NCJ Number
246685
Journal
Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 38 Issue: 2 Dated: February 2014 Pages: 160-169
Date Published
February 2014
Length
10 pages
Annotation
Based on the authors' experiences from working many years with schools and communities, this article argues against selectively concentrating resources on specific student and schooling problems with a series of focused projects that typically dissipate over time; and it argues for using resources to develop a broad, comprehensive, and sustainable system capable of addressing the multiple problems related to students' academic, personal, and social development.
Abstract
In implementing such a system, the article proposes four fundamental and interrelated policy and implementation actions. First, expand the policy for improving schools from a two-component framework, i.e., instruction and administration, by adding a third component, i.e., addressing barriers to learning and teaching. Second, install this third component of the schooling enterprise as a unified and comprehensive system of student and learning supports. Third, redefine and restructure school administrative job tasks and school infrastructure in order to facilitate school collaboration with community services resourced to address specific barriers to learning, such as child maltreatment, gang affiliation, drug use, bullying, etc. Fourth, ensure the establishment of effective mechanisms for systemic change needed to incorporate and sustain the third component (addressing barriers to learning) of the school infrastructure. The remaining sections of this article address frameworks for expanding school improvement policy and for guiding the development of a unified and comprehensive intervention system. The subject titles for these sections are "Reframing Policy and Intervention," "Expanding the Vision for School Improvement and Embedding Specific Problems," and "Framing Intervention as a Unified, Comprehensive, and Equitable System." 1 figure and 13 suggestions for further reading