Bottom Line: Key Components of Safe & Successful Schools

1. Building Safe and Supportive Schools: Measuring and Promoting Conditions for Learning and School SuccessDavid Osher

2. Bottom Line: Key Components of Safe & Successful Schools • Academic Press • Support For Students And Faculty To Meet High Academic And Behavioral Standards • Strong Conditions For Learning And Teaching • Relational Trust • Sense Of Efficacy & Accountability For All Students • Effective Collaboration & Coordination Between And Among All Stakeholders • Continuous Quality Improvement (A “Problem Solving Approach”) • 3-level Approach To Promotion, Prevention And Intervention

3. What Affects Learning Outcomes? Competencies Conditions

4. Community School Family Teachers Friends Classroom Student Where to Intervene?

5. Schools as Risk & Protective Factors in the Lives of Students

6. Students who are At Risk are particularly susceptible to: • Low Teacher Efficacy • Low Teacher Support • Negative Peer Relationships • Chaotic Environments • Poor Instructional And Behavioral Practices

7. Work at Three Levels Intervene Early & Provide Focused Youth Development Activities Implement strategies and provide supports that address risk factors and build protective factors for students at risk for severe academic or behavioral difficulties. Provide Individualized Intensive Supports Provide coordinated, intensive, sustained, culturally competent, individualized, child- and family- driven and focused services and supports that address needs while building assets. Build a Schoolwide Foundation Universal prevention and youth development approaches, caring school climate, positive and proactive approach to discipline, personalized instruction, cultural competence, and strong family involvement.

8. School as a Risk Factor • Alienation • Academic Frustration • Chaotic Transitions • Negative Relationships With Adults And Peers • Teasing, Bullying, Gangs • Poor Adult Role Modeling • Segregation With Antisocial Peers • School-driven Mobility & • Harsh Discipline, Suspension, Expulsion, Push Out/Drop Out

9. Example of School Effects: Impact of 1st Grade Teachers on Seventh Grade School Outcomes? The Impact of First Grade Teacher Capacity on 7th Grade Behavior (Kellam, Ling, Merisca, Brown, & Ialongo, 1998)

10. School Effects: Other Examples • School Context Accounted For Much Or More Of The Variation Of Middle School Student’s Experience Of Emotional Distress Than Family Context (Resnick Et Al. 1997) • Teacher Support, Not Parents, Had The Greatest Impact On School And Class Interest (Wentzel, 1998)

11. School as a Protective Factor and as a Resilient Context • Connection • Academic Success • Supported Transitions • Positive Relationships With Adults And Peers • Caring Interactions • Social Emotional Learning • Positive Interactions With Pro-social (Not, Anti-social) Peers • Stability • Positive Approaches To Disciplinary Infractions & • Services And Supports

12. PATHS Universal Intervention End of First Grade (1 Year of Intervention) Children Who Receive PATHS Rate Their Classmates As Significantly Less Aggressive Than Do Children In Randomized Comparison Classes Fast Track Study – 378 Classrooms – 6715 children CPPRG, 1999 – Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

13. All The Logic of Universal Intervention • Cannot Identify All Who Are At Risk • Children Affect Each Other • No Stigma • No Self-fulfilling Prophecies • No Homogenous Grouping • Per Child Cost Is Less • Provides A Foundation Universal Interventions

14. Conditions for Learning • Safety • Physically safe • Emotionally safe • Low Risk Environments • Support , Care, & Connection • Meaningful connection to adults • Experience of Care & Respect • Strong bonds to school family & • other community institutions • Positive peer relationships • Effective and available support • Challenge & Engagement • High expectations • Educational opportunities are • connected to life goals • Strong personal motivation • Engagement • Robust opportunities to learn • Individual & Peer Social Emotional • Competency • Understand& Manage Emotions& Relationships • Pro-social Values • Good decision making Osher et al., 2008

15. Safety and Statewide Tests

16. Social and Emotional Conditions for Being Off Track

17. Why Are Conditions for Learning Important? • Maximizing the amount of time that students really attend to learning • E.g., working memory (Davidson, 2002) • Maximizing the opportunity for the teacher to: • Concentrate and differentiate • Teach in the Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky, 1978) • Personalizing instruction • Scaffolding learning and support

18. Supporting Conditions for Learning • Connection • Attachment • Trust • Care • Respect Social Emotional Learning & Support Positive Behavioral Approaches & Supports • Learning Supports • Effective Pedagogy • Engagement • Motivation

19. Conditions for Learning & Teaching Matrix for Needs Assessment, Asset Mapping, & Planning Safety Support Challenge SEL All Some Few

20. Say Yes to Education/AIR Monitoring System Pre-K K-2 3-5 6-8 9-12 13-16 Off Track On Track On Track to Thrive

21. Safe and Respectful Climate • Physical Safety • Little Or No Fighting, Bullying, Crime, Gang Presence, Or Substance Abuse

22. Safe and Respectful Climate • Emotional Safety • Climate Of Mutual Respect And Trust • Students Comfortable Taking Personal And Academic Risks

23. Middle School is the Worst Period 42.9 Source: Indicators of School Crime and Safety, 2008; Kevin Jennings

24. Common response to Behavioral Problems • Pay more attention to problem behavior • Reduce Opportunities for Engagement • E.g. wait time • Increase Monitoring and Supervision • Restate rules & sanctions • Refer disruptive students to office • Suspend • Expel

25. The “Racial Safety Gap” at SchoolPercentage of students responding “Neutral” or “No” to the question: “Do you feel safe at school?” Source: Springs, Iannotti, Nansel and Haynie2007; Kevin Jennings

26. The Racial Discipline Disparity: Disproportionality in Suspension Rates SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, Civil Rights Data Collection, 2002, 2004, and 2006. Anne Gregory

27. Implications of Council of State Governments Texas Discipline Study (http://justicecenter.csg.org/resources/juveniles) • Nearly 60 % suspended or expelled once in middle or high schools • ~15 percent were suspended or expelled 11 times or more • Only three percent of the disciplinary actions were for conduct in which state law mandated suspensions and expulsions • The rest were made at the discretion of school officials primarily in response to violations of local schools’ conduct codes.

28. Implications of Council of State Governments Texas Discipline Study (http://justicecenter.csg.org/resources/juveniles) • African-American students and those with EBD were disproportionately disciplined for discretionary actions. • Schools that had similar characteristics, including the racial composition and economic status of the student body, varied greatly in how frequently they suspended or expelled students. • Schools that had similar characteristics, including the racial composition and economic status of the student body, varied greatly in how frequently they suspended or expelled students.

29. Does punishment “work”? • Sanctions such as office referrals or suspensions may appear to “work” in the short term • Removes student • Provides relief to teachers or administrators

30. Problems with Overreliance on Punishment • Detrimental effects on teacher-student relations • Modeling: undesirable problem solving • Reduced motivation to maintain self-control • Generates student anger • May result in more problems (Mayer, 1991) • Truancy, dropout, vandalism, aggression • Does not teach: Weakens academic achievement • Limited long term effect on behavior

31. How Can We ? • Help students accept responsibility? • Place high value on academic engagement and achievement? • Teach alternative ways to behave? • Focus on restoring the environment and social relationships in the school?

32. Approaches that Appear to Work in Particular Contexts • Academic Engagement • Positive Behavioral Supports • Community Building Approaches • Social Emotional Learning • Restorative Justice • Some Combination of the Above

33. Important Ingredients • Cultural and Linguistic Competency • Developmentally Appropriate • Youth Voice and Youth Drivineness • Ecological • Data Informed • Quality of Support and Implementation

34. Foundation PBIS & SEL

35. Example: School Wide PBS • Can in appropriate situations: • Reduce problem behavior • Increase academic performance • Improve perception of school safety • Reduce teacher stress

36. Experimental Studies of SEL Programs • PATHS • Increased self-control, use of social problem-solving & conflict resolution, decreased conduct problems • Second Step • Decreased antisocial behavior, resulted in fewer negative behaviors in the classroom, lunchroom, and playground • Steps to Respect • Reduced acceptance of bullying, promoted responsibility to help others with bullying problems, more positive social interactions (did not actually reduce bullying overall) • Caring School Communities(formerly the Child Development Project) • Promoted social problem-solving and conflict resolution, democratic values, consideration of others’ needs, and sense of community. Increased spontaneous prosocial behavior and supportive, friendly and helpful behavior; reduced drug and alcohol use

37. Academics Behavior Management Implementation Support Systems -Fidelity -Funding -Teacher Wellbeing Prevention/SEL Combining SEL and SW PBS (PBIS & Second Step)

38. Social & Emotional Skills

39. Social Emotional Learning • Understand and Manage Emotions • Understand and Manage Relationships • Make Responsible Decisions

40. Social and Emotional Learning • Work Well With Others • Cooperate As Team Players

41. Social and Emotional Learning • Solve Problems With Persistence And Creativity • Set And Work Toward Goals • Make Responsible Decisions In Academic And Social Settings • Recognize And Manage Emotions

43. Student Support • Teachers Establish A Connection With Students • Teachers Provide Extra Help When Students Are Having Trouble Understanding Material • Teachers Engage Students In The Learning Process

44. Headlines from One Comprehensive Review of “Students Need for Belonging in the School Community (Osterman, Review of Educational Research, 2000) • Positive Relationships With Staff And Peers Associated With: • Intrinsic Motivation • Accept Others Authority While Developing A Strong Sense Of Identity • Experience Autonomy • Accept Responsibility To Regulate Their Own Emotions • Experience Of Acceptance Associated With: • Positive Orientation To School, Class Work, & Teachers • Dropouts Feel Estranged From Teachers And Peers • Belonging ->Engagement ->Achievement

45. Some More Headlines • Adolescent perceptions of connections with teachers predicted academic growth in Mathematics (Gregory & Weinstein, 2004) • Students were more likely to perform well on tests when they believe that their teachers care about them (Muller, 2001; Ryan & Patrick, 2001) • Teachers who had high-quality relationships with their students had 31% fewer discipline problems, rule violations, and related problems over a year’s time than did teachers who lacked high-quality relationships with their students (Waters, Marzano, & McNulty, 2003)

46. Students for Feel Connected are: • Less Likely To Use Alcohol Or Substances • Experience Less Emotional Distress • Attempt Suicide Less • Engage In Less Deviant And Violent Behavior • School Connectedness The Only School-related Variable That Was Protective For Every Single Outcome National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (ADD Health)

47. Scatter plot: Support (f) Size

48. Emotional Safety (f) Enrollment

49. Programs that Develop and Support Relationships • Caring School Communities • Responsive Classroom • Open Circle • Tribes

50. Foundation Appropriate & Engaging Curricula, Teaching, Learning Environments