(This item is among the 5-10 highlights posted for ISHN members each week from the ISHN Member information service. Click on the web link to join this service and to support ISHN)
Our discussions of the integration of health & social programs have identified the importance of teacher beliefs and attitudes. This includes school staff such as counselors. An article in Issue #1, 2015-16 Issue of Professional School Counseling reports on a study of the attitudes and beliefs of US counselors in regards to social justice issues. "Results showed alignment between school counselors' self-endorsement of social justice advocacy and scores on the Advocacy Competencies Self-Assessment. School counselors working in recognized comprehensive programs, including Recognized ASCA Model Programs and Indiana Gold Star, scored higher on social justice advocacy measures than those in non-recognized programs." These results may not be surprising but one can wonder about the relative importance assigned to counselor attitudes and practices towards academic excellence, a goal that often requires educators to help student adjust to failure and challenges in school. Read more>>
(This item is among the 5-10 highlights posted for ISHN members each week from the ISHN Member information service. Click on the web link to join this service and to support ISHN)
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Aligning Multi-Intervention Programs: Comprehensive Counseling & Positive Behavior Support (PBS)8/1/2016 The alignment and cooperation between the various multi-intervention programs that can be delivered in schools is essential. An article in Issue #1, 2015-16 Issue of Professional School Counseling describes how two such MIP's, Comprehensive Guidance Counseling and Positive Behavior Supports (PBS) can be accomplished. "In this article, the authors conceptualize this alignment, aiming to increase school counselors' and stakeholders' understanding of and advocacy for this alignment to maximize school counselors' efforts. The article provides school counseling implications and recommendations." These two multi-intervention programs can then be integrated within larger, broader multi-component approaches (MCA's) such as healthy schools or safe schools. Read more>>
(This item is among the 5-10 highlights posted for ISHN members each week from the ISHN Member information service. Click on the web link to join this service and to support ISHN) An article in the July 2016 Issue of Journal of School Health reported on a survey of 240 teachers and found that Forty-eight percent of participants observed weight-related bullying in their school and 99% expressed the importance of intervening in such incidents. A large majority (75%-94%) supported 8 of the 11 policies, especially actions requiring school-based health curriculum to include content on eating disorder prevention (94%), and addressing weight-bullying through anti-bullying policies (92%), staff training (89%), and school curriculum (89%). Strongly supported policies were viewed by participants as being the most impactful and feasible to implement. Read more>>
(This item is among the 5-10 highlights posted for ISHN members each week from the ISHN Member information service. Click on the web link to join this service and to support ISHN) Israeli schools expressly forbid a student to hit back after being attacked. In a context in which violence and retaliation are magnified, this rule is likely consistent with the local circumstances.An article in Issue #4, 2015 of Journal of School Violence explores Israeli teacher attitudes towards this task of enforcing fair rules & punishment, a task which is challenging enough in all circumstances. "In semistructured interviews,71 Israeli educators were asked for their views on the hitting-back tactic. The interviews compared their attitude toward hitting back as teachers with their take on the matter as parents. The results, analyzed using grounded theory, show that most educators would not object if their children hit back in self-defense when attacked but would discipline students who hit back unless they can prove their claim of self-defense. Interviewees are much less inclined to discipline retaliators who do manage to prove self-defense but feel that investigations to verify self-defense under school conditions are impractical. To deter bullies, they say, teachers must declare their readiness to discipline everyone involved; otherwise, bullies will falsely claim self-defense. The discussion explores the implications of role theory on teachers’ attitudes." Read more>> (An item from the ISHN Member information service)
A paper released by the Brookings Institute, USA, adds more support for the policy direction of providing integrated student services to drive educational outcomes. "Effective approaches to the problems of struggling neighborhoods—from health to school success and poverty—require the focused use of integrated strategies. Consistent with this, community schools and many charter schools now function as hubs, helping to deliver a range of services beyond education in order to prepare their students to learn and to assist families. These include social services, “two-generation” support, and population health services. There is debate over the potential of schools as hubs and the impact on school achievement. For success, we need to explore how schools can best “integrate backwards.” That requires us consider how schools can function in an interdependent manner with providers of, say, mental health care or social services yet maintain the control needed to customize services to a student’s needs and achieve academic objectives. Despite their considerable potential, schools face many challenges in operating as hubs. These include (1) Sharing student information with other services sectors is often difficult because of privacy rules and interoperability problems. (2) The wider community impact of hub-based services is rarely measured fully or reflected in city or county budgetsSchool leaders need specialized training to coordinate services efficiently. (4) Intermediaries can help schools coordinate services, but turning to outside organizations can alter the focus of a school and the locus of control." Read more>> (An item from the ISHN Member information service)
There are several initiatives underway around the world that are developing broader, more holistic sets of Indicators of the school's role in promoting academic achievement by also providing in-school conditions, adapted instruction and supports, as well as referrals to other services to support learning and overcome barriers to learning. A recent paper from the UCLA School Mental Health Project is one example of this trend. The rationale is presented succinctly. "School accountability is a policy tool with extraordinary power to reshape schools – for good and for bad. Systems are driven by accountability measures. This is particularly so under “reform” conditions. As everyone involved in school reform knows, the only measure that really counts is achievement test scores. These tests drive school accountability, and what such tests measure has become the be-all and end-all of what is attended to by many decision makers. This produces a growing disconnect between the realities of what it takes to improve academic performance and the direction in which many policy makers and school reformers are leading the public . "As illustrated (in the UCLA framework), there is no intent to deflect from the laser-like focus on meeting high academic standards. Debate will continue about how best to measure academic outcomes, but clearly schools must demonstrate they effectively teach academics. At the same time, policy must acknowledge that schools also are expected to pursue high standards in promoting positive social and personal functioning, including enhancing civility, teaching safe and healthy behavior, and some form of “character education.” Read more>> (An item from the ISHN Member information service)
A report on the evidence base supporting the use of integrated student supports (ISS) or services, published by Child Trends in the USA, is a timely find for us this week, as ISHN, ASCD and Education International move into the next phase in our global dialogue on better integration of health and social programs in education systems. (Integrated services for students, especially vulnerable students is one way to secure better integration). The report estimates that "ISS programs serve more than 1.5 million students in nearly 3,000 elementary and high schools across the USA. "while individual programs vary somewhat in the ways they provide integrated student supports, all ISS providers employ common components (needs assessment, integration within schools, community partnerships, coordinated supports, and data tracking); all provide wrap-around supports to improve students’ academic achievement and educational attainment; and all embrace the premise that academic outcomes are a result of both academic and non-academic factors". The Child Trend review of the research found that (1) There is emerging evidence that ISS can contribute to student academic progress as measured by decreases in grade retention and dropout, and increases in attendance, math achievement, reading and ELA achievement, and overall GPA. (2) ISS, as a student-centered approach, is firmly grounded in the research on child and youth development. (3) ISS programs are also aligned with empirical research on the varied factors that promote educational success. (4) Preliminary studies find a positive return on investment in ISS. Read more>> (An item from the ISHN Member information service)
Since ISHN is active in the global school health level, I have been following the documents and debates that have occurred about the role of education in the new 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. I am usually pretty good at this type of thing but by the time the various documents emerged from the peculiar dance of the UN, I was lost. It turns out I may not be alone. Several articles in Volume 52, 2015 of Network for International Policies and Cooperation in Education and Training reflect on the World Education Forum (WEF) held in August 2015 in Incheon, South Korea. There were three documents in play; a "targets" document describing outputs and indicators; a "'framework for action (FFA) which is essentially a plan and a "declaration" for the WEF Conference to consider. At the end of the WEF, only one of these documents came to the floor for ratification by delegates. In the very last session, delegates were asked if they had any comments on the FFA (no one dared to do so) and the "targets", which have been dealt with in as committee, was folded into the FFA document. In other words, easy consensus and no haggling over targets. If you read through the articles in the special issue of this journal, you can get even more confused but it appears that UNESCO was guiding the process so that these education sector discussions would not get out of step with a parallel set of UN meetings discussing all of the global goals, including education. If you read the articles in this issue, you will also learn that the language of the Incheon Declaration is stronger and more coherent than the "targets" document but it may be, once again in education, come to be that "what is measurable gets measured" and "what is measured ends up being what matters". Read more>> (An item from the ISHN Member information service)
An article in Issue #3, 2015 of Population and Development Review describes how the World Health Organization (WHO) has used the issue of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD's) as a focus and thereby helped to re-establish its credibility. The authors describe how WHO has used NCD's in an opportunistic manner. "Chronic noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in low- and middle-income countries have recently provoked a surge of public interest. This article examines the policy literature—notably the archives and publications of the World Health Organization (WHO), which has dominated this field—to analyze the emergence and consolidation of this new agenda. Starting with programs to control cardiovascular disease in the 1970s, experts from Eastern and Western Europe had by the late 1980s consolidated a program for the prevention of NCD risk factors at the WHO. NCDs remained a relatively minor concern until the collaboration of World Bank health economists with WHO epidemiologists led to the Global Burden of Disease study that provided an “evidentiary breakthrough” for NCD activism by quantifying the extent of the problem. Soon after, WHO itself, facing severe criticism, underwent major reform. NCD advocacy contributed to revitalizing WHO's normative and coordinative functions. By leading a growing advocacy coalition, within which The Lancet played a key role, WHO established itself as a leading institution in this domain. However, ever-widening concern with NCDs has not yet led to major reallocation of funding in favor of NCD programs in the developing world." This strategy of health organizations jumping onto an emerging issue to secure resources and credibility is not unique to WHO. The question which needs to be answered is what happens when interest/support in that particular issue wanes? Read more >> (An item from the ISHN Member information service)
This blog continues to suggest a new approach to school health promotion and social development that does not dump the responsibilities of other professionals on teachers because of scarce resources in those other sectors. An editorial in Issue #3, 2015 of Social Work Research is an example of this trend to always view the teacher as a resource for a function that should be carried out by others. In this case, it is the function of securing mental health services for students, a task that should be assigned to school social workers, school psychologists or school nurses. "...it would be appropriate to discuss another challenge for urban schools, to better serve the unmet behavioral health needs of African American students. Teachers are an untapped resource in addressing the unmet mental health services needs of inner-city African American children. They often have the primary responsibility for identifying mental disorders in children and bridging students with problems to needed services. What are the factors associated with teachers' decisions to refer or not refer African American children for mental health services? What are the relationships between organizational factors, community factors, teachers' knowledge, and teachers' decisions for services referral? And what are the pathways to services for African American children? Increased scholarship investigating these relationships as another variable for interventions to effectively affect services for African American students is very important." There is no debate about the unmet need and even about the teachers role in identifying and refering students. The debate is about asking teachers to walk down the complicated and poorly funded "pathways" to securing the service. Ironically, an article in the same issue explored the use of social workers as such navigators and concluded that they were being under-used. Read more >> (An item from the ISHN Member information service)
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