A Center Guide*

1 A Center Guide* Education Leaders Guide to Transforming Student and learning Supports.(April, 2014) New directions for student and learning supports are key to systemicallyaddressing barriers to learning and teaching. The aim is to unify and thendevelop a comprehensive and equitable system of student/learningsupports at every guide incorporates years of research and prototype development anda variety of examples from trailblazing efforts at local, district, regional, andstate levels. The prototypes and examples can be adopted/adapted todesign and plan ways to transform the role schools play in addressingbarriers to learning and teaching and re-engaging disconnected students.*The Center co-directors are Howard Adelman and Linda Taylor; it operates under the auspicesof the School Mental Health Project, Dept. of Psychology, UCLA, Write: Center for Mental Health in Schools, Box 951563, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1563 Phone: (310) 825-3634 email: website: Feel free to share and reproduce this document; no special permission is cite source as the Center for Mental Health in Schools at UCLACONTENTS What s the Current Situation?

2 What s Needed? Creating a New DesignPolicy FrameworkReframing Student and learning Support InterventionsReworking the Operational Infrastructure Prototype for Facilitating Systemic Transformation Developing a Multi-year Strategic Plan Concluding Comments AppendicesA. Prototype for Six Content ArenasB. Prototype for an Integrated Infrastructure at the District Level C. Some Additional Related Resources13710111420232526 PrefaceWe had just finished a presentation on new directions for addressing barriersto learning and teaching, when a member of the audience confronted an exasperated tone, he complained: What you discussed is nothing but common sense! He then waited for her to offer a defense. She smiled and said simply: You re right!It is a common sense reality that school improvement policy and practice mustmove forward in transforming student and learning supports.

3 Yet, it has takensome time for major efforts to emerge. In the meantime, external and internalbarriers to learning and teaching have continued to pose pervasive andentrenched challenges to educators across the country, particularly inchronically low performing schools. Failure to directly address these barriersensures that (a) too many children and youth will continue to struggle inschool, and (b) teachers will continue to divert precious instructional time todealing with behavior and other problems that can interfere with classroomengagement for all directions for student and learning supports are key to systemicallyaddressing barriers to learning and teaching. To this end, this guideincorporates years of research and prototype development and a variety ofexamples from trailblazing efforts at local, district, regional, and state free to adopt and adapt the guide and to contact us for additional guidanceand aids for moving forward.

4 *Howard & Linda*Contact info at UCLA:Howard Adelman Ph: Linda TaylorPh: 310/825-3634email: Center Website: This is the first draft of this particular document. Any and allfeedback will be appreciated to make it more s the Current Situation?My job is bullying prevention! I m only concerned \about PBIS!My responsibility is Title I! \ \ I do Dropout prevention! My work is \ RtI! I direct. \ special education! I .. \ \1 Psychological TestingHealth CenterViolence & CrimePrevention After-School ProgramsPupil ServicesHIV/Aids PreventionHealth ServicesPhysical EducationJuvenile Court ServicesHealth EducationNutrition EducationDISTRICT/SCHOOLS chool Lunch ProgramNewcomer CenterFamily Resource Centerand many moreAdult EducationSpecial EducationDrug PreventionCommunity-basedOrganizationsCo unselingESLR esponse toInterventionPregnancy PreventionDrug ServicesPositive BehavioralSupportsMental Health ServicesSocial ServicesChild Protective ServicesHIV/AIDS ServicesAs illustrated below, mapping existing efforts to address barriers to learning andteaching and re-engage disconnected students yields a consistent picture offragmented, piecemeal, and often disorganized approaches.

5 Exhibit 1. A great deal of possible activity, but interventions are fragmented! 2 Why the Fragmentation?Obviously, the range of student and learning supports at schools varies; somehave few, some have many. In some instances, community services ( ,health and social services, after-school programs) are connected to a , given their sparsity, agencies endeavoring to bring communityservices to schools usually must limit their activities to enhancing supports ata couple of school campuses in a neighborhood. Moreover, there often is not a good connection between community servicesand the work of the many school and district-based student support staffwhose roles include preventing, intervening early, and treating students withlearning, behavior, and emotional problems. Such school employed personnelinclude psychologists, counselors, social workers, nurses, dropout/graduationsupport staff, special educators, and others.

6 When school and communityefforts are poorly connected, community and school personnel tend to workwith the same students and families with little shared planning or , some education policy makers have developed the false impressionthat community resources are ready and able to meet all the support needs ofstudents and their families. This impression already has contributed to seriouscuts related to student supports ( , districts laying off student supportpersonnel) in the struggle to balance tight school budgets. Such cuts furtherreduce the amount of resources available for enhancing equity of outgrowth of all this has been increased fragmentation, as well ascounterproductive competition for sparse resources related to student andlearning supports. Underlying the fragmentation is a fundamental policy problem. That problemis the long-standing and continuing marginalization in school improvementpolicy and practice of most efforts to directly use student and learningsupports to address barriers to learning and teaching and re-engagedisconnected , the current situation related to student/ learning supports is that the enterpriseis marginalized.

7 As a result, the continuing trends are to establish such supportsthrough piecemeal policies and implement them in a fragmented and sometimesredundant manner. Then, when budgets tighten, many of these supports areamong the first cut. All this contributes to a counterproductive job competitionamong student support staff and between these school personnel and communityprofessionals involved with bringing services to s Needed?It s clear we need to unify student and learning supports. Well it makes sense,BUT my job is bullying prevention!/It sounds good, BUTI m only concerned about PBIS!\ It seems like it should be done, BUT ..\4 Clearly, no one thinks the current situation is a good one. The need is to unify and then,over a period of several years, develop a comprehensive and systemic approach foraddressing barriers to learning and teaching and re-engaging disconnected refer to the unified approach as a learning supports component (see Exhibit 2).

8 Exhibit 2A learning Supports Component to Address Barriersand Re-engage Students in Classroom InstructionRange of Learners(based on their response to academic instruction at any given point in time) On TrackMotivationally ready & able Moderate NeedsNot very motivated/lacking prerequisite knowledge & skills/different learningrates & styles/minorvulnerabilities High Needs Avoidant/verydeficient in currentcapabilities/ has adisability/major healthproblems No barriers * to learning , development, & teachingBarriers learning Supports Component (1) addressing barriers (2) Re-engaging students in classroom instruction Enhancing the Focus on the Whole Child Instructional Component (1) Classroom teaching (2) Enrichment activity High Standards Desired Outcomes for All Students (1) Academic achievement (2) Social-emotional well-being (3)

9 Successful transition to post-secondary life High Expectations & Accountability*Examples of Conditions That Can Increase barriers to learning Neighborhood High poverty High rates of crime, druguse, violence, gangactivity High unemployment, abandoned/floundering businesses Disorganized community High mobility Lack of positive youth development opportunities Family Domestic conflicts, abuse, distress, grief, loss Unemployment, poverty, and homelessness Immigrant and/or minority status Family physical or mental health illness Poor medical or dentalcare Inadequate child care Substance abuse School and Peers Poor quality schools, high teacher turnover High rates of bullying and harassment Minimal offeringsand low involvementin extracurricular activities Frequent student-teacher conflicts Poor school climate, negative peer models Many disengaged students and familiesInternal Student Factors Neurodevelopmental delay Physical illness Mental disorders/ Disabilities Inadequate nutrition and healthcare learning , behavior, and emotional problems that arise from negative environmental conditions exacerbate existing internal factors5 What are learning Supports?

10 learning supports are defined as the resources, strategies, and practices thatprovide physical, social, emotional, and intellectual supports to enable all studentsto have an equal opportunity for success at school by directly addressing barriersto learning and teaching and by re-engaging disconnected the classroom and school-wide, learning supports are used to directly (1) address interfering factors and (2) re-engage students in classroom instruction. Both steps are essential because interventions that do not ensure students areengaged meaningfully in classroom learning generally are insufficient insustaining student involvement, good behavior, and effective learning at ensuring both steps, interventions are designed to reduce overemphases on theuse of extrinsic reinforcers, in favor of strategies that capitalize on and enhanceintrinsic learning supports component is established by unifying all learning involves weaving together all that a school has with all that the communitycan bring to the table.