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School Social Work NOW
Supporting Innovative Practice, Effective Leadership & Applied Research
June 2011 - Vol 1, Issue 35 |
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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. |
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Greetings! | |
The interactive 2nd National School Social Work Research Summit, June 26th to 28th, is upon us! If you haven't yet registered, you can do so on site! This experience is designed for you, designed to be an intimate gathering of individuals who understand the necessity to actively integrate school social work practice, leadership and research! The Changing Role of School Social Work Practice is a unique professional development opportunity that will enhance and strengthen your skills. REGISTER NOW!
Experiential Summit Highlights:
Dialogue Regarding the National
School Social Work Role Paper
Leticia Villarreal Sosa, PhD
This break-out will provide an update on the development of the ACSSW led National School Social Work Role Paper. Participants will serve as a focus group to assist the ongoing development of this important project and will have opportunity to provide input and suggestions for inclusion in this urgently needed document. With your participation, you help to shape the future of school social work!
SSW & Homophobia Research Project
Milka Ramirez, ABD, MSW
This work shop discusses dissertation research conducted in 2010-2011 related to homophobia and social work practice. Members from the American Council for School Social Work, the School Social Workers of America Association and school social workers across the U.S. participated in the study. The workshop discusses homophobia, gay affirmative social work practice and school climate.
Visit the ACSSW website to read more about the program and to download the brochure.
The Hilton Chicago Indian Lakes Resort in Bloomingdale, IL, is a lovely resort. Room reservations can be made 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. Reservation deadline has been extended, but the hotel will offer the Summit rate only as long as space allows. Some dates are sold out.
This issue of the ACSSW newsletter begins the summer
bi-monthly schedule. The next issue will be July 7th and every other week thereafter until school begins again.
If you have ideas or comments regarding what you'd like to see in next year's volume, don't hesitate to contact us. Send your thoughts to: Ideas and Comments.
Do enjoy your well-earned Summer respite. Relax, have fun, and gear up for another exciting year in 2011-2012!!
Judith Kullas Shine
President
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Practice Points | |
Providing mental health services in schools, particularly those located in disadvantaged, underserved communities where service uptake is at its lowest, is increasingly considered a logical way to meet young people's mental health needs.
As a team of U.S. psychiatrists points out, schools require attendance, are accessible to children and their families, and - when bolstered by support from mental health practitioners from other public agencies - have the potential to provide a range of preventative and treatment services for children in a location that may be less stigmatizing than traditional mental health service provision.
Now, a small pilot demonstration shows that delivering mental health services in elementary schools can indeed be very successful. Teachers and staff were enthusiastic about the program and children's mental health improved. But can this approach be rolled out on a wider scale? Here, concerns about time, resources, and support remain. Read more.
Severity of Binge Eating Disorder Linked to Childhood Sexual or Emotional Abuse
Imagine stuffing yourself with a day's worth of food in two hours or less. Imagine feeling disgusted, depressed and guilty once you finally stop. Then imagine doing it again, repeatedly and uncontrollably, once a week or more for months on end.
You have just imagined yourself with binge eating disorder (BED), a psychiatric condition similar to other eating disorders like bulimia, minus the countervailing purging behaviour, and compulsive overeating, but without the constant fantasizing about food. Some BED sufferers, in fact, have very negative associations with food. Moreover, until now, researchers knew little about the underlying causes of BED.
David M. Dunkley, a psychiatric researcher and clinical psychologist at the Jewish General Hospital (JGH) in Montreal, and his colleagues studied a group of 170 BED sufferers and discovered that the severity of the condition -- reflected by greater body dissatisfaction and depressive symptoms -- appears to be linked to very specific histories of childhood sexual or emotional abuse, which in turn lead to self-criticism. Continue. |
| Leadership News |
Coercing Conscience: Professional Duty or Moral Integrity
In response to a recent NASW document about conscience clauses, the author argues that framing an issue like abortion as one of personal versus professional values, or moral qualms versus professional duty, trivializes conscience. Respecting the conscience rights of professionals is important for the moral integrity both of the practitioners concerned and of the profession itself. Read article.
Service-Learning and Social Work Competency-Based Education: A "Goodness of Fit"?
As social work education moves to a competency-based approach, faculty are increasing their use of pedagogical tools designed to provide students with opportunities, in addition to traditional field placements, to develop practice skills. Faculty are no doubt turning to service-learning, and other forms of experiential education, to provide these opportunities and to offer an additional means for departments to demonstrate and measure student practice behaviors. To help focus the use of service-learning in social work education, this article uses sources from the larger service-learning field and from social work scholarship to examine the nature of service-learning, to review current service-learning trends, to summarize its use in social work education, and to raise questions about its goodness of fit with competency-based education. Full text. |
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Research Highlights |
Does Releasing Students for Religious or Moral Education Negatively Affect Test Scores?
This study examines the relationship between release time and academic outcomes. Release-time programs allow public school students to be excused from classes to receive off-site religious or moral instruction. In large part due to the federal No Child Left Behind legislation, schools are under increasing pressure to raise test scores. Consequently, some observers have questioned release-time programs, based on the assumption that missed instructional time results in lower test scores. Click for complete article.
Key Data on Education in Europe Longer Schooling, Fewer Pupils and Teachers
The European Commission . . . presented a report identifying both major positive trends and serious challenges for education systems across Europe. Positive news include: the increasing enrolment of 4-year olds in pre-school education, a significant rise in the numbers of students in higher education and a general trend towards longer periods of compulsory schooling. Among the important future challenges to be addressed will be demographic change, which means both fewer children of school age in Europe and teacher retirement on a very large scale in many countries in the near future. The report also states a universal trend to greater autonomy of schools in Europe. Summary. Full study. |
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In the News | |
Oregon Considers Limiting Testing of Students
A bill that would require the development of guidelines for Oregon schools on standardized testing -- to ensure testing does not diminish instructional time or harm the curriculum -- has received legislative approval and now awaits the governor's signature. Under current guidelines, Oregon students may take computerized tests up to three times each to help schools improve their ratings. "That means less time for students to work on areas they need to improve on," teacher Dena Hellums said. "The students get really burnt out on it, too." The Oregonian (Portland)
Divorce Plagues Kids' Social, Academic Lives for Years
Young kids whose parents divorce struggle with math, social skills and emotions such as anxiety and depression for at least two years after the split, a new study finds. The research is the first long-term study to break down the effects of divorce by the predivorce, during-divorce and postdivorce phases. Surprisingly, said study researcher Hyun Sik Kim, a doctoral candidate at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, parents' predivorce marital problems didn't influence their kids' social and school success. But once divorce proceedings began, children fell behind and failed to catch up for at least two years. Previous research has shown that divorce is tough on kids, with one study showing the experience doubled a kid's risk of stroke over a lifetime, perhaps due to the effect of stress. But parental screaming and fighting are bad for kids, too, so the question remains: Is divorce ever good for kids?... He found that kids of divorce began to struggle as soon as their parents began divorce proceedings. Over the next two years, the kids of divorce stayed behind other kids on math skills and social skills and they began "internalizing behavior problems," that is, behavior problems that manifest themselves by way of sadness, loneliness, anxiety and depression, Kim found. Click here for full article. |
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SW Jobs Links | |
If linked-to page looks blank, scroll down.
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| Requests for Research Assistance | |
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. |
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Grants & Funding | |
National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) Research & Development Competition
The National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) FY 2012 Research and Development Center Competition announces a research and development competition.
Topics include:
1. Interventions for Families of Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders;
2. Interventions for Families of Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders;
3. School-Based Interventions for Secondary Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders; and
4. Reading Instruction for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students;
For more information about these funding opportunities, please see the Request for Applications (RFA) and contact the appropriate program officer listed.
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. |
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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. |
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