Leadership Matters February 2014

Poverty in the public education classroom

A system of care for children in poverty

Jeanne Davis has been as educator for the past 20 years, serving as a teacher and as an administrator in both public and private schools and has experience in schools at both ends of the poverty/wealth spectrum. She is superintendent of the Lewistown District after

By Jeanne Davis Lewistown District 97

Facing a mountain of discipline referrals and a never ending litany of bad behavior reports, it became clear to me as superintendent that the students were out of control and the teachers lacked the knowledge to change their behavior. We needed a system of care for the staff and the students before real learning could begin. The journey that took five years began with addressing the issues surrounding teaching children of poverty. We first began by educating the staff so that they could begin to understand that the vast majority of the children in their classrooms did not have the social/emotional skills to develop successful relationships. They did not have the soft skills necessary to navigate conflict, to understand their role, nor did they possess the work ethic to organize their time and complete their work. We began to provide the opportunities at school that were not available to them at home. We built a continuum of care based on the Response to Intervention (RtI) tiered level of intervention and the results were remarkable. All students were guided by the practices embedded in the Positive Behavior Intervention System. The Center for Prevention of Abuse (later referred to as The Center) and the Mental Health Association assisted in suicide training and depression testing and guided staff in presenting information to students on diversity and bullying. They also demonstrated the tools that students needed in order to develop their social and emotional skills through programs like Second Step. The Star Student program highlighted students who improved academically and demonstrated improved behavior. An alternative education room monitored by an adult was designed as a safe zone where students at risk could work. Tier II intervention needed for some students Tier II intervention introduced more intense instructional support for a smaller number of students who did not meet with success at Tier I. Interventions included:  Interventionists from the Center guided groups in the HARTS program (Helping All Relationships to be Safe) and the Mind Over Muscles groups. Five to eight students made up the groups and

Jeanne Davis

one-hour meetings were held each week.  Licensed social workers provided training on impulse control, anger management and social skills. They also served as a link between the school and families and offered early behavioral health interventions. (e.g. grief work, adjustment reactions, anxiety). After school tutoring was also provided at this level.  Social workers addressed issues such as truancy, declining grades and disruptive behavior. They also addressed requests for individual counseling. Results showed marked improvement at Year 3 Approximately 40 girls were involved with the HARTS program provided by The Center . Comparing data over one year, 78% showed academic improvement in one or more core subject areas (54% in two subjects; 19% in three subjects). Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) scores indicated that 97% of the girls improved their scores in at least two of the three areas tested and 69% improved in all three areas. Mind Over Muscle began in November 2011 with (Continued on page 12) She also was principal of Bottenfield Elementary School, an urban public school in Champaign that received the Academic Excellence Award -- the state’s highest academic award -- for achieving at a 90 percent level for three successive years, despite a rising poverty rate that approached 30 percent. spending five years as superintendent of the Creve Coeur District, where the poverty rate was 72 percent. The social-emotional model she developed and implemented at Creve Coeur was one of 12 programs across the nation to be recognized as an exemplar program.

11