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By Jeanne Davis
Lewistown District 97
Facing a mountain of discipline referrals and a
never ending litany of bad behavior reports, it
became clear to me as superintendent that the
students were out of control and the teachers lacked
the knowledge to change their behavior. We needed
a system of care for the staff and the students before
real learning could begin.
The journey that took five years began with
addressing the issues surrounding teaching children
of poverty. We first began by educating the staff so
that they could begin to understand that the vast
majority of the children in their classrooms did not
have the social/emotional skills to develop successful
relationships. They did not have the soft skills
necessary to navigate conflict, to understand their
role, nor did they possess the work ethic to organize
their time and complete their work. We began to
provide the opportunities at school that were not
available to them at home.
We built a continuum of care based on the
Response to Intervention (RtI) tiered level of
intervention and the results were remarkable. All
students were guided by the practices embedded in
the Positive Behavior Intervention System. The
Center for Prevention of Abuse (later referred to as
The Center) and the Mental Health Association
assisted in suicide training and depression testing
and guided staff in presenting information to students
on diversity and bullying. They also demonstrated
the tools that students needed in order to develop
their social and emotional skills through programs
like Second Step. The Star Student program
highlighted students who improved academically and
demonstrated improved behavior. An alternative
education room monitored by an adult was designed
as a safe zone where students at risk could work.
Tier II intervention needed for some students
Tier II intervention introduced more intense
instructional support for a smaller number of students
who did not meet with success at Tier I.
Interventions included:
Interventionists from the Center guided groups in
the HARTS program (Helping All Relationships to
be Safe) and the Mind Over Muscles groups.
Five to eight students made up the groups and
one-hour meetings were held each week.
Licensed social workers provided training on
impulse control, anger management and social
skills. They also served as a link between the
school and families and offered early behavioral
health interventions. (e.g. grief work, adjustment
reactions, anxiety). After school tutoring was
also provided at this level.
Social workers addressed issues such as
truancy, declining grades and disruptive
behavior. They also addressed requests for
individual counseling.
Results showed marked improvement at Year 3
Approximately 40 girls were involved with the
HARTS
program provided by The Center .
Comparing data over one year, 78% showed
academic improvement in one or more core subject
areas (54% in two
subjects; 19% in three
subjects). Measure of Academic Progress (MAP)
scores indicated that 97% of the girls improved their
scores in at least two of the three areas tested and
69% improved in all three areas.
Mind Over Muscle began in November 2011 with
(Continued on page 12)
Jeanne Davis has
been as educator for
the past 20 years, serving as a
teacher
and
as
an
administrator in both public
and private schools and has
experience in schools at both
ends of the poverty/wealth
spectrum.
She is superintendent of the
Lewistown
District
after
spending five years as superintendent of the Creve
Coeur District, where the poverty rate was 72
percent. The social-emotional model she developed
and implemented at Creve Coeur was one of 12
programs across the nation to be recognized as an
exemplar program.
She also was principal of Bottenfield Elementary
School, an urban public school in Champaign that
received the Academic Excellence Award -- the
state’s highest academic award -- for achieving at a
90 percent level for three successive years, despite
a rising poverty rate that approached 30 percent.
A system of care
for children in poverty
Jeanne Davis
Poverty in the public education classroom
