their classrooms or work settings. 

At “least,” this training results in staff who think that they understand the information and its classroom applications, and they implement practices that either are not successful for students (thereby wasting precious time) or that inadvertently undercut students’ learning and mastery.

_ _ _ _ _

   To change the professional development “flaws” above, most districts and schools will need to take the information below and implement it as part of a systemic planning and change process.

   With all the information and skills needed in our classrooms and schools today, it is amazing to me that—over the past decade or two—districts and schools have significantly decreased the number of annual professional development days, while additionally (as above) sacrificing the quality. This has largely been done because districts and schools believe that teachers need to spend more time in the classroom teaching students.

   But if teachers are not providing effective, quality instruction. . . then the additional days in the classroom will not produce the desired academic or social, emotional, and behavior results !!!!

   Indeed, using an analogy from the business world, I would suggest that any business that ignores (a) research and development, and (b) staff professional development, coaching, and supervision for too long will not stay in business.

   This is because they will not maintain and sustain the innovation, quality, and product consistency that they need to attract, keep, and extend their customers and profits.

   As educators, we are in a “people” business. Our product is the academic and social-emotional proficiency of our students from year-to-year and upon graduation.

   Without sound, high quality professional development, we will surely (continue to) underperform relative to our students. It is time to take to recognize that “more is less.” That is, we need to focus on fewer school improvement and professional development initiatives, but do them better.

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The Three Essential Components of Professional Development:  Knowledge, Skills, and Confidence 

   There are three interdependent goals and components of effective professional development:

·       The Understanding, Learning, and Mastery of the information, content, and knowledge related to a specific professional development topic or initiative; that transfers over time into. . . 

·       The effective Skill and Application needed to make it sustained and successful with students in a classroom or other work setting; that results over time in. . . 

·       Independent Competence and Confidence, because it has been implemented many times, under many conditions, with many different kinds of students.

   These three components are essential to maximize the staff success that is needed to successfully impact student outcomes. They are so important that they must be part of a district or school’s strategic professional development plan that should be outlined before the professional development is ever begun. Moreover, these components must be evident in how the professional development is arranged, organized, and contracted for.

   More specifically, if a district or school is using an outside expert to guide its professional development initiative, that individual’s contract should include not just his or her in-service presentations. . . it should also include the follow-up coaching, consultation, and technical assistance sessions needed to accomplish the three goals and components above.

   As noted earlier, these post-in-service sessions typically involve extended small group staff trainings where (a) skills relevant to a specific professional development initiative are modeled and practiced, and where (b) these skills are integrated—with coaching—into participants’ classrooms or other work settings and applied to/with the students present.

   These coaching and consultation sessions should be further supplemented with administrative supervision and evaluation—all to ensure that staff have the time and resources needed to attain both competence and confidence. . . and that they are held accountable for expected student-centered outcomes.

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   Two science-based practices have been embedded in the discussion above.

   The first involves how to teach staff new skills, behaviors, and personal or professional interactions.

   This requires using social learning theory’s five steps to sound behavioral instruction. These steps are:

·       Teaching the “internal” steps (or scripts) needed to guide staff members’ implementation of a new skill or behavior, and associating these steps with a break-down of the actual behaviors that need to be demonstrated;

·       Having staff members watch a professional development leader or mentor positively and appropriately model these steps and behaviors—initially out loud, and eventually through just behavior;

·       Giving staff opportunities to roleplay the new behaviors in simulated situations with guided “performance feedback” that positively reinforces correct skill demonstrations, and that critically corrects inaccurate demonstrations;

·       Transferring participants’ successful skill practice and mastery into controlled, but actual, classroom situations where the professional development leader is still there to guide and coach, provide positive and corrective feedback, and help staff members with situations that involve high levels of emotionality; and

·       Ensuring that staff members continue to practice and use their new skills (through, for example, self-evaluations and/or periodic PLC or grade-level meetings) so the skills become embedded or “infused” into automatic behavior, and they move toward high levels of self-confidence and independent skill competence.

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   The second science-based practice involves professional development’s instructional continuum from:

·       In-Service Training, to. . .

·       Small-Group Skill Instruction, Modeling, Roleplaying, and Mastery to...

·       Guided Classroom-Based Application and Coaching, to. . .

·       Administrative Accountability, Clinical Supervision, and Evaluation, to. . .

·       Staff Member Automaticity, Infusion, Competence, and Confidence.

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A Brief Professional Development Example

   As an international consultant who works with many districts and schools for three to five years at a time, quality professional development is a cornerstone of my work and my schools’ successes.

   Below is an example of a sequence of professional development activities that is typical for teaching general education teachers how to implement the Stop & Think Social Skills Program in their classrooms. This sequence would be adapted for both special education teachers, counselors, and/or other mental health staff, respectfully, to address the strategic or intensive multi-tiered needs of struggling or challenging students.

   Note how the specific sequence of activities aligns with the characteristics of effective professional development discussed earlier in this Blog.

   Using an elementary school implementation for our example, the sequence of professional development activities might be:

·       A school’s Leadership or Professional Development Committee decides that, based on formative or summative evaluation data, there is a need to implement a school-wide social skills program. 

·       The Committee holds a series of whole staff and focus group discussions to get a consensus of the professional development goals and student benefits and outcomes from such an initiative. 

·       A Social Skills Selection Task Force completes an analysis of the research and outcomes of numerous evidence-based social skills programs, conducts interviews of schools using different high-success programs, and listens to presentations the various social skills program authors and trainers. 

·       The Task Force selects the Stop & Think Social Skills Program, asks the school’s staff to formally adopt and commit to the implementation of the Program, and outlines the Knowledge, Skill, and Confidence activities and outcomes needed for the professional development process.

·       These activities are discussed with the Stop & Think author and trainer who commits to a training process at both the teacher and the support staff levels.

·       The school purchases enough Stop & Think Social Skills Program manuals and support materials for the entire staff.

·       Staff meet the Program’s author on a Zoom meeting, and they complete a guided book study of the Stop & Think Social Skills manual with a second Zoom meeting with the author to discuss what they have learned so far and to answer any questions.

·       Staff then participate in a live in-service training on the Stop & Think Social Skills Program. This training gives them the information needed to teach social skills in the classroom across an entire school year, shows representative videos of effective social skill lessons, as discusses how to transfer, apply, and infuse the social skills instruction so that students are learning, mastering, and able to independently apply the skills in real-life school and classroom situations.

·       Staff watch additional social skill lesson videos after the training so that they see additional effective social skills lesson samples at different grade levels and for different skills.

·       Additional training and implementation support in the use of the Stop & Think Program at the Tier II and Tier III levels are provided to the school’s special education, mental health, and administrative staff to address the needs of struggling or challenging students.

·       After the in-service training, small groups of teachers get together to debrief the information and content of the training. These small groups meet periodically during the early implementation of the Program in their classrooms, and some of these sessions include the Stop & Think trainer who reinforces the steps and staff skills needed for successful Stop & Think Program classroom and school implementation.

·       The Stop & Think trainer returns to the school and does live Stop & Think lessons at different grade levels and with different skills. These demonstration lessons are watched live by the teachers and staff at these different grade levels. 

The live presentations are done with selected intact classrooms of students, the training is videotapes for later use, and the staff who observe the lessons meet immediately after the training to debrief and ask questions about what they observed.

·       Teachers continue to implement the Stop & Think lessons in their classrooms—focusing especially on the transfer of these skills, as relevant and strategically appropriate, into the day-to-day functioning of their classrooms and across the school.

Teacher complete self-evaluations of their instruction and application for each skill, and provide these to their administrators and the Stop & Think trainer.

The teachers also meet at least once per month for a Stop & Think meeting where they share instruction and application activities that worked in their classrooms, and where they plan together as a “curriculum committee” to prepare their lessons for the coming month.

·       At least three times during the school year, teachers observe a colleague’s Stop & Think social skills lesson, and share observations and provide feedback on what they have seen.

Administrators, either during walk-through or informal/formal classroom observation (evaluation) sessions, consciously choose to observe a Stop & Think lesson, and provide appropriate feedback.

·       All teachers meet, virtually or live, with the Stop & Think trainer at least two more times during the school year to discuss implementation, student outcomes, and situations where the training needs to be adapted or modified.

This could include having the trainer observe teachers’ Stop & Think lessons so that instructional processes can be reinforced, corrected, or extended.

·       At the end of the year, teachers self-evaluate their progress and student outcomes, identify additional training or support that they need for continuing success, and plan for their implementation beginning in the new school year.

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Summary

   This Blog focused on the fact that many school improvement initiatives fail because of their approach to professional development. Some of the typical approaches used in many schools were described: Fly-by/One-and-Done, Spray and Pray, and Awareness-Only training, respectfully.

   In contrast, we described the three interdependent goals and components of effective professional development:

·       The Understanding, Learning, and Mastery of the information, content, and knowledge related to a specific professional development topic or initiative; that transfers over time into. . . 

·       The effective Skill and Application needed to make it sustained and successful with students in a classroom or other work setting; that results over time in. . .

·       Independent Competence and Confidence, because it has been implemented many times, under many conditions, with many different kinds of students.

   We then discussed the two science-based practices that must be embedded in the processes above. The first involved how to teach staff new skills, behaviors, and personal or professional interactions. The second involved a professional development instructional continuum beginning with In-Service Training and ending with Staff Member Automaticity, Infusion, Competence, and Confidence.

   The Blog finally provided a “case study” example of a professional development sequence in an elementary school that was focused on training general education teachers to teach the Stop & Think Social Skills in their classrooms during Year 1 of implementation.

   All of this is based on both the research and our 40 years of experience implementing Project ACHIEVE (www.projectachieve.info)—our evidence-based multi-tiered academic and social, emotional, and behavioral school improvement process—in thousands of schools across the country.

   Project ACHIEVE, and its Social-Emotional/Positive Behavioral Support component—highlighted by the Stop & Think Social Skills Program—was the Arkansas Department of Education’s school improvement model during thirteen “No Child Left Behind” years.

   Using it, we worked to (a) enhance students’ interpersonal and emotional self-regulation skills; to (b) increase their academic engagement and focus; so that they could (c) maximize their academic learning, mastery, and proficiency.

   The professional development goals and approaches described in this Blog helped to maximize teachers’ knowledge, skill, and confidence. . . in a wide variety of school improvement areas. The process helped to maintain their implementation fidelity, and to keep them accountable to high-quality implementation over time.

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   I hope that the information in this Blog is useful to you. Even as we near the end of this school year, many are already planning their professional development for next year.

   Given this, as you plan and identify (and contract with) your professional development trainers, I hope you will ensure that all three elements of quality professional development are built-into your training and instructional process.

   If I can help you in this—or related—areas, please do not hesitate to contact me so that you can take advantage of my standing offer of a free one-hour consultation conference call at any time to help clarify your needs and directions on behalf of your students and colleagues.

   I look forward to hearing from you.

Best,

Howie

[CLICK HERE to read this Blog on the Project ACHIEVE Webpage]