MISSOURI  SAFE  SCHOOLS

Newsletter of the Missouri Center for Safe Schools                  August 2001


FROM THE DIRECTOR . . .

 

The summer is quickly drawing to a close and the start of a new school year is rapidly

approaching.  I am sure there has been a lot of activity occurring in your school buildings and districts this summer, although I hope each of you has found some time for rest and relaxation.

In regards to the coming school year, and also the world in general, it is inevitable that

new challenges will arise.  And, as in the past, the staff of the Missouri Center for Safe Schools will be ready to assist you in preparing for the possible obstacles that may come your way.  As you prepare for the upcoming year, take time to review your crisis prevention/response plans.

During the next couple of months, a primary goal of mine is to present an overview of the Center’s main projects to the District Principals’ and Superintendents’ Associations.  Additionally, I will be conducting a survey to determine what school principals and superintendents of Missouri view as the major school safety issues they encounter.  And finally, a priority for the Center’s staff is how can we best serve you and your school districts.

Have a very good year!

       

                                Glenn Berry

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FROM RUSTY . . .

 

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is now responsible for funding the efforts of CHARACTERplus.  CHARACTERplus helps schools, homes and communities weave character education into the school day, integrating it into curriculum, discipline policies, after-school activities and reform initiatives.  CHARACTERplus was started in 1988 in the St. Louis area and now, with state support, is set to spread throughout Missouri in the next three years.  During the coming years, CHARACTERplus staff will work with regional RPDCs, provide small grants to school districts, and provide general training and on-site visits to Missouri public schools in order to establish character education processes in schools.  In following years, CHARACTERplus staff will continue to establish new projects while assisting established projects in finding and linking to community resources.  More information about CHARACTERplus will be available in the near future.  In the meantime, please search their website at www.info.csd.org/staffdev/chared/characterplus.html or contact Judy Owens at 800/835-8282.

 

        Rusty Rosenkoetter, Director

Special State Instructional Programs

        DESE

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PEER HELPING

 

     Bonnie Benard, from the Western Regional Center for Drug-Free Schools and Communities, Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, points out in a paper entitled “The Case for Peers” (December 1990) that peer helping serves two valuable purposes:

1.      Peer helping satisfies the need for children to experience themselves as resources from early childhood on.

2.       Peer helping develops positive peer relationships, which contribute to a child’s social and cognitive development.

     As those of us who work with peer mediators, peer tutors, and other forms of peer helping know, well trained and well supervised peer helpers can have a significant impact on reducing risky behaviors among the students and improving the learning climate of the school.

     Judith Tindall, Ph.D., a psychologist from St. Charles, Missouri, is the author of Peer Power books one and two, has been developing peer helpers for more than three decades.  As part of her efforts to promote peer helping nationally, Dr. Tindall was instrumental in organizing the National Peer Helper Association (NPHA), headquartered right here in Kansas City, Missouri.  Founded in 1984, NPHA has members in 37 states, with 14 international affiliates.  It offers an annual conference, training opportunities, professional development, a newsletter, a peer helping listserv and the Peer Facilitator Quarterly.  If you are interested in peer helping programs, membership in NPHA will be helpful.  For more information go www.peerhelping.org or call toll-free 877-314-PEER.

     NPHA sets standards for quality peer helping programs.  The 1993 statement of standards includes:

1.      A defined purpose.

2.      Quality training for peer helpers.

3.      Service activities are performed following training.

4.      On-going supervision for peer helpers.

5.      An evaluation is utilized to assess the strengths and weakness of the total program.

     Missouri has an active chapter within NPHA.  Valerie Howard, Missouri Department of Mental Health (mzhowav@mail.dmh.state.mo.us) is the president of the Missouri Peer Helpers Association.  We will be including more information about the Missouri chapter of NPHA in our next newsletter. 

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SAFE SCHOOLS SYMPOSIUM

 

     The Missouri Center for Safe Schools, in cooperation with the Special State Instructional Programs, Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, will conduct a symposium on school safety at the Lenoir Center in Columbia on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. Check-in will be from 9:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.  The symposium will begin at 10:00 a.m. and end at 3:00 p.m. 

     The morning session will involve presentations and question responses from a panel of experienced alternative education administrators and teachers.  The focus of the morning session will be on funding alternative education.  and intervening effectively with reading problems. 

     During the lunch buffet there will be a presentation on reading intervention by Ms. Terri Clinefelter.

     The afternoon sessions will be facilitated network meetings for elementary, middle, and high school alternative education interventions.  The networks will address: program descriptions, lessons learned, best practices, teaching character, parent involvement, student selection, staff selection and retention, and staff training as time allows.  Participants are encouraged to bring 50 copies of any materials describing their programs for use during the networking.

Registration will be through the Missouri Center for Safe Schools.  The registration fee will be $15 per attendee.  Lunch will be provided.  Registration instructions are:

1.      By August 31, send an e-mail message to thompsonrs@umkc.edu or a fax to the Missouri Center for Safe Schools (Attention: Russ Thompson) at (816) 235-5270 with the names of attendees and the school district they represent.  Indicate for each individual whether they will attend the elementary, middle, or high school network meeting in the afternoon.

2.      Mail the registration fee ($15 per attendee, payable to “UMKC”) to the Missouri Center for Safe Schools, UMKC School of Education, Suite 024, 5100 Rockhill Road, Kansas City, MO 64110-2499 by September 5, 2001.

 

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CHARACTER EDUCATION

 

The Character Education Partnership has developed a national example of effective character education.  The Character Education Partnership provides the following 11 principles as criteria that schools and other groups can use when planning a character education effort or evaluating existing programs, books and curriculum resources:

  1. Character education promotes core ethical values as the basis of good character.
  2. “Character” must be comprehensively defined to include thinking, feeling and behavior.
  3. Effective character education requires an intentional, proactive and comprehensive approach that promotes the core values in all phases of school life.
  4. The school must be a caring community.
  5. To develop character, students need opportunities for moral action.
  6. Effective character education includes a meaningful and challenging academic curriculum that respects all learners and helps them succeed.
  7. Character education should strive to develop students’ intrinsic motivation.
  8. The school staff must become a learning and moral community where all share responsibility for character education and attempt to adhere to the same core values that guide the education of students.
  9. Character education requires moral leadership from both staff and students.
  10. The school must recruit parents and community members as full partners in the character-building effort.
  11. Evaluation of character education should assess the character of the school, the school staff functioning as character educators, and the extent to which students manifest good character.

 

Character Education Partnership (CEP), Washington D.C., is a nonpartisan coalition of organizations and individuals dedicated to developing moral character and civic virtue in our young people as an essential way of promoting a more compassionate and responsible society.  For information about CEP, call (800) 988-8081.

                                                                 

Check out the web page for the Missouri Center for Safe Schools at http://www.umkc.edu/safe-school and call us at our offices in the School of Education, University of Missouri-Kansas City, (816) 235-5656.