Enabling Components: A Comprehensive System of Learning Support

1) Category:
Approach

2) Issues Behind the Program:

Too many students do not succeed at school. There are a number of internal and external barriers to learning: behavioral and emotional problems, absenteeism, drug abuse, school dropout, violence at school, teen pregnancy, etc. Efforts have been made to improve the situation (community services, a variety of programs). However, these efforts do not seem to be sufficient. Proponents of American education reform claim that schools lack economic and human resources and that the resources in place are not being used adequately.

3) Objectives:
To reduce the frequency of these problems so that students can learn and succeed To reduce the school dropout rate as well as the teacher turnover rate To increase students intrinsic motivation so that they can enter the path to success To increase success rates in schools

4) Environment:
Primary and secondary schools

5) Target Group:
Students from 6 to 16 years old

6) Key Words:
Enabling components, coeuraction, school-family-community partnership, barriers to learning, Learning Center Model, Center for Mental Health in Schools at UCLA, educational success, learning support, reform, resource, collaboration, community, interdisciplinary, health

This factsheet was taken from the following website: http://rire.ctreq.qc.ca/.

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7) Program Description:
The "learning support" program is a comprehensive, coordinated and integrated approach that advocates the restructuring of existing resources and community collaboration. The program is based on the work of Howard S. Adelman and Linda Taylor of the National Center for Mental Health in Schools at UCLA. This interdisciplinary approach also aims at promoting health. The approach depends on a continuum of general and integrated activities (promotion, prevention, protection, recovery, adaptation/rehabilitation, integration/reintegration). "Learning supports" are the resources, strategies, and practices that provide physical, social, emotional, and intellectual support in order to give all students an equal opportunity for success at school by directly addressing barriers to learning and teaching and re-engaging disconnected students. A comprehensive, multifaceted, and cohesive learning support system provides supportive intervention in classrooms and school-wide and is fully integrated with efforts to improve instruction and management within schools. The program should also be integrated into the educational project. The concept is implemented through six fields of activity: o o o o Professional development for teachers (instructional practices, detention and suspension system, peer tutoring, etc.) Providing help for students and their families (triage, case study, direct services, integrated services including remedial services) Providing help and follow-up in crisis situations, as well as in preventing violence, suicide and abuse prevention. Giving support to students during transition periods (new arrivals, new school, transition between school and the workplace, transition between secondary school and higher education, extracurricular activity programs, etc.) Having parent participation with school follow-up (parent support programs, parent education programs, school-family communication programs, family resource center) Opening up to the community, including recruiting volunteers, and getting private and public service agencies, business, and community organizations to work together

8) Steps:
Schools without the necessary infrastructure will have to do the following: o o o o o o develop a commitment policy that integrates the learning support program and the educational project; redefine the roles and functions of workers who contribute to the program; increase parent, child and community involvement; have the support, including financial commitments, of government bodies; develop a coordinated mechanism that will allow a group of schools to pool their resources in order to support the program; call upon a driver of change or a facilitator in order to define new roles and responsibilities and to build the needed infrastructure.

This factsheet was taken from the following website: http://rire.ctreq.qc.ca/.

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Several facilitating conditions: o o To evaluate the relevance of a given program at the school by taking into consideration the school's challenges and to ACT To SEE BIG and to think about the aspects of the "learning support program" that warrant attention: For example, use resources effectively, improve standards and the evaluation process, integrate learning support within the school's education mandate, and improve operational and organizational infrastructure, etc. Adopt a comprehensive framework for action consisting of three components: educational project, management, and learning support Establish the major steps of the process: orientation and preparation; infrastructure construction or localization; outcome continuation, development and increase Choose a Leadership Team and a Design Team Establish an Action Planning Team Ensure that the required infrastructure is in place

Planning:

Put program components in place progressively and measure the program's progress.

9) Activities/Actions:
An 8-questionnaire planning and drafting tool for school principals and teachers. This tool allows users to examine the barriers to learning and to see whether the values proposed in this education model are being met. Attention is given in class to increasing student motivation to learn, especially by: o o opening up the classroom to resources such as student tutors, volunteers, etc.; developing individual or small-group learning solutions.

Another suggestion is to create a "learning community" for teachers; to give them the opportunity to learn through team teaching, tutoring and co-teaching; to offer school enrichment opportunities and related programs (e.g. visits to specialists in various fields); and to use classroom and school-wide approaches to create and maintain a caring, considerate school environment that operates on a human level.

10) Resources Required:

Human resources: o o o o o o o An Enabling Component school leader A Coordination Team for each field of activity (teachers, parents, etc.) and a team captain A family and community center coordinator Other partners and volunteers to appropriately lead the project Psychologists, nurses, specialized teachers, etc. The infrastructure needed to offer services (e.g. rooms) A computer system to encourage communication between participants

Material resources:

This factsheet was taken from the following website: http://rire.ctreq.qc.ca/.

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11) Roles:
The Leadership Team: o is composed of highly motivated individuals who ensure an ongoing vision and support the work undertaken by other members (administration). draws up the prototype for the "learning support" systems; designs a strategic plan containing specific objectives. develops an action plan tied directly to application of the approach and to the desired changes. are separated into six fields of activity; are made up of motivated and competent individuals entrusted with program planning, implementation, evaluation and improvement. is responsible for increasing student access to and use of the services available at the school. works with ten to twelve community schools during the first year; works with other schools while continuing to support the schools of the first cohort during the second year; contributes to developing a spirit of initiative within the team; designs programs with the Coordination Teams and Program Teams; creates ties with services offered in the community; encourages community involvement; ensures that all community agencies involved are represented on the Coordination Team. coordinates and integrates services; creates ties and collaboration between schools and service agencies; is responsible for ensuring evaluation.

The Design Team: o o

The Action Planning Team: o

The Activity Field Teams: o o

The Learning Support Team: o

The Organizational Facilitator: o o o o o o o

The Interschool Council: o o o

This factsheet was taken from the following website: http://rire.ctreq.qc.ca/.

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12) Scientific Basis or Validity:

SLADE, E. P. (2002). Effects of school-based mental health programs on mental health service use by adolescents at school and in the community . Mental Health Services Research, 4(3), 151-166]. The study suggests that: o o students who have access to mental health services in their school are more likely to use them; schools offering mental health services have a significantly positive impact on adolescents.

Howard S. Adelman and Linda Taylor of the National Center for Mental Health in Schools at UCLA based the program on numerous studies that concentrated on specific facets of Enabling Components at the design stage. See What's the Research-Base for Moving Toward a Comprehensive System of Learning Supports? at: (http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/summit2002/WhatstheEvidenceBase.pdf)

13) Program Material:

Steps and Tools to Guide Planning and Implementation of a Comprehensive System to Address Barriers to Learning and Teaching: http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/stepsandtoolstoguideplanning.pdf. Also see the online Toolkit at: http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/summit2002/resourceaids.htm. Getting from Here to There: A Guidebook for the Enabling Component is a 186-page document that explains the concept in detail. Several examples of activities are proposed in the document. To further explore the program, see the following two books by Adelman & Taylor published by Corwin Press in 2006: (1)The School Leaders Guide to Student Learning Supports and (2) The Implementation Guide to Student Learning Supports in the Classroom and Schoolwide: New Directions for Addressing Barriers to Learning.

14) Additional Information:

Partial support for the programs development over the years has come from the U.S. Department of Educations School Dropout Assistance Program and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources Services Administration (Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Office of Adolescent Health) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Related publications: Delandes R. and Bertrand R. (2002). Une meilleure harmonisation des services offerts aux jeunes risque et leur famille : que savons-nous? Sant mentale au Qubec, 27 (2), 136-153. The information contained in this document was taken from: http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/qf/qf_enabling.htm.

This factsheet was taken from the following website: http://rire.ctreq.qc.ca/.

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15) Contacts:
UCLA/School Mental Health Project Center for Mental Health in Schools Tel.: (310) 825-3634 Toll Free: (866) 846-4843 Email: smhp@ucla.edu Howard Adelman, Ph.D. Co-director UCLA Center for Mental Health in Schools Tel.: (310) 825-1225 Email: adelman@psych.ucla.edu

This factsheet was taken from the following website: http://rire.ctreq.qc.ca/.

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