REPORTS
Achieving Healthy Schools for All Kids in America
Source: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Description: A Working Forum on Healthy Schools was held in March 2016. Key findings included:
- Sustainable change must occur both locally and at the systems level, include and elevate the work of school, community and youth stakeholders, and address the lived experiences of school community members.
- Healthy schools must work to improve conditions that cause trauma to young people and communities, and should acknowledge structural racism and poverty.
- Participants recommended program and policy infrastructure change, the use of existing policy to support healthy schools at all governing levels, and the creation of environments that value diverse students.
Bridging High School, College, and Industry: A Case Study and Lessons for the Field
Source: Career Ladders Project
Description: "This case study documents lessons learned from the partnership between the CS&T Academy, BCC, and SAP about opening doors to early college credit, career exploration, and integrated student supports, especially for students less likely to pursue postsecondary education on their own. It also highlights keys to the success of a Community of Practice among partners with critical and complementary roles."
Creating Safe, Health, and Supportive Learning Environments to Increase the Success of all Students
Source: Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Description: This is a 173-page report that creates a trauma-informed framework for K-12 schools in Massachusetts. It is the basis of a bill requiring all Massachusetts schools to develop an action plan to integrate trauma-informed practices.
No School Alone: How community risks and assets contribute to school and youth success, March 2015
Source: Washington State University Child and Family Research Unit
Description: Dr. Chris Blodgett of the Washington State University Child and Family Research Unit (formerly Area Health Education Center) wrote this report for the Washington State Office of Financial Management. The report explores in depth how the challenges resulting from ACEs in a community’s adult population contribute to current conditions of disruption in children that make ACEs a multi-generational problem. More than 300,000 students in Washington live in communities where more than 35 percent of adults report high ACEs. As the average number of high ACEs in the community increases, the academic success and well-being of the children are put at risk. The effect of ACEs is demonstrated beginning in elementary school-aged children and continues across grade levels and content area.
A Systems Approach to Integrating Health in Education, September 2016
Source: Cairn Guidance, Inc., with the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Description: Key findings:
A systems approach is needed to better integrate health and education.
There are many policy avenues for doing so, including the Every Student Succeeds Act, and the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act at the federal level, as well as myriad state policies.
The Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child model can help build a shared framework for health and education leaders.
To build a true systems approach, we will need to confront challenges and opportunities related to operations, quality, and implementation.
Teacher Stress and Health: Effects on Teachers, Students and Schools, September 2016
Source: Pennsylvania State University, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Description: Key findings:
Forty-six percent of teachers report high daily stress, which compromises their health, sleep, quality of life, and teaching performance.
When teachers are highly stressed, students show lower levels of both social adjustment and academic performance.
Interventions on the organizational or individual level, or those that reach both, can help reduce teacher stress by changing the culture and approach to teaching.
Programs for mentoring, workplace wellness, social emotional learning, and mindfulness are all proven to improve teacher well-being and student outcomes.
Trauma-Informed Schools, March 2016
Source: School Mental Health, A Multidisciplinary Research and Practice Journal
This special issue on trauma-informed schools is the first compilation of invited manuscripts on the topic. The forces behind the movement and key assumptions of trauma-informed approaches are reviewed. The first eight manuscripts in Part 1 of the special issue present original empirical research that can be used to support key assumptions of trauma-informed approaches to school service delivery. Part 2 of the special issue opens with a blueprint for the implementation of trauma-informed approaches using a multitiered framework, which is followed by three case studies of the use of multitiered frameworks to implement trauma-informed approaches in schools. The special issue concludes with a commentary on future directions for the trauma-informed school movement. (The PDF is attached at the bottom of this list.)
RESEARCH
ACEs in Head Start Children and Impact on Development
Source: Washington State University Child and Family Research Unit
Description: In an ongoing screening for ACEs in young children and their parents, this report provides initial findings of the level of risk in a Head Start population and the predictive power of children’s ACEs and school readiness measures.
Adverse Childhood Experience and Developmental Risk in Elementary Schoolchildren
Source: Washington State University Child and Family Research Unit
Description: Elementary school staff reported on students enrolled in public elementary schools (Grades K-6) in Spokane WA to answer the following questions: How common are significant adverse events in elementary schoolchildren? Do adverse events correlate with academic problems and health status in children?
Adverse Experiences in Early Childhood and Kindergarten Outcomes
Source: Pediatrics, February 2016 (American Academy of Pediatrics)
Description: In this study of urban children, experiencing ACEs in early childhood was associated with below-average, teacher-reported academic and literacy skills and behavior problems in kindergarten. These findings underscore the importance of integrated approaches that promote optimal development among vulnerable children.
Research Round-Up: Mindfulness in Schools: A 2013 overview from the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley of four research studies on school-based mindfulness programs.
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