As Schools Are Looking to Improve Student Achievement and to Help All Students Succeed

Using A Resiliency Model to Support Student Achievement

The Education Trust Counseling Summer Academy, June 11, 2004

Judy Bowers, Ed.D.

ASCA President-Elect

Guidance Coordinator

Tucson Unified School District

Tucson, Arizona

Using a Resiliency Framework to Support Student Achievement

As schools are looking to improve student achievement and to help all students succeed, the topic of resiliency is becoming a framework that many schools are finding successful. The premise of a resiliency program is that when a protective environment is established, students will achieve academically and will be less inclined to participate in unsafe and dangerous behaviors. By increasing protective factors in schools, students will have more opportunities to achieve academically and will be less vulnerable to becoming involved with such things as alcohol, tobacco, other drugs, gangs, violence and sexual activity. School climate and attendance will improve. Suspensions will fall and academic achievement will increase.

Dr.Kris Bosworth, who holds the Smith Initiatives for Prevention and Education Endowed Chair at the University of Arizona’s College of Education, developed the “Protective School” concept. Protective Schools is a nationally acclaimed and innovative prevention design that provides for the development of ten characteristics that result in a Protective School environment. These characteristics are:

1.  The school has a vision of success with board support in the community.

2.  A healthy school culture promotes student bonding to the school.

3.  School leaders are engaged and committed to prevention.

4.  A strong academic program promotes success for students of all abilities.

5.  An effective prevention curriculum/program is faithfully implemented with all students.

6.  An integrated continuum of strategies serves students and families with multiple needs.

7.  Ongoing professional development supports effective and empowered staff.

8.  Funding and resources are leveraged to support prevention and educational reform.

9.  The school has mutually supportive relationships with families, neighbors, and the community.

10.  Regular collection and analysis of school data guides decision-making.

(Bosworth, 2000)

The Protective School model embodies five powerful factors that prevent school failure, substance abuse, violence and teen pregnancy. In essence, Protective School research indicates that no academic program, curriculum paradigm or counseling and guidance program can be successful in the absence of these five factors. In the Protective Schools model, there is a step-by-step implementation process. These factors are:

1.  A positive physical and psychological environment in the school.

2.  The presence of strong adult role models in a student’s life.

3.  Respectful and nurturing interactions between adults and students in the school.

4.  A high level of student bonding to the school.

5.  Strong academic emphasis.

A three-year Federal Elementary Demonstration grant called Project CLEAR was implemented in six elementary schools in the Tucson Unified School district, in Tucson, Arizona to fully implement the Protective Schools framework and to increase the student to counselor ratio. Six school counselors were the catalyst at each school and an experienced counselor served as the Project Leader to support and coordinate the day-to-day operation of the project.

Preliminary gains reported on the Client Satisfaction survey after just two years are:

·  Teachers reported an increase in student safety at the project schools. 91.1% said students were safe at their schools in 999-00; 94% reported that students were safe at their school in 01-02.

·  Students responded that students of different races and ethnic backgrounds are getting along better at their school. 79.1% of students responded positively to this statement in 99-00; 81.1% of students responded positively to this statement in 01-02. (TUSD Quality Survey)

As the three-year grant is ending, the differences are already noticeable. Some conclusions are:

·  At least 2,000 students have had weekly contacts with a counselor as the result of reducing the counselor to student ratio.

·  The Protective Schools model was implemented at all six sites.

·  Project students have incorporated academic and person strategies into their approach to school work.

·  Overall academic achievement at the project schools has improved.

·  The project has collected enough data to assist non-grant schools in establishing needed programs.

Additional ideas for building resiliency are gathered from a number of resources included Henderson & Milstein, Krovetz, and the Search Institute. The following ideas have found to be successful at schools to create the protective schools framework. Additional information is found on the website www.drugstats.org.

Provide caring and support

·  Create an environment that welcomes students, staff and visitors

·  Create mentoring programs for staff as well as students

·  Experiment with longer instructional periods

·  Have flexible daily routines

·  Emphasize growth and motivation over compliance and minimally acceptable behavior

·  Emphasize cooperation and caring, celebrations and rites of passage

·  Encourage reaching out to get and give help when needed

·  When you talk to parents, tell them what you like about their kids

·  Leaders should make an effort to be a positive presence in the school

·  Use creative efforts to secure resources, and distribute them fairly and equitably

Set and communicate high expectations

·  Encourage students to aspire to higher achievements

·  Have high (but realistic) expectations for academic achievement

·  Foster a “can do” attitude at the school

·  Establish regular review procedures

·  Provide opportunities for supportive and corrective feedback

·  Facilitate cooperative learning opportunities

·  Celebrate progress and achievements

·  Tell stories that emphasize effort and success

·  Provide professional development opportunities that focus on resiliency, both in teaching and personally

Provide opportunities for meaningful participation

·  Include students in site-based management teams

·  Experiment with classroom-based decision-making

·  Help people believe that what they’re doing really matters

·  Shift reward system to emphasize cooperative rather than individual efforts

·  Change the perception of students as clients to one of partners; of teachers to one of coaches

·  Add a resiliency-building column to the school paper, written by students

·  Involve students in planning and holding information nights and other school events

Increase prosocial bonding

·  Model preferred behaviors

·  Encourage a positive climate characterized by respect, trust, growth, cohesiveness, caring, support and challenge

·  Promote shared values

·  Emphasize aspects of the school's history that support the vision or mission

·  Develop rituals and ceremonies that celebrate desired behaviors

Set clear and consistent boundaries

·  Define boundaries that promote cooperation, support and a sense of belonging to something bigger than oneself

·  Provide clearly stated, regularly communicated and widely supported expectations for academic and social behavior

·  Initiate school wide efforts to explore and clarify visions, missions and goals

·  Select staff based upon agreement with mission and goals

·  Include resiliency-building in the school's mission and goals

Teach life skills

·  Make effective efforts to improve the school

·  Monitor the environment and respond to challenges positively and creatively

·  Encourage cooperative behaviors

·  Support risk-taking leading to individual and group skill development

·  Offer opportunities for critical thinking and effective problem-solving

·  Encourage cooperative behaviors

·  Share resiliency-building ideas with parents

Other ideas include

·  Take pictures at student events, make double copies and give one to the student

·  Recruit community groups and individuals to volunteer time and develop supportive relationships with students

·  Share with the media the good things students and staff are doing

·  Dedicate a few minutes at each staff meeting to share resiliency-building stories, information, strategies and ideas

·  When discussing specific students with other staff, focus as much on strengths as on challenges

·  Add a list of personal resiliency builders to student assessment forms

·  Create a fax cover sheet that has a resiliency-building message

·  Leave a message about resiliency building on your voice mail

·  Use resiliency as part of performance planning and evaluation

·  Print resiliency-building tips on pay stubs and in teacher announcements

Helpful Websites:

www.drugstats.org www.tusconlinks.org

www.pbis.org www.ed.gov

www.samhsa.gov/centers/csap/csap.html

www.tusd.k12.az.us (Look under curriculum, then guidance and counseling)

Bibliography:

Bosworth, K. (2000). Protective Schools. Smith Initiatives for Prevention and Education, University of Arizona, Tucson, Az.

Henderson, N. & Benard, B. (2000). Mentoring for Resiliency: Setting Up Programs for Moving Youth from “Stressed to Success”. Resiliency In Action, Inc., San Diego.

Henderson, N. & Benard, B. (2000). Schoolwide Approaches for Fostering Resiliency. Resiliency In Action, Inc., San Diego.

Henderson, N & Milstein, M. (1996). Resiliency in Schools: Making It Happen for Students and Educators. Corwin Press, Thousand Oaks, Ca.

Katz, M. (1997. On Playing A Poor Hand Well. Norton & Co., New York.

Krovetz, M. L. (2000). Fostering Resiliency: Expecting all students to use their hearts and minds well. Corwin Press, Thousand Oaks, Ca.

Milstein, M. & Henry, D.A., (2000). "Spreading Resiliency: Making It Happen for Schools and Communities" Corwin Press, Thousand Oaks, Ca.

The Resiliency Wheel

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