Blog
24 blog posts in 2021
The Blog-Year in Review: Politics and the Pandemic, SEL and MTSS, Race and Disproportionality
The 23 Project ACHIEVE Blogs written in 2021 are organized into four themes that summarize the issues and needs for education come 2022. The themes are: (a) Politics, the Common Good, and How the Past...
Read Full ArticleWill the Controversy Over Critical Race Theory Damage Students’ Pursuit to Better Understand Cultural, Racial, and Individual Differences?
Blog analyzes students’ desires to learn and discuss the history and issues around race, racism, and educational inequity in contrast to recent legislation and policy changes, in the name of Critical...
Read Full ArticleWhat Do Race, Reading, Billy Joel, and Jeopardy Have in Common with our Nation’s Students?
Blog reports the results of a focus group of high school students and how their school is not addressing their social, emotional, and mental health needs. The resulting themes addressed issues of race...
Read Full ArticleThe Current State of SEL in our Schools: The Frenzy, Flaws, and Fads (Part II)
Blog discusses the lack of knowledge and poor SEL implementation choices made by educators across the country even as students’ social-emotional (Pandemic-related) needs are at high levels. A recent n...
Read Full ArticleAddressing Students’ SEL Pandemic Needs by Addressing their SEL Universal Needs (Part I)
Blog addresses the specific social, emotional, attributional, and behavioral skills that all SEL programs and initiatives should target and teach. Too many SEL programs do not change students’ interpe...
Read Full ArticleA Setting is NOT an Intervention: It’s Where the Real Intervention Has the Highest Probability of Success
The Pandemic has altered how different settings in a school are organized, and this Blog emphasizes that where students and staff are placed is not as important as what happens once there. The Blog ap...
Read Full ArticleHow Have Districts Tried and Failed to Eliminate Disproportionate Discipline Rates for Students of Color and With Disabilities? It’s Not About the Plan, It’s About What’s IN the Plan
Blog reviews comparative study analyzing interventions in 41 districts to decrease disproportionate discipline referrals for students of color and with disabilities with 41 matched districts with low...
Read Full ArticleA Review of the BEST Resource to Guide Your School’s Instruction of the Whole Child: Connecting the Pandemic Needs of Your Students with Strategic Actions Supported by American Rescue Plan Funding
This Blog identifies and summarizes the single best science-to-practice national report to guide districts and schools on how to best serve the short and long-term academic and social, emotional, and...
Read Full ArticleDisproportionate School Discipline, and How Long-Term Suspensions Don’t Work and Don’t Improve Classroom Conditions When Students are Gone (An Unexpected Part III)
This Blog reviews a recent study analyzing the academic and behavioral impact of different lengths of school suspensions across 1.24 million disciplinary incidents over 10 years in the NYC schools. It...
Read Full ArticleThe Components Needed to Eliminate Disproportionate School Discipline Referrals and Suspensions for Students of Color Do Not Require Anti-Bias Training (Part II)
This Blog discusses the five evidence-based interdependent psycho-educational components and embedded practices that help schools eliminate disproportionate discipline referrals and administrative act...
Read Full ArticleThe Critical Common Sense Components Needed to Eliminate Disproportionate School Discipline Referrals and Suspensions for Students of Color (Part I)
This is the first Blog in a two-part series on how districts and schools can successfully eliminate disproportionate discipline referrals and actions for students of color. We first review Critical...
Read Full ArticleReconsidering or Rejecting SEL/Character Education, Meditation/Mindfulness/Trauma-Informed, and Restorative Justice Programs (Part II)
In Part II of this two-part Series focusing on some of the most “popular” educational bandwagons in the field, we turn to the social, emotional, and behavioral side of the school and schooling cont...
Read Full ArticleReconsidering or Rejecting Collective Teacher Efficacy and the Acceleration of Students Who are Academically Behind (Part I)
In Part I of this Blog Series, we analyze a well-researched but still murky area of education—Collective Teacher Efficacy. We then discuss an emerging, but still unproven approach recommended to teach...
Read Full ArticleMaximizing Meeting Participation and Productivity: Is Everyone “Bringing It” to Your (Virtual or In-Person) Meeting?
Given the number of meetings we attend in a typical week, and their importance to the effectiveness and outcomes of most organizations, it is important to analyze and periodically re-calibrate them...
Read Full ArticleSustaining Student Outcomes Beyond the Pandemic: Where Districts Need to Allocate Their American Rescue Plan (2021) Funds
Sustaining Student Outcomes Beyond the Pandemic: Where Districts Need to Allocate Their American Rescue Plan (2021) Funds Lessons Learned from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (2009)[Origina...
Read Full ArticleAddressing Students’ Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Needs: All is Not What it Appears to Be. Remembering Bob Slavin and Applying his Legacy
Addressing Students’ Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Needs: All is Not What it Appears to BeRemembering Bob Slavin and Applying his LegacyDear Colleagues,Introduction I had a totally dif...
Read Full ArticleReconciling “Civil Liberty” Claims that Compromise Public Health and Student Welfare
Reconciling “Civil Liberty” Claims that Compromise Public Health and Student Welfare:When a “Me-First” Perspective Undermines Our “We-First” NeedsDear Colleagues,Introduction No one promis...
Read Full ArticleWhy Schools Need to Evaluate and Validate Before They Select and Direct (Their New Federal Funds to Services and Interventions)
Why Schools Need to Evaluate and Validate Before They Select and Direct (Their New Federal Funds to Services and Interventions)Be Cautious—What We Don’t Know about Student Mental Health and the Pandem...
Read Full ArticleA Consumer Alert: Student Awareness Does Not Usually Change Student Behavior
With billions of dollars coming to schools through the American Rescue Plan to address a plethora of Pandemic-related issues, this Blog guides educators on how to make purchasing decisions so that...
Read Full ArticleA Pandemic Playbook to Organize Your School’s Academic and Social-Emotional Strategies Now and for the 2020-2021 School Year
This new Blog describes some of the psycho-educational "lessons learned" since the Pandemic began in March 2020, providing specific strategies to help schools strategically plan for the remainder of t...
Read Full ArticleThe Pandemic, Students’ Academic Performance, and Preparing for the Rest of the School Year
This Blog addresses the importance of discussing with teachers and students how the pandemic has impacted and is impacting the school and schooling process cannot be understated. Rather than assume th...
Read Full ArticleImplementing Effective Multi-Tiered Systems of Supports during a Pandemic: Upgrading Your Academic and Social-Emotional Prevention, Assessment, and Interventions
Implementing Effective Multi-Tiered Systems of Supports during a Pandemic: Upgrading Your Academic and Social-Emotional Prevention, Assessment, and Interventions. It’s Not Your Fault. . . .[CLICK HER...
Read Full ArticleAn Inaugural Poem for the Ages Challenges All Educators as the Torch is Passed: A Lesson Plan to Help School Staff Become Part of the Solution
Blog discusses the national events of the past month’s inauguration and insurrection, the Presidential election now past, and the past four years of anxiety and stress on educators and students. It en...
Read Full ArticleAnalyzing, Understanding, and Changing Extreme Behavior: In the Capitol and In the Classroom
Given the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, this piece describes some of the psychological dynamics and possible root causes of the extreme behavior. This information is applied to stude...
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