Stoplight-like signs hanging throughout the Emporia school district are giving students the go-ahead to succeed.
The signs are a small, but visible, outgrowth of a program that is blossoming with help from the student support specialists, administrators, teachers, and other staff members district-wide.
“It’s really kind of a problem-solving process that we use with kids when they come in,” said Robbie Hill who, with Kathy Williams, shares a specialist job at William Allen White school.
The support system blends school psychologists, counselors and social workers’ skills so that each elementary school building has its own full-time specialist. Hill and Williams are the only specialist employees who share a job.
In addition to serving its basic purpose of providing consistent delivery of services in kindergarten through sixth-grade buildings, the system is an anchor for a variety of social and emotional learning curriculum projects.
“Learning is only possible after students’ social, emotional and physical needs have been met,” Hill said.
Before the change, there were no social workers in the district; school psychologists might be in a building one day a week, and counselors’ time might be divided among schools.
Delivery of services felt fragmented, Hill said.
But with a grant to bring in coordinators to assist with organization, technology, and training, the new system has developed into an efficient way to deliver the social and emotional learning curriculum.
The system required considerable cross-training so that each specialist was prepared to handle the basics of the blended duties. Each had access to others’ deeper knowledge and experience when questions arose.
“Those three different disciplines have some pretty specific kinds of training,” Hill said. “If there was going to be one person in each building meeting all those needs, that person needed to be up to speed.”
The specialist staff underwent extensive early training and now meets at least once a month. The staff receives continuing training at Emporia State University and through other sources.
“When we get together, we can support each other if we have questions,” Hill said. “We’re always available for consulting. The huge benefit that everyone sees — parents, administrators, teachers — is that continuity of care, getting to know one staff, one group of kids, and feel like you have some input in what is happening in the school because you’re there.”
Actions are based on two programs that have proven successful — Caring Schools Community and the Girls and Boys Town Model. They also use the Search Institute’s “40 Developmental Assets,” a framework of traits and training that have been proven to help children be successful. Administrators, teachers, paraprofessionals and staff all cooperate in the programs.
In the classrooms, students begin the day with the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by another pledge from the Control Signals posters: “I am respectful no matter what is happening around me.”
“That is, we feel, a real important thing to teach children because maybe others around them are not making the best decisions,” Hill said.
The red, yellow, and green signs on the posters give students a sequence they can use for solving problems. The red sign tells them: Stop and calm down, state the problem, state how I feel. Yellow prompts them to the next action: Think. Make a positive plan. Will my plan hurt anyone? Will I get into trouble? Can I make my plan work? When do I start? Green gives them a go-ahead to act on the plan, with a follow-up to assess results: Did my plan work? Did I show respect for myself? Did I show respect for others?
It is a process that the adults in the building support and reinforce, and it helps with discipline and behavior.
“For many different reasons, some children aren’t coming as prepared as we would like them to be,” Hill said. “We’re working on teaching those skills and seeing this as a skill deficit.”
When a problem does occur, and a student must be sent to the school office, the specialists work to provide the social and emotional learning appropriate to the situation. They empathize with the student, affirm the person, discuss the offense and talk about what the student should have done and what the next action needs to be. Sometimes the solution is as simple as an apology. The student and the specialist work on what needs to be said and return to the classroom to take action.
“We actually practice the skill of making an apology,” Hill said. “If they don’t do it successfully, we come back and practice again.”
Good news and student successes are announced over the school intercom at the end of every day as another way to help the youngsters be successful. The district focuses on themes for specified periods of time. The topic may be respect, or manners, caring for oneself and for others and their property; students may recite positive statements, “I’m fair,” or “I have good manners.”
Everyone — district staff, parents, community members and the students themselves — can make a difference within his or her own sphere of influence, Hill said. “Homeside,” “Buddies,” and “YouthFriend” are some facets of the Caring Schools Community program that draw in parents, schoolmates, and community to participate.
“It’s a framework, not one more thing to do. … it’s more of doing and being what we already are,” Hill said. “Every school presents this to parents at the beginning of school.”
The more identifiable assets the students possess, the more likely they are to be successful.
“People build assets all the time,” Hill said. “It’s just that this helps us think about how important assets really are.”
Hill said that the support staff is available to present programs to civic and community groups and churches on request.