|
School Social Work NOW
Supporting Innovative Practice, Effective Leadership & Applied Research
May 2011 - Vol 1, Issue 30 |
|
|
|
|
|
Professional Development Opportunities | |
This link includes state, national and international professional development opportunities.
Professional Development Opportunities
If you represent an organization with PDOs of interest to school social workers, please contact us with details. We will consider each request in terms of relevancy, timing, and interest level. |
|
|
|
Greetings! | |
Summit Update
The interactive 2nd National School Social Work Research Summit, June 26th to 28th, is designed for you! It continues the theme of Transforming the Practice of School Social Work that was unveiled last year. This year's participants will explore and engage in dialogue around The Changing Role of School Social Work Practice which focuses on research-to-practice and practice-to-research.
Keynote speaker, Dr. Joanne Corbin, will speak to:
Exploration of School Social Work Practice in the
Decision-Making Activities of Public Schools
"School social workers are involved in many aspects of school functioning such as addressing the needs of individual students including special education identified students, explaining student problems to others, providing educational counseling to students and parents, and facilitating student- school-community relationships. One area with which school social workers have had the least involvement historically is in the policy and leadership activities of the school.
Dr. Corbin will focus on this absence of school social work from critical decision-making opportunities within the school. She will present findings from her recent study examining the role of social workers in the decision-making activities of schools. Perspectives of school social workers, university partners in public education, and school district administrators will be presented. The presentation of this information will be grounded in the long history of school social work, school district polices, and the Role of No Child Left Behind. Dr. Corbin will look at the challenges of engaging in the decision-making dimensions of school social work practice as well as strategies that can enhance the work of school social workers. The continuing importance of school social work research on this issue will be emphasized."
Visit the ACSSW website to read more and to download the brochure. On-line registration is available.
The Hilton Chicago Indian Lakes Resort in Bloomingdale, IL, is a lovely resort . Make your room reservations online. Enter Group/Convention Code: ACS to insure special Summit rate of $99/night. Reservations may also be made by calling 1-800-334-3417; use the code to identify the group. .
Don't miss this unique professional development opportunity. REGISTER NOW! Late fee of $25 applies June 20th and beyond.
_____________
NCES Will Release Condition of Education 2011 on May 26th
"At 10 am on May 26, NCES will release the congressionally mandated report on the condition of education in the United States. The Condition of Education 2011 summarizes important developments and trends in education using the latest available data. The 2011 report presents 50 indicators on the status and condition of education. The indicators are in five main areas: participation in education; learner outcomes; student effort and educational progress; the contexts of elementary and secondary education; and the contexts of postsecondary education. The report will also provide a closer look at postsecondary education by institution level and control. NCES Commissioner Jack Buckley will present highlights from the report at a briefing to be held at NCES. The Commissioner's remarks will be available online following the release.
If you are interested in attending the briefing, register at Register Now. NCES is mandated to report to Congress and the President on the condition of education by June 1 of each year. Visit the Condition of Education homepage to learn more about this annual report and the special analyses conducted each year.
President |
|
Please Help Us Grow!! | |
If you appreciate this newsletter and have found an item or two of interest over these many weeks, please forward to a colleague. We do not track to whom you send this email, and it will help ACSSW to become more familiar to school social workers across the country. Thanks!!
|
|
|
|
|
Practice Points | |
School Social Work: Increasing the Legitimacy of the Profession
School social workers often face challenges of having to legitimize their presence as a school professional, especially as compared to school psychologists and school counselors. Why are school social workers more often vulnerable to being underappreciated and not understood by school personnel than other mental health-based school professionals? This article suggests that school social workers' apparent lack of legitimacy may stem from poorly defined role expectations and professional/educational requirements for state-level certification. To frame the argument, the article first presents the various requirements that each state has for school social workers, school counselors, and school psychologists. The article then discusses the implications of the presented information that highlights the fact that school social work lags behind school counseling and school psychology in carving out a self-defined niche with consistent expectations and responsibilities. The article concludes with suggestions for improving the legitimacy of the school social work profession, by exploring ways in which to improve professional preparation and competencies in order to achieve parity in certification standards, so that school social work can hold its own in the realm of school-based mental health and have the opportunity to serve students, families, and communities in need. Click here for more.
House Calls for Eliminating 43 Education Programs
A Republican-sponsored bill introduced in the House on Friday would eliminate 43 education programs, including the Even Start Family Literacy Program, the National Writing Project and Striving Readers. Other programs marked for elimination are not expected to draw significant opposition, but some lawmakers are expected to mobilize efforts to preserve the literacy programs, as well as a program that provides dedicated funding for libraries. This list of 43 includes the Elementary and Secondary School Counseling Program under which some school social work positions (as well as school counselors) are funded. Read this important article. |
| Leadership News |
While this study examined baccalaureate students, there are things to consider for MSW programs as well. Although macro issues are integral to social work, students continue to struggle with the acquisition of knowledge and skills pertaining to larger systems. Educators have developed innovative methods to integrate learning across systems of various sizes however it appears an imbalance persists. This challenge is supported by baccalaureate student responses to a social work program evaluation. Four years of data from 295 undergraduate students revealed that they felt less prepared to practice with larger, macro systems. Changes in curriculum to reflect collaboration and holism, and more research are needed to adequately provide macro learning and macro practice opportunities within the generalist model and in the context of the current socio-economic-political environment. Click here for more.
Transitioning Social Work Leaders: the New Educational Challenge
Developing new leadership is important and necessary for the survival of every profession. Read what some emerging social work leaders think about how that will happen between today's established leaders and those on the way up. Continue reading. |
|
|
Research Highlights |
A significant number of children in the U.S. lose a parent to death each year. But a new study shows that, after a normal and expected period of bereavement, most children recover from their grief. Dr. Laurie B. Gray of the University of Pennsylvania studied children 5 to 18 who suffered the loss of one parent but had a surviving parent. They were compared to children who had not lost a parent to death. All of the children were studied over a period of two years. Researchers found that about half the children experienced major depressive disorder two months after the death of their parent, and an additional 25% had a milder type of depression. But those numbers dropped by about half over the next few months. By two years after the death, 5% of children who lost a parent had a major depressive disorder and 11% had a milder type of depression... Researchers suspected that girls might be more effected by a mother's death and boys by a father's death. But the study didn't show that to be the case. Depression wasn't linked to whether the death was expected or unanticipated, either. However, children from families in which alcohol abuse was a problem were more likely to be depressed after a parent's death. More.
LEAP Model of Early Intervention for Young Children with ASD
Although LEAP had been shown to improve child outcomes in a prior evaluation, the developers recently implemented a new experimental evaluation comparing full LEAP implementation to a reduced model based only on access to materials. With funding from the National Center for Special Education Research, principal investigator Phillip Strain and his research team conducted a randomized controlled trial (RCT) comparing classroom implementation of LEAP with training and mentoring by LEAP staff to classrooms in which teachers were only provided with the usual LEAP training manuals and materials. They found that providing preschool teachers with LEAP training and mentoring resulted in greater fidelity of implementation and more positive child outcomes when compared to teachers who were only given the training manuals and materials.
In an article to be published this summer in Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, Phillip Strain and colleague Ted Bovey report on this recent NCSER-funded experimental evaluation of the LEAP model.
|
|
|
In the News | |
Study Gives Insight into Student Bullies and Their Victims
If you're a parent of a Minnesota student, there's more than a 50 percent chance your child has been bullied - or bullied another student - at least once. Thousands of students have been involved with bullying much more than just once, according to a new analysis by the Minnesota Departments of Health and Education. The study, which examined data from last year's Minnesota Student Survey of more than 130,000 students, found that 13 percent reported being bullied regularly, once a week or more. If that held for the state's entire student population, it would mean more than 100,000 students in Minnesota are bullied on a regular basis. The study found that 9 percent of students reported they had bullied others on a regular basis and another 3 percent reported being both a bully and a victim at least once a week... Students regularly involved with bullying - either as a bully, a victim, or both - also are less likely to earn As and Bs. They skip school more often, and they report higher rates of alcohol, tobacco and drug use... According to the report, more than a quarter of Minnesota students who have been a frequent bully or victim also have thought of suicide in the past year. Click for more.
Aging Out Shouldn't Mean Dropping Out
In a post on his Dropout Nation website, Rishawn Biddle cites that approximately 424,000 children nationwide were in foster care in the 2008-2009 fiscal year, and 26,000 each year age out of the system, often while still in high school. Given the lack of stability in their home lives, Biddle stresses it's as important for American public education to keep foster kids on track towards high school and college graduation as it is to do so with all children in the care of schools. More often than not, however, foster kids age out and drop out. Just 20 percent of 13-year-old foster care kids attending Chicago's public schools in 1998 graduated on time five years later, according to a 2004 study; they were also twice as likely as the overall enrollment to land in prison or jail. The abysmal academic performance of kids in foster care all but ensures most will end up in poverty or prison during their adulthood, in Biddle's view. They are also at risk of becoming parents who introduce still more kids into the child welfare system. Click and scroll down to learn more. |
|
Webinars | |
Prevention Connection: Recognizing Depression & Substance Abuse in Adolescents
Wednesday, May 25th 1-2 p.m. Eastern time
This webinar will focus on the complexities of adolescent depression, the risks of co-occurrence of substance abuse, and how early identification can have a positive impact and potentially prevent serious co-morbidities. FREE! Register here.
School-Based Health Centers & Academic Outcomes: New Research and Future Directions from a Seattle-Based Academic Community Partnership
Monday, June 6th 1 p.m. Eastern Time
In collaboration with the IDEA Partnership, the Quality and Evidence Based Practice (QEBP) Practice Group will be hosting a webinar presented by Dr. Eric Bruns, Associate Professor, and Dr. Aaron Lyon, Postdoctoral Fellow, from the University of Washington School Medicine. They will be presenting research on the connection between school-based health center service utilization (both health and mental health services) and academic outcomes, as well as several projects that are underway to promote positive social emotional and academic outcomes via effective school-based mental health services.
Please follow these instructions to join the online meeting.
1. To join the meeting go to Join Meeting. This allows you to view the powerpoint slides, participate in instant messaging during the webinar, and listen to the presenters talk (speakers must be turned on your computer).
2. To listen to the meeting and participate in the discussion, please call in via telephone.
Primary Dial-In: 1-800-201-2375 Alternate Dial-In: 1-469-759-7753 Passcode: 434706
3. If you are listening via telephone, please turn off your computer's speakers.
4. If you want to prepare your system ahead of time, please visit Prepare Ahead. |
|
SSW Jobs Links | |
If linked-to page looks blank, scroll down.
New this week: Various Locations Clear Lake, IA Hartford, CT (summer)
East Hartford, CT Harlem, NYC, NY Waukegan, IL
Continuing posts: Hillsdale, NJ New York, NY (fluent bi-lingual; charter) Revere, MA
NY, NY: Director of Student Services Kankakee, IL Beach Park, IL Washington, CT
Tolleson, AZ (LCSW) Johnston, IA Monticello, MN ConnecticutJobs |
| Requests for Research Assistance | |
School Social Work & Delinquency
Your participation is requested in a national survey focusing on school social work and delinquency. The primary investigator, Dr. Lauri Goldkind, is an assistant professor at the Graduate School of Social Service at Fordham University. Her work focuses on the intersection of the juvenile justice and education systems. The survey takes approximately 10 minutes to complete and as a token of the researchers appreciation, they are offering a $5.00 Starbucks gift card to the first 250 respondents. If you have already responded to the survey via other means, thank you! Survey link: School Social Work and Delinquency
School Social Workers and Reactive Attachment Disorder
Ms. Francesca Bautista is studying Reactive Attachment Disorder at the University of Wisconsin- La Crosse. If you are a social worker, please respond to this short 26 question survey regarding Reactive Attachment Disorder. The results will be used to assess current training and knowledge on Reactive Attachment Disorder. Reactive Attachment Disorder Survey.
ADHD and Collaboration Processes in Schools
"I am a doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Social Policy and Practice seeking school social workers in urban elementary school settings to complete an online survey about ADHD and collaboration processes in schools for use towards research for a doctoral dissertation. Participation is voluntary, confidential and anonymous. Completion of the survey takes approximately 10 minutes and can be done from any computer with internet access. If you are interested, or know of anyone who may meet the criteria for participation and would be interested in completing the survey, below you will find the link to a secure database for completion of the survey." For more information contact: Mery Diaz, LCSW, Doctoral Student, University of Pennsylvania, School of Social Policy and Practice Short survey link or Full survey link |
|
Grants & Funding | |
CVS: Caremark Community Grants
The CVS Caremark Community Grants Program is currently accepting proposals for programs targeting children with disabilities that address: health and rehabilitation services; a greater level of inclusion in student activities and extracurricular programs; opportunities or facilities that give greater access to physical movement and play; provision to uninsured individuals with needed care, in particular programs where the care received is of higher quality and delivered by providers who participate in accountable community health care programs. Maximum award: $5,000. Eligibility: nonprofit organizations. Deadline: October 31, 2011. Learn more.
Nominations Invited for Mario Savio Young Activist Award
A cash prize of $6,000 will be given to a social change activist between the ages of 16 and 26 who is working within an organization or community effort to promote peace, human rights, economic or social justice, or freedom of speech. Deadline: June 30, 2011. For more click here.
Captain Planet Foundation: Grants for the Environment
The Captain Planet Foundation funds hands-on environmental projects that encourage innovative programs that empower children and youth around the world to work individually and collectively to solve environmental problems in their neighborhoods and communities. Maximum award: $2,500. Eligibility: 501(c)3 organizations. Deadline: June 30, 2011. For more information, click here.
PTO Today: Parent Group of the Year
PTO Today's Parent Group of the Year Contest is an opportunity to showcase hard work while giving a school the chance to win cash and prizes. Maximum award: $3,000, plus a free DIRECTV system for the school, installed in up to eight rooms. Eligibility: all parent groups -- PTO, PTA, HSA, PTC, etc.; public and private schools; rural, suburban, and urban schools. Deadline: June 1, 2011.
Click for more.
NEA Foundation Nickelodeon K-8 Big Help Grant
Grants of up to $5,000 will be awarded to K-8 public school educators in the United States working on issues related to environmental awareness, health and wellness, students' right to a quality public education, and active community involvement. Deadline: June 1, 2011. Learn more.
Yes to Seed Fund and Whole Foods Market Offer K-12 School Garden Grants
Grants of up to $2,000 will be awarded to K-12 schools working to provide gardens that engage students in learning about nutrition and the importance of fruits and vegetables. The partners will provide Seed Fund Grants of $2,000 to schools in each of five participating Whole Foods regions in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest, and five Starter Garden Grants of $500 to schools nationwide. Deadline: May 31, 2011. Click to apply. |
|
ACSSW Activities | |
ACSSW's present major activities include:
- increasing research projects and their application within the school environment,
- developing a national school social work role paper,
- a more long-term goal, establishing a National Center for School Social Work Research, and,
- developing the 2nd National School Social Work Research Summit to be held June 26-28 in Bloomingdale, IL, at the Hilton Indian Lakes Resort.
If you have interest in assisting with one or more of these projects, don't hesitate to contact Judie Shine. ACSSW strives to be inclusive and transparent in all of its activities and welcomes the participation, whether short or lengthy, of its members. |
|
|
