Each teacher at Merced Elementary has witnessed remarkable changes at the school since the programs were introduced. One teacher explains that one of the most significant benefits of the programs is that each school within the district operates from a uniform framework including both vocabulary and consistent expectations. Students who matriculate or move from one school to another within the district all know how bullying is defined, for example, and what behaviors are not allowed. Another explains how teaching children, particularly bystanders, how to report bullying has helped change the climate in the entire school. Every child knows that his or her classmates have all been instructed on how to tell the teacher about his or her behavior.

A fourth grade teacher explains how Steps to Respect has taught children how to be a friend, join a group, empathize with others and include others, rather than intentionally excluding some children. The most obvious difference, however, one teacher says, can be seen on the playground. Students have learned to problem-solve and work out their differences among themselves using their conflict resolution skills.

“You can spot the new kids right away,” she says. “The others can, too.” When a child acts inappropriately, she explains, the behavior is reported, but the student will usually add, “But they’re new.”

Dr. Judy McBride teaches at California State University-Long Beach. She received her doctorate in Urban Education from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
For more information on how these programs were implemented in West Covina, Calif., contact Judy McBride at jmcbride@csulb.edu or Dr. Steven Fish at sfish@tusd.k12.ca.us. For information on Second Step and Steps to Respect, contact the Committee for Children at (800) 634-4449 or visit them on the Web at
www.cfchildren.org.

HFI News Briefs

• Hamilton Fish Institute Director Beverly Glenn and several members of the Institute’s research and development staff visited each of the HFI Consortium's eight remote research sites to see first-hand how each is implementing their interventions for school violence.
  
• HFI was called upon to provide technical assistance to a major university in January. Lori McGee, Madeline Sullivan and Leah Zak researched prevalent problems with violence on college campuses and then compared those levels with the violence experienced at the client campus. Using this information as a backdrop, a series of vignettes were provided to demonstrate how the university’s resident advisors can assist students living on campus to develop conflict resolution skills, as well as strategies for avoiding potentially dangerous situations.
  
• HFI research staffer Lori McGee moderated two sessions at the ninth National Conference on Expulsions, Suspensions, and Dropping Out of School in Orlando, Fla. The sessions discussed the results of

 

the Institute’s first five years of research in school safety interventions. Debby Jennings, HFI research associate, and Joan Burstyn of Syracuse University discussed findings at two of HFI’s alternative education research sites. HFI concluded that a problem that prevents greater success for alternative education programs is a lack of adequate resources and staff training. In addition, services to assist students transition back to school are greatly needed, as well as additional follow-up and support. Meanwhile, HFI Research Associate and Planning Analyst Dennis White was elected president of the National Alternative Education Association.

• Lastly, HFI Communications Manager Allison Seale was contacted by the Dr. Phil Show to provide a briefing packet on bullying to Dr. Phillip C. McGraw in preparation for a show focusing on bullying. Those materials were packaged into a booklet that will be made available on the Institute’s Web site in coming weeks. Next page