Whole Child Education

A fascinating new analysis of data on bullying appeared in the October issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health. Looking at data from the Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC) 2005 Survey, a nationally representative sample of grades 6–10, the article's author looked at the connection between various bullying behaviors and their association with sociodemographic characteristics, parental support, and friends.

The data shows that in the two months prior to the survey, students were most likely to have been involved in verbal and/or social bullying, either as a bully or victim; more 50 percent of students fell into those categories. About 20 percent were involved in physical bullying, and roughly 13 percent in cyberbullying.

All sorts of interesting, if perhaps unsurprising, breakdowns emerge. For instance, having more friends is associated with more bullying and less victimization, and girls are more likely to engage in social or "relational" bullying than boys, who tend more toward verbal and physical bullying.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the analysis is that parental support is associated with less involvement in all forms of bullying. It's yet another piece of evidence that parents play a critical role in creating healthy school environments.

What better topic to blog about the day before Thanksgiving than food? Specifically, the food served in schools across the country.

The Institute of Medicine recently released a report, School Meals: Building Blocks for Healthy Children, that outlines recommendations for making our school meals more healthful. The recommendations include

• Increasing the amount and variety of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
• Setting minimum and maximum levels of calories.
• Focusing more on reducing saturated fat and sodium.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have reported that progress was made during the last several years in increasing the percentage of secondary schools in which students cannot purchase unhealthy foods and beverages from vending machines or school stores. This progress, however, varies greatly among the states. For example, although students couldn't purchase candy and salty snacks in more than 80 percent of schools in Connecticut, Hawaii, and Maine last school year, that was true in only 18 percent of Utah's schools.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recently said that schools that serve more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains to students should experience higher rates of federal support than schools serving less healthy options. He also said more attention needs to be paid to the nutritional value of food served in school stores and a la carte lines.

Check out ASCD's recent testimony on child nutrition programs and let us know what you think about the quality of the meals served at your school.  

Like reading about supporting the whole child and clicking links? You're in luck: today we're rounding up some of the latest additions to the site's extensive Resource Clearinghouse, with a common thread of community involvement. Whether the community is integrated tightly with the school or simply having an effect on kids' lives, it's clear that it takes more than school staff to meet the needs of the whole child. Be sure to check out these hot links:

• Impact of Community and Youth Organizing on Public School Reform, from the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, looks at organizing efforts by residents of seven urban communities across the country to improve their public schools. It aims to document the organizing campaigns and measure the impact on three critical indictors of education reform: district-level policy, school-level capacity, and student outcomes.

• Realizing the Promise of Promise Neighborhoods, from the Bridgespan Group. The U.S. Department of Education is preparing to issue RFPs for planning grants to create Promise Neighborhoods in 20 of the country's poorest communities. This paper discusses the lessons learned from earlier models and how policymakers and community leaders can benefit from this opportunity to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty.

• A Look at Community Schools, from the Center for American Progress, overviews community school strategies in the United States and how community schools can decrease poverty's detrimental effect on students. Using examples of community school initiatives, it highlights where research shows community schools have had the most success. It also reviews England's extended school model and suggests ways the United States can expand community schools based on England's experience.

• The 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development, from the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development at Tufts University, shows that youth development programs like 4-H play a special and vital role in the lives of America's young people. Among the findings, 8th graders who participated in 4-H programs at least twice per month scored higher on civic identity and engagement measures and had a greater ability to express opinions on community issues.

Wednesday was "College Application Mail-Out Day" at Bronx Preparatory Charter School, a tradition begun three years ago when the school's first class of seniors walked their college applications to the post office together as a group. Since then, every year the whole school community—every student from grades 5 through 11 and every adult in the building—comes out in force to congratulate the seniors. This year's event took the tradition to new heights with a truly joyous community celebration.

Bronx Prep, a charter school located in the South Bronx in New York City, prepares underserved middle and high school students for higher education, civic involvement, and lifelong success through a structured, caring environment of high academic expectations. Its students come from the surrounding neighborhood, with about half being Latino, often second-generation immigrants from Puerto Rico or first-generation immigrants from the Dominican Republic, and half African American. Eighty-one percent are eligible for free and reduced lunch. A lottery process is used to accept girls and boys entering 5th grade. Founded 10 years ago, Bronx Prep believes that all children in America deserve an education enabling them to fulfill their potential and realize their dreams.

"I was able to live every teacher's dream as I watched my first 5th grade class at Bronx Prep triumphantly make their way to the post office with their college applications in their hands and proud smiles across their faces," said teacher Amy Scallon. "There's no doubt that this group of high school seniors is ready to show the world what they're made of. They never stop making us proud!"

Another proud teacher, Kate Quarfordt, reflected on the students' achievement:

I've known the members of this year's graduating class since they were in the 6th grade. I've been a witness to their most radiant triumphs and their deepest struggles. They've watched me come face to face with my short-comings as a new teacher and were there as day by day I learned the ropes and began to lay the groundwork for relationships which continue to inspire, challenge, expand, and sustain me. Every educator has those dark nights of the soul when we wonder if what we're doing could possibly be making a difference.

Now more than ever, when the nationwide dropout rate is sky-rocketing, the quality of life in our inner cities is continuing to plummet, and our nation's educational system perpetuates conditions that seem designed to drain every last drop of wonder, creativity, and transformational potential out of the process of teaching and learning, there are real, concrete reasons for feeling burnt out, cynical, and, yes, sometimes hopeless. But then there are days, like [Wednesday], that bring back that flickering feeling of excitement, that reminder of what's possible when people come together and commit to doing things differently—with a strong sense of mission, integrity, and joy.

As we think about how we support and challenge our students to not check out and drop out, what can we learn from Bronx Prep's story? Hard work, a committed community, and a belief that kids—our kids—have the potential for success are the foundations for making dreams come true.

All photos taken by Kate Quarfordt.

According to the U.S. Department of Defense, the average military child is three times more likely to move than a nonmilitary child. The average military family moves 9 times over a 20-year career. Approximately 2 million military children have experienced a parental deployment since 2001.

My father served in the U.S. Army for 30 years. Over the course of his career, the family moved 17 times. I was born between moves 11 and 12 and attended 8 schools by the time I reached college, with no time in one place lasting longer than 4 years. At times we lived on a military installation and at times we lived in the local community; sometimes my siblings and I attended base schools, sometimes public schools, and sometimes private schools. Each transition meant saying goodbye to friends, a new home, a new school, and a new community.

It was a lot of change, experienced again and again. But it was also all we knew.

We learned how to become adaptable, self-motivated, and independent. We learned how to be the "new kid" and make new friends; we have a larger context of who we are in the world and are able to easily relate to others of diverse backgrounds. We are proud of our parents and the duty they are called to do.

But, many of us also feel a sense of impermanence, not belonging, and restlessness. We define events by where we lived at the time and don't have many long-term friends from childhood. We have gaps in our education and miss out on many extracurricular opportunities. We hide our needs that make us different from others and sometimes feel that we need to be good soldiers, too, and not complain or have stress.

Our experiences are fairly common among military children and those whose parents' situations require multiple relocations or who lose their home or community in a traumatic event or natural disaster. Recognizing the educational and social-emotional needs of students whose parents are deployed or in transition, whole child partner the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) has developed a tool kit for school leaders to aid in supporting the military child. It includes:

• Suggestions for school leaders on how to build connections, offer support, and promote academics;
• Information about Impact-Aid funding for school districts;
• SOAR tutorials for military families; and
• A free online course from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health Military Child Initiative for school administrators, support staff, and teachers to help military students meet life's challenges with resilience.

Research, data, and experiences show that a positive community and school environment where students are supported by qualified, caring adults positively influences academic performance and well-being. As we take the time to support our troops, let's also take the time to support military families and children.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) recently introduced legislation, cosponsored by Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC), aimed at preventing chronic truancy, particularly during the middle school years, and specifically references the "whole child" approach.

The Student Attendance Success Act of 2009 (S. 1708) authorizes funds to states for competitive, three-year grants to school districts for activities to improve academic achievement by keeping students in school. It also provides funds to establish a National Resource Center on Positive Youth Development and School Success to serve as a font of information, training, and research aimed at thwarting students' risky behavior and enhancing their academic performance. This resource center would be required to "conduct and publish research on the relationship between a whole child approach to youth development and school success, including academic achievement and retention of the teaching force."

Learn more about S. 1708 and encourage your senators to support this legislation.

ASCD provided testimony to the House Committee on Education and Labor Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities on the issue of innovative child nutrition and wellness programs. In it, we asked Congress to

• Update the dietary guidelines governing school meals to reflect current science and childhood obesity trends;
• Apply rules governing school meal programs to all foods served on campus throughout the school day;
• Take steps to increase schools' access to healthy, nutritious foods; and
• Support a holistic approach to addressing the needs of the whole child when reauthorizing The Child Nutrition and Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Reauthorization Act.

The testimony highlighted the Healthy School Communities pilot sites as examples of innovative and holistic approaches to child wellness. These sites have implemented reforms from ranging school-based health clinics on campus to nutrition and physical activity programs that incorporate students, staff, and the community at large.

Read the entire testimony and learn more about ASCD's Healthy School Communities Initiative.

Education Week reports on a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research, which looked at student achievement results from the Harlem Children's Zone charter schools over three years. Remarkably, student results show that the New York City black-white achievement gap was eliminated in elementary math and language arts and middle school math, and halved in middle school language arts.

The study's authors emphasize that they were unable to conclude if the schools themselves, or the combination of the schools and community wraparound programs, such as parenting and anti-obesity programs, were responsible for the gains.

Although it will be interesting to see if research can prove the efficacy of such larger community programs, it's clear that the success of the HCZ charters isn't simply a matter of academics. According to Ed Week, Richard Rothstein notes "the report seems to underemphasize that the Harlem Children's Zone schools themselves offer some non-academic supports that may help explain their success...such as regular medical, dental, and mental-health services for students, as well as substantial funds for after-school programs."

In other words, focusing on the whole child has clearly had an effect here—regardless of whether it's the schools themselves or schools in combination with larger community initiatives that is driving such dramatic results.

Baruti Kafele, Newark (N.J.) Tech High School principal and author of Motivating Black Males to Achieve in School and in Life, recently visited ASCD to share importance of knowing and motivating students:

Teachers of black males have a responsibility to inspire them the way my professors inspired me. In my capacity as a principal, I announce to my students over the public address system every day that they are "most brilliant and most highly capable." I remind them that they are born with the potential to achieve excellence and greatness. I frequently say to educators that our roles are to motivate, educate, and empower—in that order. When we choose our words wisely and consider the power that words can have, we increase the probability that our students will achieve excellence. We must always remain mindful of the power and influence that we possess as educators, and we must use every opportunity that we have throughout the day to make our students aware of their greatness. If we fail to do this, the streets have a way of picking up the slack.

"We have to help [students] to soar, because they have the ability to do so," Kafele said. How do you help your students soar?

Want more?

• Purchase Motivating Black Males to Achieve in School and in Life and listen to a talk with the author.
• Follow Principal Kafele on Twitter and at www.principalkafele.com.
• Download this month's Whole Child Podcast, "Supporting Students to Succeed: Keeping Kids from Checking Out and Dropping Out," and check out our latest resources on preventing dropouts.
• Get your free download of Supporting the Whole Child: Reflections on Best Practices in Learning, Teaching, and Leadership, ASCD's latest e-book, through November 17.

Yesterday, Rick Hess, resident scholar and director of education policy at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote a blog post that questions why Secretary of Education Arne Duncan would become involved in health care reform. Here at the Whole Child Blog, we ask: "Why wouldn't he?"

Research and common sense have shown time and again that education and health are inextricably linked. Sick kids stay home, and they can't learn if they're not in school. Meanwhile, healthy kids are less likely to drop out of school, which means they are more likely to become adults with steady employment and longer, healthier lives. Health care reform would give all kids an equal chance at these benefits by providing coverage and preventative care to the millions of children who do not qualify for Medicaid but whose families cannot afford the high cost of private health insurance.

The current H1N1 flu pandemic underscores the important connection between education and health. Secretary Duncan has worked closely with Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services; Janet Napolitano, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security; and representatives from other federal agencies to coordinate flu response that minimizes disruptions to learning. This type of collaboration needs to become the norm, and it needs to happen at local, state, and federal levels.

ASCD's Healthy School Communities Program provides local-level examples of schools that are working with their communities to supply children with healthy learning environments that support academic goals. Students at Barclay School in Baltimore, Md., are growing their own healthy food and learning about nutrition. Hills Elementary in rural Des Moines, N. Mex., has created a school-based health center that provides the community with health, mental health, and dental services. Successful school and community health initiatives like these mean kids are healthier, more likely to graduate, and less likely to deplete local health resources when they are adults.

Let's hope Secretary Duncan and his colleagues continue to recognize the intersection of education and public health and work together to support the whole child.