Improving student and school staff interpersonal relationships is the key to turning this state of disengagement around. "Research has shown that students who feel connected to school do better academically and also are less likely to be involved in risky health behaviors: drug use, cigarette smoking, early sex, and suicidal thoughts and attempts," says Dr. Blum. "Strong scientific evidence demonstrates that increased student connection to school decreases absenteeism, fighting, bullying and vandalism while promoting educational motivation, classroom engagement, academic performance, school attendance and completion rates."
It is vital for the success of our students that we improve the state of meaningful contact between school staff and students. This meaningful contact will not only improve a student's desire to engage, but it will also enable school personnel to identify at-risk students and prevent violent incidents from occurring.
Dr. Blum continues to say "But it is not just teachers and administrators who create these important connections. Janitors, coaches, lunchroom servers, office assistants, counselors, parents and school volunteers – in short, all adults – are critically important in this dynamic. Simply put, when we create more personalized educational environments, students respond and do better."
Improving these meaningful connections doesn't have to be exceedingly time consuming. Sometimes some very small steps towards improving student connectedness can make a world of difference. "When we ask young people ... how do you know a teacher or an adult in your school cares about you? The most frequent response was that the adult simply says hello and knows my name and greets me using my name." (Bonnie Benard: http://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/yd/tr/schoolconnectach.asp). This sentiment is reverberated throughout the field of education. The Stanford Center for Teaching and Learning says "...whatever the context, be it a cocktail party or a classroom, remembering names indicates respect and concern, and can be essential to building a relationship... Becoming an expert at memorizing names is a small but respectful step toward demonstrating personal investment in your students’ well-being. Building a mutually respectful relationship with students is as important as having an organized lesson plan, giving a dynamic lecture, or encouraging enthusiastic class participation."
Also "momentary time sampling was used to measure on-task behavior during the first 10 min of class. Teacher greetings produced increases in students' on-task behavior from a mean of 45% in baseline to a mean of 72% during the intervention phase." (Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, v40 p317-320, 2007, Allday, R. Allan; Pakurar, Kerri)
Further, studies have shown that the positive effects of School Connectedness are heightened for at-risk students. "... The results suggest that social capital, as defined by a relationship that facilitates action, is especially high for at-risk students who feel their teachers are interested, expect them to succeed, listen to them, praise their efforts and care." (The Role of Caring in the Teacher-Student Relationship for At-Risk Students: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1475-682X.2001.tb01110.x)
Dr. Robert Blum closes his case, "As our research expanded, we learned that this is not just an association. It is a causal relationship. There is something in that bond, in that connection to school that changes the life trajectory -- at least the health and academic behavior. It is very powerful -- second only to parents in power. In some contexts it's more powerful than parents.”
It is without a doubt that we need to implement some measures in our schools so that school staff learn to recognize students by name. Implementing a school policy or recommendation combined with a fun tool to help school staff learn students by name is a great way to make improvements in your schools. Discovery Software, the creators of Principalm, which is student information on a hand-held PDA or Smartphone, also offer the NameGame at no extra charge. With this fun game, school staff match student names with pictures and watch your score improve. Discovery Software clients love the NameGame. Mark G. Taylor from Prospect High School says, "My security staff ... are having fun learning who's who. Keep up the good work!"
Student Connectedness is the Key to Improving Student Success!
Links to other resources
KNOW BY NAME: ‘The keynote to the education of the future must be “constructive individualism.” The foundation of its method must be “knowing men by name.” This is no new discovery. It was not invented in Palo Alto, nor yet in Harvard, nor in Michigan. It is as old as Socrates or Plato. It has been recognized wherever the training of men has been taken seriously.’ - David Starr Jordan, President of Leland Stanford Jr. University http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E0DE4DE1039E733A2575BC0A9619C946197D6CF
DISENGAGEMENT: ‘By high school, some 40 to 60 percent of all students are chronically disengaged from school. That number does not include those who have already dropped out. What can be done? First, recognize that people connect with people. Relationships formed between students and school staff members are at the heart of connectedness.’ - Dr. Robert Blum, MD, MPH, PhD., Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health http://www.jhsph.edu/mci/resources/School%20Connectedness
REDUCE SMOKING: ‘Research has shown that students who feel connected to school do better academically and also are less likely to be involved in risky health behaviors: drug use, cigarette smoking, early sex, violence and suicidal thoughts and attempts. This report summarizes what is known about school connectedness.’ - Dr. Robert Blum, MD, MPH, PhD., Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health http://www.k12.wa.us/OperationMilitaryKids/pubdocs/SchoolConnectedness.PDF
REDUCE VANDALISM & BULLYING: ‘Strong scientific evidence demonstrates that increased student connection to school decreases absenteeism, fighting, bullying and vandalism while promoting educational motivation, classroom engagement, academic performance, school attendance and completion rates.’ - Dr. Robert Blum, MD, MPH, PhD., Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health http://www.k12.wa.us/OperationMilitaryKids/pubdocs/SchoolConnectedness.PDF
ALL ADULTS: ‘But it is not just teachers and administrators who create these important connections. Janitors, coaches, lunchroom servers, office assistants, counselors, parents and school volunteers–in short, all adults–are critically important in this dynamic. Simply put, when we create more personalized educational environments, students respond and do better.’ - Dr. Robert Blum, MD, MPH, PhD., Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health http://www.k12.wa.us/OperationMilitaryKids/pubdocs/SchoolConnectedness.PDF
IDENTIFYING AT RISK STUDENTS: ‘...there is a noticable absence of any new effort to address the impersonal climate present in many schools that contributes to growing student anonymity and alienation. Research on school violence has shown that a lack of meaningful contact between adults and students in schools prevents school personnel from identifying those students who are at risk of engaging in violence; it also prevents them from knowing when violent incidents are likely to occur.’ - from the Harvard Graduate School of Education newsletter
POSITIVE VS. NEGATIVE SOLUTIONS: ‘...it is rare to find a school that critically examines its disciplinary practices to ensure that it is effective in deterring problem behavior and not merely pushing out troubled and needy students. It is also rare to find a school that works to increase safety by increasing contact between adults and students, rather than by increasing its number of security guards and metal detectors.’ - from the Harvard Graduate School of Education newsletter
BUILD A RELATIONSHIP: ‘...whatever the context, be it a cocktail party or a classroom, remembering names indicates respect and concern, and can be essential to building a relationship... Becoming an expert at memorizing names is a small but respectful step toward demonstrating personal investment in your students’ well-being. Building a mutually respectful relationship with students is as important as having an organized lesson plan, giving a dynamic lecture, or encouraging enthusiastic class participation.’ Stanford Center for Teaching and Learning http://ctl.stanford.edu/Tomprof/postings/752.html
TIME FOR CONNECTEDNESS: Abstract: A multiple baseline design across participants was used to determine how teacher greetings affected on-task behavior of 3 middle school students with problem behaviors. Momentary time sampling was used to measure on-task behavior during the first 10 min of class. Teacher greetings produced increases in students' on-task behavior from a mean of 45% in baseline to a mean of 72% during the intervention phase. Teacher greetings represent an antecedent manipulation that can easily be implemented in classrooms to improve students' on-task behavior. - Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, v40 p317-320, 2007 Allday, R. Allan; Pakurar, Kerri
DRUGS AND PREGNANCIES: ‘The U.S. National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (AddHealth) found that students who reported being more connected with school were less likely to use cigarettes, alcohol, or illegal drugs, engage in aggressive and violent behavior, and get pregnant.’ -U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services http://www.mchb.hrsa.gov/mchirc/_pubs/us_teens/main_pages/ch_4.htm
CONNECTEDNESS AND UNSAFE BEHAVIORS: “The extent to which students feel 'connected' to their school environment is an important factor protecting them from unsafe behaviors, such as violence and substance abuse, and poor emotional and physical health.” - Dr. Andrea Bonny Children’s Hospital Medical Center of Cincinnati Adolescent Medicine Division 2,000 student survey http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/about/news/release/2000/11-school.htm
SUICIDAL BEHAVIOR: “The National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health, a study of more than 90,000 7th through 12th graders, found adolescents' perceived school connectedness was the leading school protective factor against student suicidal behavior.” - Student Suicide Prevention Begins with Recognition by Keith A. King referenced on American Association of School Administrators website http://www.aasa.org/publications/saarticledetail.cfm?ItemNumber=4001
DEPRESSION: “Our second line of research is in the area of school connectedness and looking at the link between school connectedness and adolescent depression. In the course of our work on the RAP program we discovered that school connectedness, namely the extent to which students feel accepted, valued, respected and included in the school, impacts significantly on their mental health, particularly depression. School connectedness surfaced as one of the strongest factors in adolescent depression. It was even stronger than other important factors such as attachment to parents.” - interview with Ian Shochet, EdNews.org. Ian Shochet is Acting Head of School of Psychology and Counseling, Queensland University of Technology http://ednews.org/articles/7029/1/An-Interview-with-Ian-Shochet-About-Depression-and-Adolescents/Page1.html
MENTAL HEALTH: “Results suggest a stronger than previously reported association with school connectedness and adolescent depressive symptoms in particular and a predictive link from school connectedness to future mental health problems.” - Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology 2006, Vol. 35, No. 2, Pages 170-179 Ian M. Shochet, David Hamm - Queensland University of Technology Mark R. Dadds - University of New South Wales Roslyn Montague - New South Wales Institute of Psychiatry School Connectedness is an Underemphasized parameter in Adolescent Mental Health: Results of a Community Prediction Study http://www.leaonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15374424jccp3502_1
STUDENT CONNECTEDNESS: “In this study of 7th through 12th grade students, significant associations between school connectedness and several modifiable factors were seen. Students with higher SCS reported better academic performance and more extracurricular involvement.”
- School Disconnectedness: Identifying Adolescents at Risk
Andrea E. Bonny, MD, Maria T. Britto, MD, MPH, Brenda K. Klostermann, PhD, Richard W. Hornung, DrPH, MS and Gail B. Slap, MD, MS published in Pediatrics, the Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/106/5/1017
CONNECTEDNESS AND NEGATIVE BEHAVIORS: “Researchers from the University of Minnesota analyzed data from the study and found that students who feel connected to school are less likely to use substances, engage in violent behavior, experience emotional distress, or become pregnant.” - School Connectedness Means Less Risky Behavior, Findings from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health published in “The Challenge”, a publication of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools (OSDFS) http://www.thechallenge.org/11-v11no4/v11n4-connected.htm
CONNECTEDNESS AND NEGATIVE BEHAVIORS: “What we have found from our research is that kids who felt connected to school . . . smoked less, drank alcohol less, had a later age of sexual debut and attempted suicide less. On top of this, from the educational literature, they do better across every academic measure we have. As our research expanded, we learned that this is not just an association - kids who smoke less also felt more connected to school. It is a causal relationship. There is something in that bond, in that connection to school that changes the life trajectory - at least the health and academic behavior. It is very powerful - second only to parents in power. In some contexts it's more powerful than parents.” - Dr. Robert Blum, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/training/connect/school_pg3.html