Education

Responding to a crisis with integrated student support – a research article

Alyssa HaywoodeLeave a comment

research articleIn the middle of the pandemic, schools with systems of integrated student support (ISS) had an advantage. They were able to pivot to meet the rapidly changing needs of students and families.

A newly released research article — “Leveraging Integrated Student Support to Identify and Address COVID-19-Related Needs for Students, Families, and Teachers” — explains how one evidence-based ISS system, City Connects, has helped schools meet students’ needs. 

A key theme: systemic support matters. 

The research draws on several sources: surveys of City Connects Coordinators conducted in the spring of 2020 in 94 schools across six states; a database of the student services these coordinators provided; and on coordinators’ estimates of the three most common challenges schools faced when they were closed.

Published by AERA Open, the article was written by Courtney Pollack, former Senior Researcher on City Connects Data and Evaluation Team, and now a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a researcher at MIT; Maria Theodorakakis, Senior Manager of Clinical Practice and Research; and Mary Walsh, City Connects’ Executive Director.  Continue reading →

The Weekly Connect 11/29/21

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Here’s the new edition of The Weekly Connect. Check it out and sign up to have it delivered to your inbox!

Here are some of the things we’ve been reading about this week:

Educators are worried about standardized test scores that are lower than they were before the pandemic. 

More than 20 school districts extend the Thanksgiving break by adding mental health days. 

English learners in New Jersey are being “ignored.”

To read more, click on the following links.

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Happy Thanksgiving: City Connects in Southbridge, Mass.

Alyssa HaywoodeLeave a comment

One of the things we’re grateful for this Thanksgiving are schools that have just started implementing City Connects this school year.

This includes all six public schools in Southbridge, Mass., which cover pre-K through 12th grade and a therapeutic day program.

We’re also grateful for the six coordinators in these schools who geared up for Thanksgiving!

Three community partners – House of Destiny Church, Lifesong Church, and Sts. Constantine & Helen Greek Orthodox Church – provided Thanksgiving holiday baskets.

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The Weekly Connect 11/22/21

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Here’s the new edition of The Weekly Connect. Check it out and sign up to have it delivered to your inbox!

Here are some of the things we’ve been reading about this week:

Transgender students need adult support in school. 

Schools use federal Covid relief funds to focus more on students’ mental health. 

One driver of the digital divide: families can’t afford broadband service. 

To read more, click on the following links.

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Schools are on the front lines of the nation’s mental health crisis: integrated student support is a key strategy

Alyssa HaywoodeLeave a comment

A new opinion piece for the education website K-12 Dive discusses how schools are doing more to address students’ comprehensive needs in the middle of the pandemic. The article highlights the positive role of evidence-based, integrated student support approaches, including City Connects.

In the article, author Joan Wasser Gish — Director of Systemic Impact at Boston College’s Center for Optimized Student Support, the home of City Connects — writes that educators have been expecting the mental health crisis caused by the pandemic.

Wasser Gish writes:

“Budget decisions made long before children and youth returned to in-person, full-time school anticipated that children undergoing a year and a half of isolation, deprivation, stress — and in many cases, trauma and grief — would return to school with a range of social, emotional and mental health needs.”

School districts in different cities are taking different approaches.

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The Weekly Connect 11/15/21

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Here’s the new edition of The Weekly Connect. Check it out and sign up to have it delivered to your inbox!

Here are some of the things we’ve been reading about this week:

City Connects is an example of how to systematically provide beneficial relationships and resources to students, especially in the wake of the pandemic. 

Chronic absenteeism is growing worse in California. 

The infrastructure bill directs federal funds to replacing lead pipes in schools. 

Hiring black school counselors benefits black students. 

To read more, click on the following links.

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Practice and research: a conversation with Maria Theodorakakis

Alyssa Haywoode1 Comment

Even as an undergraduate at Boston College, Maria Theodorakakis was looking for a way to combine her academic interests with hands-on work.

“I was looking for a major that really kind of combined my interest in psychology and sociology with my interest in helping kids and working in schools,” Theodorakakis recalls.

A conversation with the late John Cawthorne, a former Associate Dean in BC’s Lynch School of Education and Human Development, led her to transfer from the College of Arts and Sciences to the Lynch School – and that’s where she found City Connects.

Back in those days, in 2007, when City Connects was only in five Boston schools, Theodorakakis applied for and received a summer research fellowship, joining the City Connects team. 

She has stayed involved through college and graduate school (she earned a PhD in counseling psychology at Boston College). And today she’s City Connects’ Senior Manager of Clinical Practice and Research. She also works as a child psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Focusing on both practice and research has given Theodorakakis a unique view of City Connects.

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The Weekly Connect 11/8/21

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Here’s the new edition of The Weekly Connect. Check it out and sign up to have it delivered to your inbox!

Here are some of the things we’ve been reading about this week:

Physical education classes may help students who feel isolated. 

The CDC recommends a low-dose, COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 through 11. 

Colorado launches a website that connects kids to mental health sessions. 

To read more, click on the following links.

Continue reading →