Books on school social work have proliferated in the new century with many of them written by scholars from the Midwest.
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School social work enters its second century as a profession still conflicted about its central mission. Are school social workers meant to be “in-house” clinicians providing services to kids in need, or are they meant to be involved in program development to enhance the social and emotional learning of all students in a school? How much time should they devote to serving whole families, or consulting with teachers? Whatever school social workers claim to do in their schools, it’s clear that they are going to have to prove that they are effective doing it. The demands of federal legislation like No Child Left Behind and state requirements for certification are making it increasingly necessary that school social workers demonstrate that they are highly qualified school-based mental health and social service professionals who can demonstrate outcomes that impact school “bottom line” issues like student achievement, attendance, and behavior. Rather than recoil from this pressure, school social workers can utilize the skills of evidence based practice (EBP) to help them enhance both their effectiveness and their knowledge of interventions that work to help students, teachers, parents, and staff in school contexts. A succinct SSWAA Workshop volume, The Domains and Demands of School Social Work Practice demonstrates how EBP can be integrated into school social worker’s daily practice, advancing the debate about where social workers can and should intervene, and how to do so effectively. Highlighting primary clinical issues, family problems, and school-wide needs faced by school social workers, it helps practitioners make the best use of evidence to be flexible, effective advocates at all levels of practice. |
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Ethical predicaments are endemic for mental health professionals working in a host setting like schools. New interventions, evolving technologies, and a patchwork of ethical guidelines and legal codes create a constant stream of new ethical dilemmas. Quick answers and simple solutions are rare, but with the seven-stage model presented here, readers will learn to apply an ethical decision-making process that minimizes their liability while better protecting their students.
Beginning with an introduction to the moral, legal, and clinical foundations that undergird ethical practice, the authors outline an ethical decision-making process to handle conundrums that includes seven major steps: know yourself, analyze the dilemma, seek consultation, identify courses of action, manage the clinical concerns, enact the decision, and reflect on the process. Each chapter describes these steps in detail, provides case examples to illustrate their application, and presents exercises that encourage readers to integrate them into their everyday practice. This handy guide is written for the school social workers, school psychologists, school nurses, and school counselors who are responsible for acting in their students’ best interests, as well as post-secondary students studying to enter one of these professions. It will be a trusted resource for school services professionals seeking clear but nuanced guidance in resolving thorny ethical issues. |
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Though recent legislation embedded with the No Child Left Behind Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Improvement Act mandates the use of evidence in school-based practice to demonstrate positive outcomes for all students, school social workers – especially those long out of school – often lack the conceptual tools to locate, evaluate, and apply evidence in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of their work. The first of its kind tailored specifically to this audience, this SSAAA Workshop title guides school professionals in infusing research throughout their daily practice. It shows school service providers a pragmatic approach to informing every major practice decision with the appropriate research so that students receive the best possible services. This includes how to use research to make reliable and valid assessments, how to use research to choose the best intervention, and how to do research to evaluate progress. Raines goes beyond creating a catalog of interventions that will soon be outdated and provides school social workers with a detailed road map of the EBP process. Chapters detail the nuts and bolts of EBP, explaining how to ask a relevant, answerable question; where to search for evidence; how to appraise the literature and avoid the pitfalls of web based information; how to adapt and apply the evidence in a developmentally and culturally sensitive way; and how to evaluate the results. Detailed examples along the way, including sample spreadsheets practitioners can easily adapt to evaluate their students’ progress, bring accountability within reach for school professionals who struggle to find the time, resources, and support sufficient to apply the best evidence to their schools. |
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Mounting evidence shows that zero-tolerance policies, suspensions, and restrictive security policies fail to improve school safety and student behaviors, and are linked with increased risk of dropping out. Minority students are suspended at disproportionate rates, and over a million cases of corporal punishment are reported each year. Against this dismal backdrop, David Dupper presents a transformative new model of school discipline that is preventive, proactive, and relationship-based.
Unlike traditional punitive and exclusionary practices, the model developed in this Workshop volume focuses on enhancing students’ connection to school through building relationships and bolstering social skills. Drawing on the latest research about what works, and what doesn’t, this highly practical guide catalogs an array of proven and promising practices designed to engage, instead of exclude, students. Rather than illustrate a one-size-fits-all approach, it guides practitioners and administrators in identifying their school’s unique needs and selecting appropriate strategies for use at the universal, targeted, and remedial levels. A five-step strategic planning model helps schools transition toward a holistic, relationship-based approach to discipline. Boxes, bullets, evidence summaries, and practice tips make this an accessible, forward-thinking resource for school personnel seeking to engage students and reduce behavior problems in the most effective, pragmatic, and cost-efficient manner possible. |
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School Social Work: An Evidence-Informed Framework for Practice offers school social work students and veteran practitioners a new framework for choosing their interventions based on the best available evidence. It is the first work that synthesizes the evidence-based practice (EBP) process with recent conceptual frameworks of school social work clinical practice offered by leading scholars and policymakers. Many other books on EBP try to fit empirically validated treatments into practice contexts without considering the multiple barriers to implementing evidence-based practices in places as complicated and multi-faceted as schools. Additionally, there are vital questions in the literature about what the best levels for intervention are in school social work. Responding to the complexity of applying EBP in schools, this volume offers a conceptual framework that addresses the real-world concerns of practitioners as they work to provide the best services to their school clients.
For each domain of school social work practice, the authors critically review interventions, presenting the current research with guidelines for addressing such implementation issues as cost, school culture, adaptations for special populations, and negotiating multiple arenas of practice. In addition, the chapters are grounded in the process of evidence-based practice, illustrating how school practitioners can pose useful questions, search for relevant evidence, appraise the evidence, apply it in keeping with client values, and monitor the results. Written by four school social work scholars with over four decades of theoretical, research, and practice experience, this volume will be relevant to both research faculty studying school social work interventions and students learning about school social work practice. |
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Since its creation in the 1980s, solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT) has gradually become a common and accepted treatment option for many mental health professionals. With its emphasis on client strengths and short-term treatment, SFBT is well suited to school contexts, given the wide array of problems and the large caseloads of most school-based practitioners. This book, as part of the Oxford Workshop Series, will give school social workers the tools they need to understand and use SFBT with students, families, teachers, and administrators. In clear language, the authors briefly cover the history of the development of SFBT, highlighting the pioneering work of Insoo Kim Berg and others that led to the development of the Working on What Works (WOWW) program for middle schools, as well as several treatment manuals produced in collaboration with the European Brief Therapy Association and North American Brief Therapy Association. Careful not to overstate results from a recent meta-analysis, the authors show where SFBT has been shown to be effective, especially with families and for classroom behavior problems, and how school professionals can incorporate its principles into their daily practice. Case examples describe in detail how school professionals have used SFBT with a group of students with text anxiety; to create a family health and employment fair in an under resourced school; with grandparents raising their grandchildren; and by coaching teachers to identify and solve classroom behavior issues with their students. An entire chapter tells the story of the Garza Independence High School in Austin, a solution-focused school designed to engage urban high school dropouts or students at risk of dropping out to help them finish high school. With 52% of Garza graduates enrolled in a post-secondary education program, outcomes are promising and similar schools are being developed around the country. Though the authors take care not to overstate the relevance and utility of SFFBT in all situations, they make the techniques involved comprehensive in a way that practitioners at every skill level will find valuable.
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Research has shown that truancy is frequently associated with juvenile crime and dropping out of school altogether. With the high dropout rate in the U.S. and the No Child Left Behind Act holding schools accountable for their dropout rates, it is essential for school social workers to contribute to their schools’ improvement plan in meeting annual yearly progress benchmarks. This book, by well respected researchers and practitioners who have extensive experience with truancy, covers best practices in truancy at the community, school, and student/family levels of interventions. It provides an essential everyday reference guide to research-based programs and truancy program implementation.
Beginning with an introduction to the essentials of truancy, its causes and consequences, and state and federal legislation, the authors then give readers a snapshot of what research has shown to work so far and what adaptations might look like in various school settings. Richly detailed case examples illustrate multiple levels of intervention, from the school-wide prevention and general policy levels to remedial interventions, including culturally competent approaches. Eminently practical and easily accessible, with sample forms, methods of measuring outcomes, ideas for funding, take-away points, and digestible research summaries, this will be a trusted toolkit for school professionals seeking to reduce their schools’ dropout rates and improve students’ engagement with school. School-based practitioners and student trainees alike will find a wealth of reliable information about what is seemingly an intractable problem. They can immediately begin implementing the proven and promising practices presented in this practical guide. |