WHY EXPECT RESPECT?

STUDENT EMPOWERMENT

Along with other pioneers in the field of positive youth development, like Karen Pittman and Bonnie Bernard, Dr. Peter Benson and his team at Search Institute have given us a strong foundation to stand on as we promote the efforts and ideas of our students. The research around the 40 Developmental Assets is a powerful indicator for building on the strengths of our students and giving them the control and the power to create a school that is safe and respectful to all. What it requires of us as the significant adults in the lives of our students is that we view them on a daily basis through a lens that is based on their strengths.

The research and the evidence from around the country with schools and communities using the Developmental Asset model to re-tool their work with children and youth clearly shows that it’s time to leave behind the idea that only adult-driven solutions provide the answer to problems and issues facing young people today. For adults to listen authentically to the youth voice in creating student-centered solutions gives our young people an opportunity to step up to the table of leadership and be a part of the decision making and solution creation. It gives them the chance to let their strengths shine through.

It is our goal with Expect Respect that school becomes a place where all students feel safe, nurtured, protected and empowered. This is not a goal that can necessarily be achieved overnight or even in one year. It will take a commitment to the long-term process of changing attitudes and then behavior. The ultimate goal is to create a school wide change, one of creating a “new normal” where ALL students and adults on a school campus are respected at all times – where no one leaves with either a visible or an invisible scar that time won’t heal.

“Bullying is like a scab that heals,

but a scar that doesn’t.”

Palo Alto Middle School Student

While the overarching goal of an Expect Respect Club has to do with school climate and the long-term impact on student emotional and social well-being, it is the Empowerment Assets that will be the “driver” of this work with our students. As such these particular assets warrant a closer look and some honest reflection.

PROJECT CORNERSTONE

& STUDENT EMPOWERMENT

The historical “epicenter” of Project Cornerstone’s Expect Respect workshop was the response to the 1999-00 developmental asset survey in Santa Clara County. Asset #5, Caring School Climate, was a game-changer for many school administrators and staff as they made the decision to look at their school climate through the eyes of their students. Of the 7,000+ middle and high school students who participated in that survey the results showed a tremendous need for work in this area. The percentages in the box below reflect those students at each of those school levels who felt they attended a school where adults and their peers cared about them.

Santa Clara County 1999-2000

Caring School - Asset #5

Middle School Students - 31%

High School Students - 20%

One middle school administrator asked if Project Cornerstone could facilitate a workshop for students about bullying behavior and possible solutions the students might have in mind to more pro-actively deal with the situation on their campus. Moving forward with the belief that students had more solutions than the adults to the issues of bullying behavior, Cornerstone engaged with a team of high school seniors to assist with the creation and delivery of the workshop. These same students were the key presenters at the workshops with other high school students as well as middle school students. The Action Plan concept as our empowerment starting point evolved out of this early planning. It quickly became the “corner – stone” of our work with young people.

The culture of cruelty runs deep in our society – it certainly is not just an issue for schools. We see bullying behavior in our workplace environments and in our intimate family relationships. This type of behavior is evident in our entertainment and sports venues. It has been with us for hundreds of years – we cannot allow it to take hundreds of years to free ourselves of it. The results of this behavior show up in our prison system, our mental health and our physical health systems. The headlines remind us frequently about the price we pay for allowing this behavior to permeate our culture. We know only a lengthy commitment to changing this environment will be effective. Do people have that kind of commitment?

The developmental asset survey was administered again during the 2004-05 school year to over 14,000 students in Santa Clara County. We hoped for an incremental improvement with Asset #5 when the results were returned in hopes of keeping the community engaged with this work. We were gifted with a tiny shift – and it was enough. The “needle” had moved slightly in the right direction! We could, indeed, make a difference!

Santa Clara County 2004-05

Caring School - Asset #5

Middle School Students – 34%

High School Students - 21%

A few people were discouraged, but not our students. They looked at the county-wide numbers and individual school numbers and said: “It’s starting to change – we’re making a difference!”

Castillero Middle School was the first school to offer the Expect Respect workshop to its students. They hosted it every year between the above two surveys with a strong diverse team of students that cut across the culture of the school and a team of teachers as club advisors that believed in the power of students to change things at important levels. They also believed that the developmental assets were an excellent roadmap of “markers along the way” in this journey with their students. Their individual school results on the second survey reflect the focused work that the students and staff undertook at that school to turn the tide of peer abuse at their school site, a significant 23% change.

Castillero Middle School Survey Results

Caring School – Asset #5

1999-00 - 24%

2004-05 - 47%

The Expect Respect workshop continued to be offered to schools. As our work with elementary schools grew, it became evident that we could no longer just offer workshops on Saturdays – the format had to shift, but the core of the work would remain the same. Our high school seniors were now college graduates and employed in their chosen professions. We had established additional programs to support the developmental asset work of Project Cornerstone – one of which was the ABC (Asset Building Champions) Program for elementary schools. This program also had a focus on bullying behavior and we believe added to the gains we saw in survey scores when the survey was given again in 2010.

Santa Clara County 2010-11

Caring School – Asset #5

Middle School Students – 42%

High School Students - 32%

With improvement of just over 10% at both the middle and high school levels in a decade – how does that translate into real human terms? Here is how it translates into other areas such as risk behavior and thriving behaviors.

MIDDLE SCHOOLS

Risk Behavior Sample ’99-00 ’10-11

- Drank alcohol in last 30 days 15% 8%

- In trouble with the police 18% 11%

- Truant from school last 2 weeks 16% 10%

-Attempted suicide @ least once 12% 10%

Thriving Behavior Sample

- Succeeds in School – mostly A’s 30% 42%

- Maintains Good Health 55% 64%

HIGH SCHOOLS

Risk Behavior Sample ’99-00 ’10-11

- Drank alcohol in last 30 days 32% 23%

- In trouble with the police 24% 19%

- Truant from school last 2 weeks 28% 12%

- Attempted suicide @ least once 17% 10%

Thriving Behavior Sample

- Succeeds in School – mostly A’s 28% 37%

- Maintains Good Health 45% 56%

To empower students to create a vision for a new normal at their school and then allow them to take action in that plan has wide ranging influence. Empowered at school to make a positive change in their environment seems to also empower them to make positive change throughout their adolescent experience. A student empowered environment assists others to step up and make more positive choices.

I began teaching, I was going to change the