What's New From the Center?
2024 – Over the previous years, our analyses of prevailing school improvement legislation, planning, and literature have
delineated fundamental deficiencies, especially with respect to enhancing equity of opportunity and closing the achievement gap.
Student Supports: What’s in place? What’s Missing?
Please share widely.
Access to previous issues of this resource are
online at
https://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/newsarchive.html
Examples of previous discussions
As
schools recover from the pandemic, there are opportunities to move forward
in making essential changes.
With this in mind,
a major facet of our work in 2023 is to focus school improvement policy and planning on:
(1) moving school improvement from a two- to a three-component policy and practice framework (That is, expanding from a primary focus on instruction and management/government concerns to fully integrate a third primary component directly concerned with improving how schools address barriers to learning and teaching.)
For details see the resources listed below.
(2) integrating a deep understanding of motivation – especially intrinsic motivation and personalized teaching
(3) reframing of remediation and special education emphasizing personalized special assistance that is applied in and out of classrooms and practiced in a sequential and hierarchical manner.
(4) transforming student and learning supports into a unified, comprehensive, and equitable system designed to address barriers to learning and teaching and re-engage disconnected students and families.
(5) reworking the leadership structure for whole school improvement
(6) enhancing school-community collaboration by establishing a collaborative operational infrastructure that enables weaving together resources to address shared concerns
(7) expanding the framework for school accountability
(8) providing guidance for substantive, scalable, and sustainable systemic changes
Quarterly e-Journal
Addressing Barriers to Learning.
Community of Practice --
"Weekly Practitioner"
https://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/practitioner.htm
1/17/24
>Support for peer-rejected students
>About Student Voice, Participation, and Support
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
1/10/24
>Martin Luther King Day: An opportunity
>A High School Student asks Questions Related to
Addressing Barriers to Learning at school
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
1/3/24
>What's your Take on Promoting Positive Mental Health?
>More on Reengaging Students
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
12/20/23
>About Student Empathy and the Holiday Season
>How Much of a Problem is Student Engagement?
>Enhancing Student Engagement Over the Rest of the Year
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
12/13/23
>What supports can schools provide over winter break?
>Enhancing teacher/staff well being and retention
>The Youth Homelessness System Improvement Grants
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
12/6/23
>Ideas about enhancing a school's efforts to prevent problems
>Are you supporting population based mental health?
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
11/22/23
>What can schools do when problems are so severe?
>Rethinking breaktime
>Natural Opportunities for Enhancing Social and Emotional Development
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
11/15/23
>How tired are you of being bombarded by bad news about schools?
>What is authentic community service?
students and families?
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
11/8/23
>School board member asks: Why can't all students be mentors?
>How are schools welcoming immigrant & other newcomer
students and families?
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
10/25/23
>How should a parent respond when a school's practice undermines their
child's positive attitudes?
>Providing housing for homeless students by districts and communities
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
10/18/23
>"Has the pandemic changed the way we build teens' self-esteem?"
asks a high school student
>Updates on How Hawai`i schools and communities are supporting
students/family/staff in the aftermath of the Maui fire
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
10/11/23
>Why are school-community collaborations so difficult to establish & maintain?
>Can schools counter hate?
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
10/4/23
>What's the current state of student supports? the future?
>Community Schools and MTSS Provide a Platform for
Transforming Student/Learning Supports
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
9/20/23
>Teachers Can't and Shouldn't be Expected to Do it Alone
>Can the Arts be Used to Enhance Students'
Empathy and Compassion?
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
9/13/23
>School support for homeless families and students
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
9/6/23
>New insights into risk and enhancing resiliency
>Amplifying youth voice in promoting help-seeking
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
8/23/23
>Strengthening social connections among peers
>TikTok as a public health tool?
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
8/16/23
>Seeking family input to improve student success
>About threat assessment
>Update from Hawai`i on Impact on Schools
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
8/9/23
>About kicking off the school year with community support
>Connecting with students in the first days of the new school year
>Interventions to promote attendance before it becomes a problem
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
8/2/23
>Enhancing a positive school climate this school year begins with welcoming
>About the Role of School Engagement in Preventing School Dropout
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
7/19/23
>What's the plan for strengthening relationships with families this school year?
>Reclaiming Our Schools' Promise and Purpose
>A closer look at mandatory reporting
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
7/12/23
>How do students know that teachers care about them?
>Youth thrive when the environment fits
>Free activities for summer learning and enrichment
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
7/5/23
>Positive psychology goes to school
>About the growing number of reports of discipline problems
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
6/21/23
>Increasing student engagement: Students as teachers
>Enhancing mental health effectiveness: Focus on Prevention
>School board member responds to MH in Schools: Moving Beyond the Emergency
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
6/14/23
>Adding "belonging" to summer learning
> End of the school year is a time for expressing appreciations
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
6/7/23
>Colleague asks: How to measure school mental health success?
>About reducing teacher burnout
>Interchange about "Screening Students for Problems: Testing Often is Not Needed"
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
5/24/23
>How can schools reach students who are hesitant about using school mental
health resources?
>Summer: Can schools and communities provide students with
opportunities for social and emotional growth and well-being?
>Children and Youth Resilience challenge
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
5/17/23
>What's next for a district ready to transform student/learning supports?
>What can schools do about student problems in poverty neighborhoods?
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
5/10/23
>A school's socialization agenda can produce problems for families
>Youth share recommendations about supporting their MH needs
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
5/3/23
>Is behavior management co-opting SEL?
> What happens when a student stands up for a bullied peer?
>Peer to Peer support for teen mental health
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
4/19/23
>Using lessons learned from the MH crisis to strengthen prevention
>School enjoyment contributes to positive learning and behavior
>About Children in Ukraine
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
4/12/23
>Engaging and reengaging students -- featuring an effort by Pinellas County to
"get middle schools right"
>Youth mental health: Sharing decision making
>About Youth-Initiated Mentoring
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
4/5/23
>Request from a district about revamping its approach to mental health
>About strengthening positive mental health
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
3/22/23
> Some schools are being closed: Supporting students and families
in making transitions
>Teaching about social justice as an approach to commemorating
Cesar Chavez
>Enhancing Home Involvement in School and "Things Teachers Should
Never Do in a Parent Meeting"
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
*Access previous issues of this resource
online at
>https://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/practitioner.htm
Each issue of the Practitioner provides Links to other relevant shared resources
>Looking to improve the school's role in enhancing mental health?
>Can the impact of social determinants on child and adolescent mental
health be altered?
>Some indicators of youth risk behavior show encouraging trends
>About mental health in schools as a platform for transforming
student/learning supports
>Students Thrive with Positive Experiences (and so do school staff)
>What problems arise when additional MH professionals are brought into a school?
>Focusing on Mental Health in Schools from a Public Health Perspective
>Countering the Impending Tidal Wave of Unnecessary Referrals for
Special Assistance and Special Education
>About Developing Kindness and Compassion & Promoting MH
>Time for Straight Talk about Mental Health Services and MH in Schools
>Evolving Community Schools and Transforming Student/Learning Supports
>How are various sources of funding being braided to improve/transform
student/learning supports?
>Can youth empowerment enhance violence prevention?
>Student anxiety, aggressive behavior, school climate, & other related concerns
>How should schools improve discipline practices?
ENEWS*
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