Transforming School with LocalStakeholders: Learning Labsfor Culturally Responsive Behavioral Supports

Aydin BalRehabilitation Psychology and Special Education Department

Research at WCER:Enhancing the Success of Teachers and Students

October 20, 2014

Understanding Outcomes

Changing Systems

Disproportionality

Racialization of behavioral problems: African American and Native American students are twice as likely to be identified as behaviorally disturbed (BD) (Donovan & Cross, 2002)

Racialization of school discipline: Youth from historically marginalized communities are punished more severely for less serious more subjective reasons such as disrespect or insubordination (APA, 2008; OCR, 2012; 2014)

Disproportionality: A Systemic Issue

A runaway object partially shared by multiple interacting activity systems (Bal, Sullivan & Harper, 2014)

A double bind that cannot resolved through individual actions alone (Engeström, 1987, p. 16)

Requires situated analyses and joint co-operative actions (Artiles, 2011; Bal et al., 2014).

Methodology

Learning Lab, a formative intervention design (Bal,

2011)

Concurrent mixed data analysis (Onwuegbuzie & Collins 2010) Qual => Quan => Qual => Quan

Re-mediating problem solving processes and renovating behavioral support systems with –not for- local stakeholders (Bal, 2011; Bal et al., 2014)

Local Patterns and Predictors of Disproportionality in Wisconsin

Odds Ratio of Being Identified with BD in WI    

Student-Level Predictors    

Male 3.33***

Free- or reduced lunch 2.55***

Asian (comparison: White) 0.38***

Black (comparison: White) 1.26***

Hispanic (comparison: White) 0.78***

Native American (comparison: White) 1.53**

ELL 0.22***

Reading Test Score 0.75***

Math Test Score 0.67***

Attendance Rate 0.96***

    Transient (changed schools in current year) 1.69***

p (*=<.1; **=<.05; ***=<.01)           

(Bal, Betters-Bubon, & Fish, 2013)

Odds Ratio of Being Identified with BD in WI    

   School-Level PredictorsPercent free- or reduced lunch 1.00**Percent Asian 0.99Percent Black 0.99***Percent Hispanic 0.98***Percent Native American 1.01*Percent ELL 1.02***Percent transferred  3.54***

Percent proficient: Reading 1.00

Percent proficient: Math 1.00

School attendance rate 1.03***

Percent white teachers 1.00

Percent bilingual teachers 1.01

Percent of teachers with Masters' degrees 1.01***        p (*=<.1; **=<.05; ***=<.01)           

(Bal, Betters-Bubon, & Fish, 2013)

Odds Ratio of Being Removed for Disciplinary Reasons in WI    

Student-Level Predictors    

Male 2.72***

Free- or reduced lunch 2.08***

Asian (comparison: White) 0.47***

Black (comparison: White) 2.37***

Hispanic (comparison: White) 1.11***

Native American (comparison: White) 1.51**

ELL 0.60***

Reading Test Score 0.73***

Math Test Score 0.78***

Attendance Rate 0.95***

    Transient (changed schools in current year) 1.96***

p (*=<.1; **=<.05; ***=<.01)           

Bal, Betters-Bubon, & Fish, 2013

Odds Ratio of Being Removed for Disciplinary Reasons in WI    

   School-Level PredictorsPercent free- or reduced lunch 1.00**Percent Asian 1.00***Percent Black 1.01***Percent Hispanic 1.00Percent Native American 1.01***Percent ELL 1.01Percent transferred  0.79

Percent proficient: Reading 1.00

Percent proficient: Math 0.98***

School attendance rate 1.00

Percent white teachers 1.00

Percent bilingual teachers 1.00

Percent of teachers with Masters' degrees 1.01***

        p (*=<.1; **=<.05; ***=<.01)           

(Bal, Betters-Bubon, & Fish, 2013)

Learning Labs

Learning Lab

Building capacity in schools for developing locally meaningful and culturally responsive systemic solutions to behavioral outcome disparities

Unit of Analysis:

Tool mediated collective activity systems

Disproportionality:

An opportunity to transform school

Moral Purpose:

Participatory social justice(Bal, 2012)

Contradictions Space

Expansive Learning

Agency

Transformation Praxis

Learning Lab Implementation Design

Treatment 1: Gradual Inclusive LL + Concurrent (Cole Elementary)

Treatment 2: Inclusive LL + Concurrent (Rogoff Middle School)

Treatment 3: Inclusive LL + Concurrent (MLK High School)

Treatment 4: No LL/PL Workshop (Scribner Elementary)

(Bal et al., 2014)

(Reprinted from Engeström, 2010)

CRPBIS Maps of Risk & Opportunities

http://crpbis.apl.wisc.edu/

Race/Ethnicity: 55.1% White, 15.5% Hispanic (tripled in 10 years), 14.7% African American, 9.8% Asian, .5% Native American, 5.3% 2 or more races; 12.8% ELLs(decreasing over 5 years)

Income level: 34.4% FRL (doubled in 10 years)

SPED: 15.5%

Behavioral Data (2011-12) 50% of suspensions Black students5% of the Non-SPED student population was suspended, while 18% of SPED students suspended/expelled

MLK High School

(Bal et al., 2014)

MLK Learning Lab

6

2

2

3 White

Hmong

Latina/o

African Amer-ican

15

PBS Team Learning Lab

(Bal et al., 2014)

MLK Learning Lab

PBS Team (N= 15)

School Staff

Learning Lab (N = 13)

School Staff (6)

Parents (3)

Community Members (3)

Student (1)

(Bal et al., 2014)

Family-School Partnership

Continuous Data Collection

 

Pro

fess

iona

l D

evel

opm

ent

School C

limate

(Bal et al., 2014)

“I went to MLK. My kids graduated from there, and I think this is the first time I heard about having a group with teachers, parents and administrators get together to talk about what we should do to improve or keep the kids in school” (Es, a Hmong parent)

“I was looking at how destructive, chaotic and crazy the system can be if you don’t find the mistakes that you are making and the things that you can change and you can apply” (Zoe, a Latina parent)

(Bal et al., 2014)

Reflections on the Learning Labs

“We did something you know. It’s that sense of accomplishment…We brought all sorts of parties to the table. They all have different views and problems they see and how they should be fixed. Even though it might not be the real solution or the real problem, they bring just that one piece of information that can be crucial to what we’re trying to accomplish.” (Elias, a Latino student)

(Bal et al., 2014)

“I think what we are doing now, twenty years from now we can all look back and say we helped transform Rogoff Middle School and hopefully other schools pick up on it” (Grant, Principal)

(Bal et al., 2014)

Conclusions

It is possible to form and maintain productive problem solving teams including multiple local stakeholders-specifically those from are historically excluded and marginalized communities

The implementations of new behavioral support systems in the Learning Lab schools will be studied

Expanding Learning Labs to other Madison schools as a systemic transformation methodology developed by us for us

“A System Not Meant for Me” | Jonathan Williams

Contact Information

Aydin Bal, PhD University of Wisconsin- Madison abal@wisc.edu

CRPBIS Project: www.crpbis.org