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2/21/2010 8:28:07 AM
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GDonohue
Posts 7
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It's interesting to me that this is the one category on the blog that is empty. I am seeking advice on the best approach to introduce cps to school leaders. I have shown the thinking skill inventory to a guidance counselor and special ed admin. and they were quick to compare it to a former planning room concept they once used. Any advice on how best to introduce this philosophy to a school that currently uses a zero tolerance discipline policy?
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2/22/2010 3:18:34 PM
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Allan
Posts 166
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Hi,
Any discussion would need to address the underlying philosophy and understanding of kids inappropriate and maladaptive behaviors and also address the concerns of school staff if we choose not to use zero tolerance policies.
Here are some links
http://www.livesinthebalance.org/collaborative-problem-solving-in-the-real-world
http://www.lostatschool.org/answers/index.htm
http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/uncondtchg.htm
http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/safety.htm
When dealing with schools I use CPS and try to be the one who asks the questions. This is the way I control the conversation.
here are some questions ? Would you agree that kids would prefer to do well and be successful than not to do well ?
if they would prefer to do well and are not , would not the lack of coping skills be a better explanation than they are lacking the motivation to do well
( If the the explanation is they don't want to do well , maybe we can try to make them want to do well , and there is a large body of research that using rewards, punishments and other extrinsic motivators undermine intrinsic motivation and the commitment to values )
If we want to teach skills would it not be better to have kids actively collaborate in the process of problem solving and learn skills on the job than a top-down direct teaching of skills ?
Do you believe that building trust and a good relationship between kid and teacher is important for the child's development and learning new skills
Do you believe that a child must feel loved and unconditionally accepted in order to trust his teachers
Do you not agree that we need input from the child to understand what is getting in his way and he will need to trust us if we are to have him open up us to him
to be continued
Allan
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2/26/2010 10:17:57 AM
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Joseph Leykam
Posts 11
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From working alongside several schools now, I've found that there are several keys to making the process work well; all of them informed by the groundwork of the model itself.
- Helping Relationships: a vital ingredient of the process. You must have direct and supportive relationships, as a trainer or consultant, with teachers themselves. This means forging a clear potion as an outsider from the administrate leadership (i.e. not the person reporting to management what teacher's aren't doing) but also close enough to the process for people to know that you are 'in the trenches' with them. This component requires individualized attention and work with teachers that moves towards building their skills at dealing with kids they may, or may not, have been trained to teach and may, or may not, have the resources to cope with.
- Administrative Support: Support, the key word here, means the administration is invested in making the shift to a CPS model. This means that someone in leaderships is at least sold on the idea that this model is going to take time and the overall results will be valuable. Depending on the administrator, it may take extra effort to help them re-think a lot of their own conventionally held beliefs. I never short sell this component because the worst thing that I've heard from teachers is being forced to do "the thing of the week" by an administrator is really tough on their job satisfaction.
- The Road to Plan B: If you've sensed that I use a lot of plan B conversations with teachers and administrators, you're right. Confronting their concerns is vital and, just like with kids, we have to really attend to their emotional concerns as well. Professionals often overlook their own personal emotional state in the cost of a decision (this is well explored in clinical supervision literature) and that can lead to tragic results when a professional has to deal with chronically challenging, unsolved problems. I've said to a lot of the team members I supervise, teachers I've worked with and other administrative/clinical supervisors: "There is no plan A road to plan B" (which is a great quote I stole - thanks Ed).
- Consultation: the most successful model of working in the classroom I've developed has weekly consultation that is explicitly within the teacher's schedule. This means no consultation after their day is done and they may ore may not be getting paid. Weekly work with everyone in the classroom is necessary and when it comes together is can really allow a venue for the conversations that need to be held.
- Core skills: Aside from the variety of CPS elements, I've found a broad need to train in a variety of other core clinical skills. Basic validation is something we used to have to remediate with line staff a the state hospital unit on nearly a weekly basis. It's necessary to identify, specifically, what staff and teachers are missing. Chances are it will be different for different people. Nonetheless, drilling down and thinking outside of the immediate issues of the model is key to ensuring that we are giving training and support that is necessary.
- Knowing what can be achieved: I'm a strategic person by nature; I also like charts and numbers. When I think of what it takes to lead a school in CPS I think big picture. Taking a couple of years to turn a school district towards this unconventional wisdom is worth the time for me. I also look at the feasibility of working with individuals in the model. In a normal curve, there is about 16% of the population that falls above and below one standard deviation from the norm. 68% of a population falls within one standard deviation of the norm. Targeting efforts is about knowing which discrete group we're working with. The tough 16% are the teachers and staff who have a reason to be against the model (philosophy, personality, nearness to retirement, extreme burnout, etc.) The can make the shift but the effort that is necessary to support their change is much more significant, just like it is difficult to work with the toughest 16% of our challenging kids. Conversely there's the eager 16% (many of whom are likely on this message board) who are already looking for their own ways to access CPS training even if it isn't offered in their school. Finally there's the core 68%, this is the group I really target for support heavily. They have some significant assets to begin to the process but likely have similar struggles and needs that must be met. Overall, the process with teachers, clinicians and other professionals is about realizing that we're working with people. We like to think that other professionals often are more capable than the general population but it is my experience that is not, by necessity, true.
Well, thanks for reading, sorry it went on and on. As my parting statemnt, I really try to live by Donal McGannon's words in their work "Leadership is Action, not position".
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2/26/2010 7:02:02 PM
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J.Aldrich
Posts 14
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Joesph,
Thank you for developing this, much to ponder. I sense that the most important ingredient is the individual connection-such a key element in the success stories (adults and children alike). I've heard from other transformative programs that the upfront time is key to the success- you mentions 1-2 years to lay the foundation. THis is not uncommon from what I understand for any type of major shift in just setting the stage. Teaching core skills to the teachers must be a challenging task, could you elaborate? Also do your numbers for the curve come from some recent research? Could you guide us to that info, if so?
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3/3/2010 1:10:12 PM
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1cleverchick
Posts 7
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I have been watching this post to see what comes up. I have a grassroots movement going, mainly me talking to anyone who will listen. I try to find school counselors, teachers, parents.....anyone who is interested and then send an email with this web site, the book title, Lost at school and other resources. I have bought multiple copies of Lost at School from Amazon and am giving them out, considering it a small investment in my child's future. I had to move my child to a new school because of the lack of response and finger pointing by his old school. Right now, things have settled out. I am waiting for the moment when I will need to work with the new school to help my son. Until then, I am educating myself so that I can be an effective parent advocate. I believe the best way to initiate change is to be educated, eloquent, non-confrontational and PERSISTANT. I will keep reading posts to see what others are doing.
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3/10/2010 11:01:46 AM
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Jeff Krukar
Posts 5
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Hi - this would be my first post of probably many. We are implementing CPS in a residential treatment center with a school program - and I would say my experience has shown to never underestimate the importance of formal and informal leadership, in particular, when long standing organizational change is occurring as it will with CPS when compared to more traditional behavioral management approaches for kids.
Also, as far as schools there is a lot of internal and external pressure to do "things the same way we always have." So leadership answering the question "Is what we're really doing working well?" was a place to start for us. The answer was "well no, not really."
Jeff
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3/12/2010 1:40:14 PM
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Joseph Leykam
Posts 11
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Wow, its really quite revitalizing to see all of the great ideas here, I really want to extend my appreciation to everyone for their comments. It can sometimes be a pretty lonely road and I really have appreciated seeing others thinking along the same path that I am. I don't have any specific research on the breakdown of my observations but I am working on some publications at this time regarding implementation and leadership in the CPS model so I hope that we can continue to develop more resources for how to actually move forward with dissemination of the model from this point forward. I have to say my "normal curve" example is purely anecdotal but is informed by some very rudimentary social psychology theory about group movement and participation. I have found that it is a helpful mode to thinking in regards to marinating my own level of persistence and commitment to moving forward when the going gets tough - which it always does.
I would add to my previous comment along the lines that several others have already commented - it really takes a great deal of cognitive flexibly assets to lead in the CPS model. As a manager, consultant and therapist myself I cannot emphasize enough how much that the capability of staff is always bounded by the capabilities of the system in which they work. In a past role, I found it was often necessary to just let people go forward with their own solutions even when I had really and clear worries (not necessarily concerns) about the solution. It often came back to asking myself "what are my concerns here?" This is a tough challenge for some administrators and people who have limits in flexibly struggle greatly. If you cannot see the grays, deviating from the original plan, handling unpredictability, adapting to changes in plans and taking into situational needs to adjust a plan then you will likely really struggle in the mode necessary to lead in the CPS model. I was lucky to have been exposed to W. Edwards Deming’s work on Quality Management early on which I have found to be a reasonable companion for leadership in the CPS model. I also have to say that it took a lot of challenges from my supervisors to learn the lessons necessary to really support people without walking all over their concerns (plan A-ing my supervisees).
All of these difficulties aside, I think that shifting systems - especially school systems is a significant task and the people who are working on these systems certainly are at the forefront of the struggle to shift us all towards more Unconventional Wisdom. I realized re-reading the postings that I totally missed one of the original questions about Zero Tolerance programs. I wanted to briefly toss out some ideas around this: If we're going to try and move away from any plan A solution (and really that is what we're talking aobut with Zero Tolerance) I think we need to pre-plan thoroughly - wee need a good understanding of the problem beforehand. A situational analysis of the system is a good starting point. Why is there a Zero Tolerance plan in the first place? If it is part of a larger state or local initiative to have Zero Tolerance problems that is very different than if the specific school itself has had a problem with violence and weapons that motivated a grassroots zero tolerance policy. Once we understand why the plan was implemented we can figure out who we should even start talking with. Just like with plan b along with kids we can develop a good list of unsolved problems and start talking with people who can help us fill in the systems skills and deficits. knowing that any plan that can be solved with A or C can also be solved with B we can start figuring out why we jumped to A in the first place; often its fear - just like with kids acting out behavior - of litigation, harm or public outcry. Once we get some more information aobut the problem we can start to articulate our concerns. My favorite concern for Zero tolerance programs is this: "If we simply expel every student that has a weapon we run the risk of loosing site of specific facts that mitigate the presence of weapons and schools across the country often get in hot water when there are exceptions - like a popular and well liked student who forgot a pocket knife and got expelled". This doesn't always get a lot of movement but it can begin the problem solving discussion and get people thinking aobut what we loose when we use whole-system plan A solutions. I've found that after several months of this we can at least start developing a list of people who are sensitive to this.
I don't want to give the perception that I have successfully changed any school systems away from Zero Tolerance programs. I have had several opportunities to talk about this with people and I have a few local administrators who are open to the idea. i have to remember that its a process and that shifting lagging thinking skills in a system is sometimes as tough as it is with the kids we're trying to help.
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3/26/2012 12:19:03 PM
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rachaelwurtman
Posts 1
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I'm a special education advocate, specializing in children who have psychiatric illness or who are on the autism spectrum. I received training at Think:Kids and am very committed to the approach. I'm having trouble finding concrete examples of goals/objectives/ benchmarks that incorporate CPS principles. I want to propose these goals, etc to teams when we review IEPs. Does anyone have specific examples that they might be willing to share?
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4/3/2012 6:39:10 AM
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Allan
Posts 166
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Just some thoughts - we can use the aquiringof lagging skills , solving specific problems as goals , benchmarks etc . We can assess not only the solutions but also the cognitive skills displayed in discussions
http://tiny.cc/b1p6bw
http://allankatz-parentingislearning.blogspot.com
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