California Safe and Supportive Schools

Boredom: Data-informed Practical Implications for Educators

Mental Health Professionals (Counselors, School Psychologists, etc.)

Boredom: Data-informed Practical Implications for Educators

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“I am so bored” is a sentiment student often express. There is a minimal stigma in making this statement, and many students and adults might say, “Of course, schooling can be boring.” Indeed, tired and bored are the conditions students report experiencing most often at school. How should educators evaluate this expression when they hear it and consider what it could indicate about students’ academic and psychosocial development? This presentation introduces two new California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS) boredom items added in 2021/22 asking students about school boredom and how much value they place in their academic endeavors.

Using the responses of more than 500,000 secondary students, WestEd and the University of California, Santa Barbara will show how “boredom” could provide helpful insights into students’ social and emotional well-being. Practical information and resources to guide conversations with students will be provided at the webinar.

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Presenters: 

Michael Furlong, PhD, is Research Professor/Distinguished Professor Emeritus of School Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara (2021/22 UCSB Edward A. Dickson Emeritus Professorship). The National School Mental Health Center awarded him the 2022 School Mental Health Research Award. He provides consultation and support to the California Department of Education and WestEd related to CHKS. A coeditor of the Handbook of Positive Psychology in Schools (2009, 2014, 2022), he collaborates with colleagues on Project Covitality, supporting schools’ efforts to foster all students’ social–emotional development. 

Tom Hanson (he/him) serves as a Senior Advisor for the California Center for School Climate. Tom is a Senior Managing Director at WestEd. He has extensive experience in developing and validating survey instruments designed to measure school climate and other outcomes. He is the Director of the California School Climate, Health, & Learning Survey (CalSCHLS), a comprehensive youth risk-behavior and resilience data-collection service available to all California local education agencies. He has served as a principal investigator of multiple large-scale randomized controlled trials and has been lead methodologist for several studies examining the impacts of education interventions.

What’s New? California Healthy Kids Survey Update

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Join us to learn about changes in the California Healthy Kids Survey designed to be used to support student mental health and wellness. This webinar provides an overview of features of the redesigned survey students and staff will see in 2022–23. We will describe the mental health questions added to the Core module, the new student Behavioral Health and Trauma supplementary modules, and the new staff Trauma-Informed Practice module.

Presenters: 

Tom Hanson (he/him) serves as a Senior Advisor for the California Center for School Climate. Tom is a Senior Managing Director at WestEd. He has extensive experience in developing and validating survey instruments designed to measure school climate and other outcomes. He is the Director of the California School Climate, Health, & Learning Survey (CalSCHLS), a comprehensive youth risk-behavior and resilience data-collection service available to all California local education agencies. He has served as a principal investigator of multiple large-scale randomized controlled trials and has been lead methodologist for several studies examining the impacts of education interventions.

WestEd Research Associate Leslie Poynor is the State Coordinator for the California School Climate, Health, and Learning Survey System, the largest statewide survey of resiliency, protective factors, and risk behaviors in the nation. She provides technical assistance to all levels of education personnel in conducting and using the data from all CalSCHLS surveys in data-driven decision-making, including the California Healthy Kids Survey. She also develops and facilitates professional development and data workshops on creating safe and supportive school climates as well as on the education of the whole child.

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View resources from this webinar

 

Peer Learning Exchange- Seeking to Understand the Root Causes of Student Absences: The Power of Empathy Interviews

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School climate has a large influence on student well-being and attendance, which in turn affects student outcomes. While chronic absenteeism has been a nationwide issue for as long as it has been measured, this longstanding concern was further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The negative effects of both the pandemic and chronic absenteeism have been especially severe in historically and currently underserved communities and  with students who struggle socially or academically. Examining local attendance data to identify groups of students who are chronically absent is a necessary step in determining who may need support. Whether at a community, school wide, or individual level, we must then do more to understand the many reasons why students may not be attending school regularly. 

 

Marnie Lynch, Senior Director of District and School Support for Solano County Office of Education, will share how her team worked with one school district to conduct empathy interviews with students and school staff to understand root causes of chronic absence within the community. What they learned will help inform the prioritization of tiered supports and improvements in the broader school climate.

Partner: Marnie Lynch, Senior Director of District and School Support, Solano County Office of Education

Highlighted resources:

Peer Learning Exchange- Back to School- Building Positive School Climate From the Start

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Join the CCSC as we partner with Davis Joint Unified School District, who will share highlights and tools from their district’s school climate improvement efforts. They will focus on how they support their schools’ site-based School Climate Committees, prioritizing data-informed decision-making, student voice, and equitable practices. Participants will have the opportunity to share successes and challenges in small and large groups with peers from across the state and to gain practical strategies for supporting a positive school climate at the start of the year. Resources and a framework will be shared that can be used to support your own school climate improvement efforts.

Partnering with Davis Joint Unified School District, featuring Kate Snow, District School Climate Coordinator.

Kate is the Coordinator of School Climate for Davis Joint Unified School District, supporting the district as it endeavors to create environments conducive to learning and working for all. She brings to this work a background in teaching, out of school learning, technology, arts, nonprofit management and consulting, and anti-oppression work, both urban and rural, on both the East and West coasts. She sees school climate work as the interlocking of the personal and the institutional, with opportunities for the liberation of education for both adults and young people through strengthening perception, understanding, and analysis coupled with ideation, action and community.

 

Highlighted resource:

California Center for School Climate: Building Safe, Supportive, and Inclusive School Climates in 2022-23 Webinar

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The California Center for School Climate (CCSC), a project of the CDE operated by WestEd, provides school climate and data use coaching and supports at no cost to LEAs in California. Come hear about all the exciting upcoming professional learning and technical assistance opportunities including school climate collaboratives, data use coaching, peer learning exchanges, and a wide variety of resources available to LEAs. You will also hear from Youth Advisory Team members and a local principal on their experience with CCSC. 

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Download the slides.

School Mental Health Matters: Strengthening Local School Mental Health Systems 

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Now more than ever, mental health is a priority for California schools. Learn how the School Health Assessment and Performance Evaluation (SHAPE) System can help schools and districts build capacity for a more comprehensive school mental health system. SHAPE is a free, web-based platform available to schools, districts, and states looking for a suite of resources and tools to facilitate continuous quality improvement. The University of Maryland National Center for School Mental Health presenter will provide an overview of SHAPE, including its assessment tools and resources to support implementation and ongoing monitoring of a comprehensive school mental health system. Del Norte Unified School District will share their experience adopting SHAPE to build districtwide school mental health capacity. 

Featuring Dr. Elizabeth Connors:
Dr. Elizabeth Connors is an assistant professor at Yale University in the Division of Prevention and Community Research and at the Child Study Center. She also collaborates with the University of Maryland National Center for School Mental Health, where she is the Director of Quality Improvement and a developer of The SHAPE System. Dr. Connors received her Ph.D. in clinical child and community psychology, and her work focuses on improving access to high-quality mental health promotion and prevention and intervention services and supports for underserved children, adolescents, young adults, and their families in critical access points such as schools.

Hosted by the CA Center for School Climate and Project Cal-Well.

Watch the Webinar Recording

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Download the slides (pdf)

Highlighted Resources