Improving the Classroom Performance of Students with Emotional or Behavioral Disabilities: Proactive Interventions at an Out-of-School Time Program
Introduction
The educational environment is home to students from a range of backgrounds. Not only are their backgrounds varied in terms of things like culture, socioeconomic status, family size, or religion, but students also bring with them a range of behavioral mannerisms and come to schools with dramatically different levels of emotional development. For some students, the problems are temporary—their behavior or their emotional peculiarities may be due to a single, transitory experience following which their behavior normalizes. However, for other students, the disability is more long term and can have serious academic consequences. In the most severe cases, when emotionally centered concerns or behavioral patterns routinely and severely impact a child’s educational opportunities, that child may be diagnosed as having an emotional or behavioral disorder/disability (EBD).
Working with students diagnosed with EBD brings with it a host of educational challenges. At the most fundamental level, it is problematic because the disabilities are often not restricted to the diagnosed child alone, but rather, they can negatively impact the educational opportunities for general education students. A child with an overly aggressive behavioral disorder may, for example, put classmates at safety risk in the classroom. Similarly, a student with an emotional disorder that prevents his ability to empathize may make hurtful statements to classmates without realizing the impact of their actions.
The problem is further compounded by general education teachers often having less than adequate training to appropriately work with the range of EBDs that students may bring to their classrooms. Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and anxiety disorder are all examples of disabilities that can be grouped under the larger, more generalized label of EBD. While all children may occasionally exhibit behaviors which may cause alarm, it is only when children exhibit these behaviors frequently and severely that the behavior is diagnosed as a disorder or a disability.
Despite the difficulties the teachers may face, demands for increased levels of accountability are being made at the national level. Thus, it is helpful to follow students diagnosed with EBDs throughout their academic endeavors. By doing so we may be able to better identify students with emotional or behavioral disabilities early on and develop strategies for improving their educational potential. The problem is that students diagnosed with an EBD are still, on average, receiving lower classroom grades than their peers.
At the same time, there has also been an increased interest in the role of out-of-school time (OST) programs in enhancing the educational opportunities for children, especially those at the elementary school level. In fact, the hope that OST programs can help bridge the achievement gap between poor and affluent families has led to the United States Government providing approximately $1 billion annually for the operating costs of OST programs (Budget of the United States Government). These funds are being provided for the operations of 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st-CCLCs) and are among the latest offerings of the 2001 No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. NCLB, in turn is a revision of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)—an act that was originally written to help level the opportunities for the most under-represented or disadvantaged members of society. This was evident in its provisions for programs like Head Start that sought to minimize the education gap that was evident even at the kindergarten level. OST programs such as Upward Bound for high-school students were also created at that time to encourage students to pursue a college education (Schugurensky 2002).
Historically, participation in such programs was often determined on the basis of income and race alone. Now, as educators strive to improve the representation of students with disabilities—and indeed to uphold the very name of “No Child Left Behind”—students with disabilities are now often candidates for these and other support services. OST programs can play a significant part in the opportunities for these children and may, whether directly or indirectly, contribute to an improvement in their academic performance.
Description of the Community
Although the subject of this research is not one with geographic boundaries, the study will consider learning centers in California. Due to its geographic diversity, California residents come from a myriad of backgrounds and belong to an equally diverse range of socioeconomic statuses. While there is considerable wealth in the area—California is one of the largest economies in the world—there are also considerable wealth inequalities. The community in this study, for example, is primarily agricultural and service-industry oriented. As such, most of the residents in the community work at extremely low-paying jobs and often have to work more than one job to support their families.
The 8% population growth in this county has been slower than the overall 13.8% population growth in California (Hadley, 2001). In fact, the growth has been much slower than forecasted, with approximately 15,000 people fewer than anticipated. What is also significant is that the area has exhibited an unexpected but noticeable change in its demographic composition. While the county has historically had a white population majority, in most parts of the county, the percentage of the Hispanic population has been increasing. Additionally, not only has the percentage of the white population decreased, but also the actual number of whites in the area has decreased.
The school district’s demographics are similar to the trends of those of the county overall. The school district is situated in an area that has historically had a slight Hispanic population majority. There are five elementary schools, one middle school, two small alternative high-schools, and one standard high-school in this school district. The student population is approximately 3,000 children. The number of full-time teachers is approximately 150 teachers. When reviewing the statistics for the past few years, one can notice a definite increase in the percentage of Hispanic students at the elementary school levels (Carpinteria Unified School District, n.d).
The school district has committed to providing excellent academic opportunities for all students but still faces many problems. The largest problem faced by the district overall is improving the English literacy rates of its student; many students are still classified as second language learners and primarily speak Spanish at home. The school district works cooperatively with privately funded out-of-school time programs as well as government funded 21st-CCLCs to ensure proper delivery of services to the population. The school district has also been very accommodating to the needs of the local population; for example, the school district recently decided to adjust the academic calendar to better accommodate the travel patterns observed around the holidays1. Community and parental involvement at school has historically been low; however, with the school district’s heightened responsiveness to the community, community and parental involvement has been gradually improving.
Description of Work Setting
The research project will take place at a privately operated out-of-school time (OST) program located in the community. The free program operates on-site at an affordable housing community in a modular classroom donated by the school district. The housing community is a recently renovated/re-developed slum under new ownership. The former conditions were so bad that many of the local residents often compared visiting the housing community to visiting an undeveloped country. The grounds were unkempt with garbage and hazardous materials littering open areas. Police were frequently called to investigate incidents of prostitution and drug-dealing. Most of the apartments were overpopulated with sometimes up to three families living in one single-family apartment. There was a sewage drainage problem which led to raw sewage seeping above ground on parts of the property, and because of poor plumbing maintenance, many apartments had mold or mildew problems. To cut back on maintenance costs, the original landlord had provided only one dumpster for the entire 54-unit apartment complex.
Over 80% of the current residents were also residents of the apartment when it was in its slum condition. All but two families residing at this affordable housing community are Hispanic. Approximately 75% of the working population at this housing community is employed by the agriculture industry; most of the remaining 25% is employed in the service/hospitality industry. As a means of helping empower some of the families living at the apartment community, several of the families are now employed by the new apartment community owners as on-site maintenance workers or gardeners. The on-site resident manager was also a resident at the apartment community in its previous debilitated state.
The K-12 grade student age population at the housing community is approximately 100 students. The out-of-school time program is open to all student students but targets those in elementary school. The total enrollment during the school year is, on average, 45 students. During the summer, enrollment increases to an average of 55 students. The majority of the students participating in the OST program are identified as “at-risk” in the academic setting. Almost one half of the students are also identified as having some form of emotional/behavioral disability.
The OST program has been focusing almost strictly on academics for almost two years. All regularly enrolled participants need to attend the program at least three days each week. When attendance drops to less than three days per week for more than two consecutive weeks, the program staff meets with parents to discuss the situation and confirm the enrollment or voluntary discharge from the program. Program staff coordinates closely with school teachers to help create IEPs to tailor the educational offerings to the program participants. The program staff also coordinates with a licensed clinical social worker who makes frequent visits to the program site to offer counseling services to both parents and students. Parents are encouraged, but not required, to assist in some form (such as preparing materials, helping clean the classroom, or helping prepare for special events) in the classroom one evening each month. Program staff holds regular (bi-monthly) conferences with parents to discuss any accomplishments or concerns which have arisen.
All individuals who are directly involved in this OST program will be participants in the research project. All 55 students and their parents will be included in the research project. The 12 regular education content teachers who worked closely with the OST program staff when the program was in its design phase will be included in the research project; approximately two-thirds of the OST program participants are in these teachers’ classrooms. The on-site resident manager of the housing community, the two full-time program staff, the two part-time program staff, and 10 long-term program volunteers will be involved in this research project. The clinical social worker will also be included in the research project.
Writer’s Role
The writer’s role at the OST program is program coordinator. The writer has worked with the program from its design stage. From the onset of the program he was responsible for developing individualized educational plans for all the participants and did so through thorough consultations with school teachers and with the social worker. The collaborative process that was used to develop the IEPs helps to ensure that the academic focus at the OST is relevant to the student’s official academic needs.
As program coordinator, the writer takes on many different responsibilities. He schedules and attends regular meetings with parents to discuss the progress of their children as well as any other concerns that parents may have. Because of his relationship both with those in the school district and with parents at the housing community, he is also often invited by parents to accompany them to parent-teacher conferences.
Having been with the program since its design stage, the writer is very familiar with the needs of the population. He has also been involved long enough to have established a comfortable rapport with both the parent community and the school community. This will positively impact the potential for cooperation by all of the study’s participants.
Along with working on the program’s design and curriculum, the writer is also partly responsible for securing additional funds to continue the program’s operations. To do this, he regularly completes grant applications and completes progress reports for existing grant sources. This study will be funded in part by a private grant and in part by internal matching funds.
The writer regularly coordinates with other community organizations to be able to better refer program participants to community based resources. Additionally, he staffs the program through a combination of paid and volunteer positions, drawing on community volunteers with a range of backgrounds and experiences. All adults who help with the program’s operations—including parents who occasionally help in the classroom—are given a formal training session led by the program coordinator. This is again of benefit to the study since it will ensure that all OST staff and volunteers receive proper training on how to manage different situations they may encounter in their daily work process.
- Many of the families are Mexican migrants who often return home for the Christmas holiday. Their mode of transportation is usually by car—a process that can be quite lengthy. In the past, this led to students missing sometimes as much as two weeks around the holiday in order to visit family. In response to this, the summer break has been shortened and the winter break has been extended. This calendar change has helped reduced the absenteeism rate around the holiday. [back]