اینترنت

برچسب: whole

  • The moment of the whole child is here; let’s not waste it

    The moment of the whole child is here; let’s not waste it


    Students rehearsing a dance routine in an expanded learning program in Fresno

    Photo: Jay Dunn/The Partnership for Children & Youth (PCY)

    The pandemic shed a bright light on something we already knew: The traditional school day is not enough to serve the whole child. Students in our school systems are struggling academically. From low test scores to low attendance rates, the pandemic recovery has left too many students behind. In response, California made a $4 billion commitment — part of the most significant funding increase in the state’s history — to fund quality expanded learning programs through the Expanded Learning Opportunities Program in an effort to bridge critical gaps in the school day.

    To fully support students’ development, we must go beyond test scores and classroom performance. Students need experiences that support their minds, bodies and spirits, too. Programs before and after school, enrichment and summer learning offer safe spaces for students to spend time outside the classroom, where they can connect with trusted adults, catch up on schoolwork, engage with their friends and play in green spaces outdoors. These programs help boost students’ school performance, increase school day attendance and graduation rates and increase family engagement.

    The good news is that state leaders are paying attention to the benefits of these types of expanded learning programs across the state. Recently, state policymakers participated in events here in Los Angeles to celebrate Lights On Afterschool — an initiative that calls attention to the importance of after-school programs. They saw firsthand the positive impact that learning outside of regular school hours has on children, not only academically, but mentally, emotionally and physically.

    Through quality expanded learning, we see kids transform into their most authentic selves, and when there is a dedicated effort toward inclusion, experiences lead to self-discovery and a commitment to their communities. We believe that expanded learning programs help students understand their deeper place in the world, and the confidence they build here expands into their time in the classroom and in their communities.

    Expanded learning goes beyond just the academic benefits, to the social and emotional health of students, necessary building blocks for the development of happy and healthy children. Last year more than 94% of surveyed middle-school participants in local programming said they grew in key areas of social and emotional development, like self-management and positive identity. Additionally, 83% of elementary participants felt a sense of team or group identity, especially important for a generation still reeling from the aftermath of isolation due to the pandemic.

    From first graders playing violins in mariachi bands to young athletes learning skills and important life lessons on and off the court and young people finding new confidence after a few nights at a sleepaway camp, demonstrate the immediate and long-term results of confidence, collaboration, cultural pride and agency. When young people are given choice and opportunity to find what “sparks” them, they find a sense of self that gives them a foundation for school and life success.

    Expanded learning programs are an essential part of development for so many students across our city — and our state. Our daily interactions with students in these programs prove we are on the right track — but we aren’t done yet. We must continue to fund and support high-quality expanded learning programs to ensure all students across the state have access to these opportunities to set the whole child — and whole communities — up for success. 

    •••

    Julee Baber Brooks is CEO of Woodcraft Rangers, a major expanded learning provider that serves over 20,000 at 120 locations.

    Jessica Gunderson is co-CEO of the Partnership for Children and Youth, a nonprofit working to increase access and quality of expanded learning programs in California.

    The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the authors. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.





    Source link

  • How California can help teachers deliver ‘whole child education’

    How California can help teachers deliver ‘whole child education’


    Credit: Allison Shelley for American Education

    California’s educators are drowning in a sea of well-intentioned but fragmented statewide initiatives. It’s time for a unified approach.

    In California, we often hear that our education system is designed to “support the whole child.” This language is found in the California Department of Education’s organizing framework and sprinkled throughout the state’s many education initiatives, including Community Schools, Expanded Learning, and Multi-Tiered System of Support. This commitment to whole-child development ought to come as good news, but because the state and its agents haven’t been clear or consistent about what they mean by “whole child,” or what an educator needs to do to support the whole child, it often leads to confusion and frustration instead.

    This lack of clarity means that educators in classrooms, schools and districts feel overwhelmed by all the new, seemingly separate programs and initiatives the state asks them to implement. They respond to different funding requests, fill out various program plans and reports, and attend and provide different trainings for all of these initiatives, each one feeling like “one more thing,” all while trying to manage their core teaching responsibilities and engage students effectively.

    Mai Xi Lee, social and emotional learning (SEL) director at the Sacramento County Office of Education, captured this frustration well: “We’re doing bits and pieces of the same work, but calling them different things. We create these arbitrary structures defining what we do — this is SEL, PBIS, MTSS, etc. We get locked into language that we, unfortunately, as an educational system, have put in place.”

    Here’s the missed opportunity: There actually are clear descriptions of whole-child education and whole-child practices already embedded within each of the initiatives. A recent report from the Center for Whole-Child Education details specifically how these practices show up in the initiatives. It uses the guiding principles for equitable whole-child design, created by the Learning Policy Institute and collaborating organizations as part of the Science of Learning and Development Alliance, to define whole-child practices that are based on research.

    State leaders and administrators can increase alignment and reduce stress among already-stressed educators by communicating more clearly and intentionally about the existing alignment. The five Guiding Principles provide a simple way to define what is meant by whole-child education. Young people learn best when they experience the following in an integrated way:

    • Positive relationships with adults and peers
    • Environments filled with safety and belonging
    • Rich, engaging learning opportunities
    • Intentional development of skills, habits and mindsets
    • Additional integrated supports when needed

    If state education leaders and administrators — who already reference “the whole child” throughout their efforts — would agree on and reference specific practices, such as these Guiding Principles, the increased clarity could cascade through the system. With consistent language from the state, then staff in county offices of education, district leaders and site administrators would better understand and be able to communicate specifically what a “whole-child” approach entails and how these principles are in fact shared across initiatives. For example, teachers would know that their work to develop positive relationships with students and create environments filled with safety and belonging is actually part of Social-Emotional Learning, Positive Behavioral Intervention Systems, Multi-Tiered System of Support, and Community Schools. In practice, these aren’t separate or siloed concepts or “one more thing” educators have to do — they are good teaching, creating the conditions in which students learn, grow and thrive.

    The easy win here is for state leaders to agree on a short description of what they mean when they say “whole-child” and hew to that definition consistently and intentionally in guiding documents about different programs, strategies and initiatives. To reach consensus, a committee or task force of key leaders and staff who work on education initiatives could review the existing whole-child frameworks and their own guiding documents to define their shared language. This approach would clarify the state’s “whole-child” vision and provide consistent guidance about what educators should do to support young people, no matter what initiative they are working on.

    Statewide clarity would be a huge relief to the thousands of educators who are doing their best every day to bring high quality teaching to their students, and who desperately need tools and systems that make their work easier, not more confusing. 

    •••

    Katie Brackenridge is a consultant working with districts and county offices of education to plan and implement coherent whole-child practices.

    The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the author. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.





    Source link

  • ‘Looking at the whole child’: State leaders discuss ways to improve students’ mental health

    ‘Looking at the whole child’: State leaders discuss ways to improve students’ mental health


    Credit: Alison Yin/EdSource

    Bringing more mental health professionals onto campuses, training teachers and reducing negative stigmas surrounding mental illness are critical to students’ wellbeing, according to experts at Friday’s Select Committee on School Climate and Student Safety meeting. 

    From kindergarteners to high school seniors, students across California are still struggling with mental health challenges in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic — and districts across the state have come up with various strategies to provide support. 

    “We need to shed light on the current state of student mental health, identify key challenges and explore potential solutions,” said State Senator Susan Rubio (D-Baldwin Park), who led the discussion. 

    Mental health challenges

    While most of society has moved on from the Covid-19 pandemic, a large proportion of students have not. 

    “A lot of us —  not only children, but adults as well — we became a lot more isolated,” said Jonathan Wicks, a social worker at YWCA San Gabriel Valley, at Friday’s hearing. “Now that we’re all reintegrating back into social spaces, a lot of times, it’s not as easy to connect, and so that connectedness that belongingness isn’t always there.” 

    Most mental health conditions start to manifest when someone is in their youth or young adulthood; Jeannine Topalian, former president of California Association of School Psychologists, who also serves on the California’s Advisory Commission on Special Education, cited an ACLU report which found that more than 63% of students reported experiencing an emotional meltdown, while nearly half said they were depressed.

    Wicks added that over the past few years, young people have increasingly turned to marijuana and other substances to cope, which has led some to “over indulging and going into psychosis.”

    Mental health staff

    Schools often don’t have the staffing and resources to support struggling students.

    According to Topalian, there are 1,041 students for every school psychologist in California and  7,308 students for every social worker. 

    “There are six year olds out there who are in crisis today, who are in need of a lot of support from mental health professionals,” she said. “And what better place than a school where that’s the hub of the community to provide these services.”

    Mental health professionals at schools are overwhelmed with hefty caseloads which makes it harder to pay attention to students’ individual needs or to take a more preventative approach. 

    Loretta Whitson, executive director of the California Association of School Counselors, said that some progress has been made in California’s counselor-to-student ratio. In the 2012-13 academic year, the ratio was 826 students to one counselor. Now, it’s roughly half that. 

    “I think 800 would be more like urgent care. We’re responding to crises,” she said. “….When you have 400, then you are able to do comprehensive strategic work.”

    The national suggestion is a 250:1 ratio, she added. 

    “We’re not where we want to be…., but we’re moving in the right direction,” Whitson said, adding that there are more counseling services in elementary schools now, where students start learning social skills and ways to cope. 

    Fifty percent of all school counselors nationwide in California, and 33 university programs in the state are turning out new counselors, Whitson added. 

    A ‘first line of defense’: involving teachers

    Involving teachers is a critical support for students in their mental health challenges, the speakers agreed. 

    Kim Griffin Esperon, a project director of Mental Health & School Counseling at the Los Angeles County Office of Education, emphasized the importance of creating step-by-step protocols that teachers and staff can be trained to implement. 

    Teachers should also be provided with guidelines to help them spot signs of depression, and their input should always be considered, Topalian said. 

    “We often tell teachers or staff what to do. It’s very important to think about asking them what they need and where their skill set is before we implement or develop programs,” she said. “They need to be part of the process rather than being the people who are in the frontline trying to do this work for our students.”

    Off campus 

    Reducing the stigma around mental illness is also critical to students accessing support, the speakers agreed. 

    “Traditionally, schools and communities have understood mental health supports and services to be necessarily only for those students who have been identified as having a mental health disorder, or they have assumed that all students experiencing mental health challenges require intensive mental health interventions,” Esperon said. 

    “Fortunately, our understanding has evolved to refocus our attention on prevention and earlier identification of students who are struggling as well as referral to the appropriate level of services to meet students’ needs.” 

    Wicks said there are several intergenerational families in the San Gabriel Valley — which can make it harder for students to access support because of varied attitudes toward mental health support and counseling. 

    “I could see the challenge, you know, for the youth to hear the information and maybe want to move in that direction [of seeking help],” Wicks said. “But when they would go home and have those discussions, they would kind of come back with a ‘No thank you.’” 

    He added that youth advisory opportunities, where students can interact with one another, can be particularly helpful. And some districts have explored peer-to-peer counseling, which can also reduce students’ feelings of isolation. 

    Other ways to expand access 

    The Los Angeles Unified School District has attempted to expand community outreach to reduce stigmas around mental illness — while using Telehealth options to provide students with mental health supports, according to the district’s Administrator of Student Health and Human Services Joel Cisneros. 

    He said LAUSD also has its own psychiatric emergency response team, which intervenes in crises where students could harm themselves or someone else. 

    “[It’s] going beyond the idea that we’re just producing students to an academic process in order to graduate and to be successful,” Whitson said. “It’s also looking at the whole child. And that shift in perspective, I think, is really contributing to some of the changes that we’re trying to do.”





    Source link