In Uncommon Times, Uncommon Sense is Best
Introduction
Since the full
force of the Pandemic began in March—dramatically changing the educational
landscape for students, parents, and educators—I have written two Blog articles
each month, trying to provide common sense and science-to-practice directions
and recommendations relative to effective school and schooling strategies.
I have discussed the
pandemic on personal and professional levels, focused on home and school issues,
and directly addressed students’ academic and social, emotional, and behavioral
experiences, status, and needs.
At this point, it
appears that the vast majority of schools across the country will be educating
their students using either full-virtual or hybrid approaches this Fall.
For those
schools in full-virtual mode, we must—now—comprehensively
address the off-campus social, emotional, and behavioral needs of all of our
students—going well past this Spring’s reactive (and necessary) focus on
students with significant, immediate physical, security, psychological, and
disability-related needs.
While challenging,
related service professionals (counselors, school psychologists, social
workers, etc.) must be working full-time on providing multi-tiered services and
supports to all students. For students still in need, this may have to include
socially-distanced home or school visits.
For those
schools in hybrid mode, we must look, now and one more time, at how our
school plans include the social, emotional, and behavioral re-entry needs of all
students, and how we will identify, validate, and address the specific needs of
some students.
_ _ _ _ _
In the Summary
section of this article, I will review the social, emotional, and
behavioral service and support recommendations from my most-recent (since
March) Blogs.
Today’s message,
however, specifically focuses on how to screen (lower case) our students’ social,
emotional, and behavioral status this Fall—regardless of a school’s virtual/stay-at-home,
hybrid, or full-attendance model.
Critically, unlike
some of my colleagues, the popular press, and the test vendors (and some of
their authors), I am not recommending that schools formally Screen
(upper case—using some type of standardized assessment tool) students in the
social-emotional areas during, at least, the first two months of
the school year—whenever that starts for your students.
If such “Screening”
is done too early and too quickly, the results will largely be invalid, the
needed treatment directions will be unclear (or incorrectly focused), the time
will be wasted. . . . and worse, some students may be harmed by not getting or
getting the wrong therapeutic services.
Instead, I
recommend “screening” activities (lower case s), and the use of
your mental health team to pool the information from these activities to make
sound, differentiated clinical decisions.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
How Does the “Normalcy Bias” Relate to
Social-Emotional Screening?
As many of you
know, I read articles every day in a wide variety of educational,
psychological, organizational, business, and current event areas. Last week, I
read a business article in RealLeaders titled, “How Business Can Beat
the Coronavirus: Confront the New Reality.”
It discussed the
impact of the Normalcy Bias, one of hundreds of cognitive biases that
specifically leads people to disbelieve or minimize threat warnings. Typically
applied to natural or situational disasters or catastrophes, a Normalcy Bias is
a conscious or unconscious neuro-psychological process that can be applied to
our current Pandemic conditions in a number of ways.
For example, in a
March 15, 2020 Psychology Today article, “How Psychological Biases
Shaped My Response to This Pandemic,” Dr. Amie Gordon analyzed her initial under-reaction
to COVID-19 in early March saying,
One of the most relevant psychological biases is
called the normalcy bias. This bias refers to our tendency to expect that things will
continue to occur in the future the way they have typically occurred in the
past (to continue to be “normal”), which can lead us to underestimate both the likelihood
of a disaster occurring and how bad the disaster is when it does occur.
And apparently, I am among the 70 percent or so people
thought to fall prey to this bias during a disaster. Even as I write about this
bias, I can feel it playing in my mind. I feel myself thinking that yes, things
are strange right now, but this is just temporary. It can’t really keep getting
worse, right?
I have to keep reminding myself that my daughter’s
school is closed for a month (remember, she was writing this in March) because
that is certainly not part of my normal life. The world’s reaction to the novel
coronavirus has made it clear that this is not a normal situation, but I must
remind myself of it constantly to fight against what, in my mind, feels like a
brief blip in our typical way of doing things.
While I wonder if
some people are “refusing” to wear masks in public not because of defiance, but
because of their unconscious normalcy bias, let’s talk about how some may be
making educational and psychoeducational recommendations based on their
normalcy biases.
_ _ _ _ _
Over the past week
or so, I have read a number of articles, newsletters, or advertisements (framed
to educators as “professional advice”) that recommend that we formally Screen
all students’ social, emotional, and behavioral status as soon as they come
back to school this Fall.
By formally
Screen, they are suggesting that we ask teachers (or others) to complete
a standardized questionnaire, behavior rating scale, or clinical assessment tool
on every student to determine if they are experiencing or at-risk for some
social, emotional, or behavioral problem (for example, trauma, stress, anxiety,
depression, anger, or aggression).
These
recommendations have come from test or book publishers (or their authors),
companies marketing their on-line assessments or services, the educational
media (for example, Education Week or different SmartBrief
newsletters), and in the popular press.
Some of these
sources, quite honestly, are just trying to increase their “market share” of
schools.
Others are
publishing the work of their contributing authors, but their editors “don’t
know what they don’t know”—and end up publishing “bad science.”
Still others are
not adequately defining what they mean by “screening”—leaving it up to the
(mis)interpretation of practicing school personnel.
And others,
finally, are incurring a Normalcy Bias—thinking that how we did social,
emotional, and behavioral screening pre-pandemic is how we should still
do it post-pandemic.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Why We Should Not Screen Students with
Social-Emotional Tests Immediately This School Year
Under normal
(pre-pandemic) circumstances, a psychometrically-sound
screening-to-services process requires the use of (a) multiple assessment
approaches or tools; (b) completed by multiple raters (including the student
him or herself); (c) evaluating student behavior across multiple settings; (d)
where the ratings, observations, and data are reliable and the results are valid;
and all completed (e) within a multiple-gated process.
With no disrespect
to my educational colleagues, if the statement above (and explained below) does
not make complete sense, please consult your school psychologist—typically, the
best psychometrically science-to-practice expert in this area in your district.
In this context,
whether using a standardized questionnaire, behavior rating scale, or clinical
assessment tool, a formal social-emotional Screening Test requires someone
to complete the tool based on enough observation, interaction, and experience
with a student that the ratings are reliable and valid.
In schools, “enough
observation, interaction, and experience” is typically defined as a minimum
of six to eight weeks of “frequent” interactions that occur (as above) over
time, in multiple settings, and across multiple circumstances.
Stated less
clinically, the person who is completing a social, emotional, or behavioral
Screening Test needs to know the student.
So why shouldn’t
schools screen students with social-emotional questionnaires, scales, tools, or
tests immediately this new school year?
- If students have all new teachers this new school year, none of them will have enough interactional experiences with their students to (reliably—never mind validly) complete a screening tool until (depending on when students return) early- to mid-October at the earliest.
- If students have the same teachers as last year, too many social, emotional, or behavioral events have occurred between last March (when most schools closed) and now. . . that these teachers either are not privy to or have not directly observed under “typical” classroom conditions (noting that virtual instruction is different than on-site classroom instruction).
- When students return to school this Fall, we are fully expecting a social, emotional, and behavioral transition or re-entry process that is somewhat different than “normal.” While we can’t exactly predict how individual students will re-enter (hence the screening process outlined later in this Blog), we do expect different levels of social, emotional, and behavioral variability across students as a “normal” response. . . both to the medical, economic, educational, social, and/or other life condition effects of the pandemic, and to the racial bias and equity events triggered by the murder of George Floyd and others.
In summary, as emphasized
in the Introduction, we are recommending that schools do not formally
Screen (upper case—using some type of standardized assessment tool) students in
the social-emotional areas during, at least, the first two months
of the school year—whenever that starts for your students.
Instead, we are
recommending “screening” activities (lower case s), and the use
of your mental health team to pool the information from these activities to
make sound, differentiated clinical decisions.
These screening
activities are outlined below—first from a process perspective and then from a
data-collection perspective.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
The Recommended Pandemic-Sensitive Screening Process
As noted above, a psychometrically-sound
social, emotional, and behavioral screening-to-services process requires the
use of (a) multiple assessment approaches or tools; (b) completed by multiple
raters (including the student him or herself); (c) evaluating student behavior across
multiple settings; (d) where the ratings, observations, and data are reliable
and the results are valid; and all completed (e) within a multiple-gated
process.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _
The Recommended Data-Collection Elements
Relative to screening or a more formal
assessment of a student’s social, emotional, and behavioral status, there are
many ways to collect important data. Ultimately, these data must be reliable
and valid (this is a required psychometric principle), and they need to
identify and differentiate among specific, legitimate concerns.
The different ways to collect social,
emotional, and behavioral screening data can be summarized in the acronym RIOTS—Review,
Interview, Observe, Test, and Self-Report.
This acronym is operationalized in the full
Blog article along with specific examples of screening-specific data collection
approaches.
Brief Summary. The goal of this
section is to help colleagues recognize that there are many information and
data sources available to complete a sound social, emotional, and behavioral
screening process for all of the students in a school. If our recommendation to
not do a formal Social-Emotional Screening Test immediately at the beginning
of the school year is heeded, data collected within the other RIOTS areas
can—with Multi-Tiered Services Team planning—efficiently and effectively be
used. In fact, the Team and school may realize that collecting these other data
now may preempt the need for a later Screening Test.
The critical issue is planning. Once again, now
is the time for the Multi-Tiered Services Team to act.
If a school is using any school-opening
model that involves students’ physical presence in their classrooms, this
action is essential to a smooth social, emotional, and behavioral transition.
If the new year will start virtually, the
school (and the Team) are still responsible for the social, emotional, and behavioral
status of its students. We are now past the “reactive period” that began last
March. We now need to be fully serving all of our students as part our comprehensive
educational mandate.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Summary and Reviewing Our Previous Re-Entry Recommendations
In multiple ways
and contexts, these are not normal times.
And yet, we all experience—even
momentarily—times when our normalcy bias leads us to disbelieve or minimize
the impact of the current pandemic.
On a professional
level, we need to be careful about using past practices—that were appropriate in
a non-pandemic world—before considering whether they are appropriate now.
This means that we
need to continually “test” the validity of our potential normalcy biases—especially
when they impact students’ social, emotional, and behavioral status, progress,
and needs.
Said a different
way: We need to use Uncommon Sense for these Uncommon Times.
_ _ _ _ _
In this Blog, we
applied the normalcy bias to squelch others’ recommendations that schools formally
screen—through standardized questionnaires, behavior rating scales, or clinical
assessment tools—students’ social, emotional, and behavioral status immediately
at the beginning of the new school year.
Instead, we recommended
the collection of screening information and data through the use of different screening
approaches that are coordinated through a school’s Multi-Tiered Services Team.
We then outlined a recommended
sequence of screening activities, and identified different data collection
approaches, organized by the acronym RIOTS.
In all, we
especially emphasized the importance of using a psychometrically-sound
screening-to-services process requires the use of (a) multiple assessment
approaches or tools; (b) completed by multiple raters (including the student
him or herself); (c) evaluating student behavior across multiple settings; (d)
where the ratings, observations, and data are reliable and the results are
valid; and all completed (e) within a multiple-gated process.
_ _ _ _ _
A Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Summary Bonus
Since March, virtually
all of my Blog articles have focused explicitly on how districts and schools
should address the academic and social, emotional, and behavioral
service-delivery challenges related to the pandemic. These have all been organized
and integrated into a monograph:
Planning Your Post-Pandemic Re-Opening of School:
Addressing Students’ Academic & Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Needs
The monograph is
over 130 pages, it is delivered electronically as a pdf, and because of the
importance of the topic, we have priced it under $10.
Below is a brief
summary of five of the social, emotional, and behaviorally-related “Take-Aways”
discussed in the Monograph.
_ _ _ _ _
Take-Away #1. Primary Principles of Pandemic
Planning
In a recent Education
Week article, Dr. Kathleen Minke, the Executive Director of the National
Association of School Psychologists recommended the following principles for
districts planning for the Fall school re-entry of their students:
·
Develop a
long-term recovery plan.
·
Assess, don’t
assume.
·
Develop a
resource map.
·
Provide
professional development and emotional care for adults.
_ _ _ _ _
Take-Away #2. Primary Practices in the Student
Re-Entry Process
As our students
return to school this Fall (whether virtual, hybrid, or full-attendance), their
educators need to:
· Plan from a
strength-based perspective that recognizes and utilizes students’ social,
emotional, and behavioral strengths.
· Recognize the
importance of creating immediate and sustained safe and supportive climates.
· Allow students to
discuss and debrief the pandemic’s past and present effects on their lives, to
socially and emotionally re-connect with their peers and staff, and to
(re-)establish supportive interpersonal and academic routines.
· Realize that we
will still be living in the shadow and context of the pandemic, that students
(and staff) will need ongoing understanding and support, and that everyone has
their own “timeline” relative to emotional response, recovery, and
“normalization;”
· Prepare to
formally or informally screen students for social, emotional, and/or behavioral
distress.
· Have a continuum
of in-school and community-based social, emotional, and behavioral services,
supports, strategies, and interventions prepared for students in need.
· Understand that
this “new normal” post-pandemic school and schooling world includes a “new
normal” relative to the social, emotional, and behavioral status and needs of
students (and staff).
_ _ _ _ _
Take-Away #3. Establish Stress-Informed not
Trauma-Informed School Climates and Practices
Pragmatically and
clinically, more students have stressors that impact their social, emotional,
and behavioral interactions than students— especially from a clinical
perspective—with traumatic disorders.
Thus, it follows
that educators need to be prepared more broadly with Stress-Informed
knowledge and practices, rather than with trauma-related approaches that
typically require psychological training.
Districts and
schools need to recognize that there are no single or “packaged” (social,
emotional, behavioral, or SEL) programs to purchase or download that will adequately
and accurately address the unique and individual needs within each district and
its community.
Success here
will require planning and implementing effective practices that are
individualized to the students, staff, and families in each district or
school.
_ _ _ _ _
Take-Away #4. What to Include in Your
Post-Pandemic Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Plan
Districts and
schools need to be prepared to implement a series of essential activities on
the first days and weeks of the school year when staff and students physically
return to school.
They also need to
prepare for a “second wave” of activities for the second and third months of
the re-entry process.
In
order to accomplish some of these activities, the district needs to (a) have
memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with agencies that have support personnel to
help provide continuous social, emotional, behavioral, or mental health services;
(b) systematically review data from its data management tracking system; (c) continue
to provide both individual and group services and interventions so that students
can process and share their experiences in appropriate and supportive formats
and settings; and (d) maintain effective communications with individual and
groups of parents and other community leaders.
_ _ _ _ _
Take-Away #5. How to Talk with Students About the Pandemic
and Help Them Cope
Districts and schools need to prepare how and
who will discuss relevant social, emotional, and behavioral issues relative to
the pandemic and school and schooling processes. These discussions will evolve
over time, they may be individualized to different groups of students, and they
may involve a continuum from teachers to administrators to mental health
professionals in the school.
_ _ _ _ _
Meanwhile, I hope
that this Blog essay has been helpful to you. As an underlying theme, I want to
emphasize that, while we need to prepare for this social, emotional, and
behavioral transition on behalf of our students, we need to take an
objective, developmentally-sensitive, and data-based perspective in how we plan
and eventually respond to the real behaviors and needs that our students
exhibit.
Related to this is
an emphasis that districts and schools need to prepare and implement
effective, locally-sensitive, and student-focused practices. . . not
global, canned, untested, or heavily marketed and frameworks or programs. And,
once again, that the planning needs to occur now. . . so that the
resources, preparation, and training can occur before our students come back.
As always, I appreciate the time that you
invest in reading these Blogs, and your
dedication to your students, your colleagues, and effective school and
schooling practices— especially in the face of the challenges and competing
priorities that we all are experiencing.
Please feel free to send me your
thoughts and questions.
And please know that I am always
available to you through Zoom calls. . . if and when you need me. Contact me at
any time.
Best,
Howie
