This past academic year, the Neag School of Education was selected to join the National Holmes Scholars Program. The program, led by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), is a nationwide network of higher education institutions seeking to support students from historically underrepresented communities enrolled in graduate programs across the field of education.
Today, less than 10% of all faculty at higher education institutions today identify as African American, Latinx, and/or Native American/Alaskan Native, per the AACTE.
Current and prospective doctoral students at the Neag School are invited to apply each spring. Individuals accepted into the program at the Neag School will be able to take advantage of mentorship and networking opportunities, professional development, as well as access to the AACTE’s annual conference — including a preconference specifically for Holmes Scholars — for a minimum of three years.
Diandra J. Prescod, Neag School associate professor of counselor education, is overseeing the Holmes Scholars Program at the Neag School. She is also a Holmes Scholar alumna herself.
Meet the Scholars
This fall, the Neag School is delighted to introduce its inaugural cohort of National Holmes Scholars:
Editor’s Note: The following piece about Morgaen Donaldson being named the next Philip E. Austin Endowed Chair originally appeared in UConn Today.
Morgaen Donaldson, Associate Dean for Research and Philip E. Austin Endowed Chair. (Shawn Kornegay/Neag School)
The University of Connecticut has named Morgaen L. Donaldson, a renowned scholar of educational leadership and policy, as the next Philip E. Austin Endowed Chair.
The Austin Chair was endowed by a group of alumni and supporters to recognize President Emeritus Austin’s many contributions to the University, leading UConn’s transformation into its present status as a top public university in the nation. As the 13th president, serving from 1996 to 2007, Austin led the University through a five-fold growth in the endowment, an increased reputation for academic excellence, national athletic success, and many other points of pride.
Faculty who hold the chair will continue Austin’s legacy of excellence, working to further elevate UConn’s national prominence in the areas of policy-relevant research, public engagement, interdisciplinary scholarship, and student engagement. The term of the Austin Chair is three years, with possibility of renewal for a second consecutive term.
Donaldson is the associate dean of research, a professor of educational leadership, and director of the University’s Center for Education Policy Analysis, Research, and Evaluation (CEPARE), all in the Neag School of Education. She is also co-director of the Connecticut COVID-19 Education Research Collaborative, a partnership between Connecticut’s institutions of higher education and the Connecticut State Department of Education, and a research affiliate of the Project on the Next Generation of Teachers at Harvard University.
Her research has significant policy implications in multiple domains, including educator quality, educator development and evaluation, teacher retention, district and school leadership, and teachers’ unions, with a particular focus on urban and rural schools. She is the author of more than 40 articles and four books, including her recent publication, “Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Teacher Evaluation: Understanding the Research and Theory” (Routledge, 2020).
“I have long admired President Austin’s commitment to producing policy-relevant research that serves the public and look forward to building on this legacy.”
— Morgaen L. Donaldson,
Philip E. Austin Endowed Chair
“Dr. Donaldson’s selection for this role continues a legacy of exceptionally prolific scholars at UConn serving as the Austin Chair, recognizing their work that extends far beyond our campuses and into communities in the realms of policy and public engagement. This is a well-deserved award in honor of her broad-ranging and impactful work,” says Carl Lejuez, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs.
Donaldson’s work has been funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, Connecticut General Assembly, the American Educational Research Association, the Spencer Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the Connecticut State Department of Education and has won awards from the American Educational Research Association, National Academy of Education, and University Council for Educational Administration.
“We’re incredibly proud of Morgaen for having been named the latest Austin Chair,” says Jason G. Irizarry, dean of the Neag School. “This is a tremendous individual recognition of her stellar ongoing contributions, and at the same time a reflection of the strong level of scholarly research, policy analysis, and public engagement work coming out of the Neag School.”
“It is a great honor to be named the Philip E. Austin Endowed Chair. I have long admired President Austin’s commitment to producing policy-relevant research that serves the public and look forward to building on this legacy as Austin Chair,” says Donaldson.
The Austin Chair is awarded to a tenured associate or full professor in either the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences or the Neag School of Education who has a distinguished record in both policy-relevant research (for example in social, education, health, housing, environmental, criminal justice, or other salient policy areas) and public engagement (work that is highly visible and relevant to both scholarly and lay audiences). Candidates are reviewed by a committee appointed by the provost.
The previous Austin Chairs are Stephen L. Ross, professor in the Department of Economics (CLAS); Preston Britner, professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences (CLAS); and Kathleen Segerson, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor in the Department of Economics (CLAS).
Meet Jason G. Irizarry, Ed.D., who is kicking off his first full academic year as dean of UConn’s Neag School of Education. Irizarry, who grew up in New York City and served as a teacher before pursuing a path to leadership in higher education, was appointed dean for a five-year term in May 2021.
“As an internationally recognized scholar and leader, Dean Irizarry represents the absolute best in higher education,” says H. Richard Milner IV, professor and Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair of Education at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College. “During these times of serious social, political, health and economic challenges, Dean Irizarry brings exceptional vision, fortitude, empathy, knowledge, disposition and skill to this position through an impressive body of research and scholarship that will advance equity in education and beyond.”
“This is a time for all in education to celebrate as Dean Irizarry will continue his work to build structures and systems to improve the human condition,” adds Milner, who is a member of the National Academy of Education and an American Educational Research Association Fellow.
Irizarry served most recently as associate dean for academic affairs at the Neag School.
Q: What might the Neag School community not know about you?
A: I’m a first-generation Latino college graduate. I grew up in low-income housing in New York City, raised by mygrandmother, who worked as a bilingual family assistant in our neighborhood elementary school. Although she never had the chance to pursue college herself, my grandmother instilled in me at a very early age that higher education was essential, and the logical next step for me after high school, although neither one of us had the cultural or financial capital to be able to navigate that system effectively. Despite being a solid student active in various clubs, including serving as student council president, I received little guidance about the college application and financial aid process. My dream of attending college was just that: a dream.
“My dream of attending college was just that: a dream.”
Q: How did you come to make that dream a reality?
A: I applied to Siena College, a small Catholic school in upstate New York, because a friend who had graduated a year before me said they gave him a generous scholarship. I thought maybe I, too, could follow in his footsteps and secure the resources necessary to attend college, fulfilling my grandmother’s dream for me.
After submitting my application materials for consideration, we planned our visit for the interview. I had never been that far upstate or seen the campus other than a few pictures in a colorful brochure. I was a bundle of nerves, as you can imagine, knowing that I needed everything to fall in place; from getting admitted, to being awarded the funds I needed, to even have a chance of attending. Lo and behold, a few weeks later, which felt like years at the time, the admissions letter and an extremely generous financial aid package arrived. I went on to graduate from Siena, then attended grad school at SUNY Albany and UMass Amherst.
Q: Why did you decide to pursue a career in academia?
A: When I started my doctoral program, I was thrilled to be a consumer of knowledge. I read everything I could get my hands on. As I progressed toward completing my degree, I started to feel more efficacious about my ability to produce scholarship and make a meaningful contribution to ongoing conversations in the field of education, generally, and urban education, more specifically.
I was incredibly blessed to be mentored by Dr. Sonia Nieto, one of the preeminent scholars in the field, and her support was invaluable as I tried to carve out my career path. Upon graduation I started my career as a postdoctoral fellow here in the Neag School, and it is amazing to think that, 16 years later, I am now the dean.
“As dean of the Neag School of Education, I am now also looking forward to helping to secure the kind of scholarship support for our own students that I myself so heavily relied on during my college career.”
Q: How have you taken the lessons you have learned through your personal experiences and carried them throughout your career?
Dean Jason G. Irizarry, far left, stands in the Gentry Building atrium with the group of incoming LEAD program students, along with Michele Femc-Bagwell, far right, earlier this week.
A: Beginning as a middle school teacher in New York City, then serving as the director of a “town-gown” partnership aimed at increasing the number of teachers of color in urban schools, and later embarking on a career as a faculty member in higher education, I have consistently sought professional opportunities that allow me to work collaboratively with urban youth and communities to transform educational institutions so that they work in the best interest of those they serve.
I have spent the 14 years since earning my doctorate and beginning my career in the academy trying to do good work while honoring a particular set of commitments, including: engaging in humanizing, mutually enriching approaches to scholarship; amplifying the voices of communities of color and, in particular, students of color, and inserting these often- silenced perspectives into discussions around educator preparation and education policy; and supporting emerging scholars of color. These commitments undergird my research, teaching, and service, and have informed each of the more than 50 publications; the more than 100 presentations I have delivered at professional conferences, schools, universities, and community-based organizations; my teaching; and all of my professional service in and out of the academy.
My experiences navigating educational system has bolstered my commitment to improving access to higher education, especially for students from communities that have been underserved by schools. As dean of the Neag School of Education, I am now also looking forward to helping to secure the kind of scholarship support for our own students that I myself so heavily relied on during my college career. For me, hard work was part of the equation, but hard work in and of itself can be insufficient for achieving your educational goals. It is only when hard work meets up with opportunity that success is achieved as a result of the generosity of donors.
This fall, the Neag School welcomes its incoming hires, congratulates existing faculty members on new appointments, and celebrates the first full academic year with its dean, Jason G. Irizarry, and his newly appointed leadership team.
Dorothea Anagnostopoulos, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
Dorothea Anagnostopoulos, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.
Dorothea Anagnostopoulos, associate professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, has been named the Neag School’s associate dean for academic affairs.
In this role, Anagnostopoulos will oversee and maintain high-quality academic programs across the Neag School while developing and leading the implementation of inclusive, equity-oriented community building, networking, and professional development programming for faculty. She also will be directing School-wide accreditation efforts and monitoring course enrollments.
Anagnostopoulos previously served as the Neag School’s executive director of teacher education from 2013 to 2019. She also is the vice president of the American Educational Research Association (AERA)’s Division K, Teaching and Teacher Education. A leading scholar on school reform, Anagnostopoulos holds a doctorate in education from the University of Chicago.
Morgaen Donaldson, Associate Dean for Research and Philip E. Austin Endowed Chair
As associate dean for research, she will work collaboratively with faculty and staff across the Neag School to develop and enact a plan to support research and the securing of grants, and will be responsible for developing initiatives to enhance the research climate and provide opportunities in the Neag School for faculty, staff, and students to expand their research skills, funding sources, and productivity. Donaldson also will serve as a resource and facilitator for Neag School faculty and staff who are considering writing grants, have operational questions concerning funded grants, or are encountering problems or difficulties with grant-related activities.
Morgaen Donaldson, Associate Dean for Research and Philip E. Austin Endowed Chair.
Her areas of expertise include educational leadership, teacher quality, educational policy, and education reform. Her research has centered on educator development, including educator performance evaluation, teaching and leadership quality, and school reform, with her work on teacher evaluation practices in particular having gained state and national attention. Her work is also closely connected to the work of policymakers affiliated with the Connecticut State Department of Education, superintendents, principals, and teachers within the state’s public schools.
Donaldson’s three-year appointment as the Austin Chair was approved by the UConn Board of Trustees this past spring. She completed her Ed.D. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Ann Traynor, assistant dean and certification officer.
Ann Traynor, Assistant Dean and Certification Officer
Also in the Dean’s Office, Ann Traynor has been appointed assistant dean and certification officer. She directs advising, educator certification, recruitment, retention, and career preparation at the Neag School of Education. Traynor is also a member of the University’s Advising Council and serves on the Neag School’s Assessment, Curricula and Courses, and Global Education Committees, as well as co-chair, Standard 3, for the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) Accreditation Self-Study.
In 2011, the UConn Undergraduate Student Government recognized her with its Advisor of the Year Award. She holds an Ed.D. in educational leadership from the University of Connecticut.
The Department of Educational Leadership also welcomes Chen Chen as an assistant professor of sport management, who arrives from the University of Alberta in Canada. Chen, whose research interests include critical sport management, settler colonialism and decolonization, and social, racial, and environmental justice, earned his Ph.D. from the University of Alberta in 2019 and completed a Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)-funded postdoctoral fellowship titled “Reimagining Sport from the Margins” at the same institution in 2021.
“I ground my teaching and research with an ethics of relational accountability, which emphasizes the consideration of historical, collective responsibility towards human and non-human communities of not only current but also future generations on this planet,” Chen says. “I am humbled to visit the land we know today as Connecticut (originated from the Algonquin word Quinnehtukqut that means ‘beside the long tidal river’) and I look forward to upholding my responsibility as a guest.”
“I am humbled to visit the land we know today as Connecticut ... and I look forward to upholding my responsibility as a guest.”
Alexandra Freidus joins the Department of Educational Leadership from Seton Hall University in New Jersey. Her research interests include school integration, youth organizing, and diverse classrooms.
“My scholarship asks what roles educators, policymakers, families, and young people play in sustaining and interrupting racialized patterns in K-12 schools,” Freidus says. “I use lenses from Critical Race Theory, cultural sociology, and the anthropology of education to unravel these relationships, examining how community stakeholders conceptualize student diversity, how school and district administrators enact educational policy, and how these local contexts relate to schools’ central work – teaching and learning.”
Freidus earned her Ph.D. in urban education in 2018 from New York University. She served previously for five years as a high school teacher in California, and also led professional development in urban schools in both California and New York.
“My scholarship asks what roles educators, policymakers, families, and young people play in sustaining and interrupting racialized patterns in K-12 schools.”
— Alexandra Freidus, Assistant Professor
NaRi Shin, Assistant Professor
Assistant Professor Shin.
Assistant Professor NaRi Shin also joins the Neag School’s sport management program. She previously served at Texas Tech University, and her research interests include sport and development in relation to globalization and diaspora.
“The aim of my research,” Shin says, “is to enhance our critical understandings of how globalization, diaspora, and cultural interactions between and across continents changes the ways in which we manage sport and development, and impacts both development of sport and development through sport.”
Shin completed her doctorate in recreation, sport, and tourism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2019.
Department of Educational Psychology
Kylie Anglin, Assistant Professor
Arriving at the Department of Educational Psychology this fall is Kylie Anglin, who will serve as faculty in the Neag School’s Research Methods, Measurement, and Evaluation (RMME) program. Her research focuses on developing methods for efficiently monitoring program implementation using data science techniques.
“My goal as an educator is to teach students to think critically about modeling assumptions in real-life applications and to conduct high-quality reproducible research,” says Anglin, who earned her Ph.D. from the University of Virginia earlier this year. “I do this by having students work with real-world data and having them adopt the practices of professional software and research teams.”
“My goal as an educator is to teach students to think critically about modeling assumptions in real-life applications and to conduct high-quality reproducible research.”
— Kylie Anglin, Assistant Professor
Sara Renzulli, Assistant Professor-in-Residence
Assistant Professor-in-Residence Sara Renzulli.
Sara Renzulli ’11 MA, ’13 Ph.D., who has served for two years as an associate visiting professor in the Neag School, has been named assistant professor-in-residence in the Department of Educational Psychology’s counselor education and counseling psychology program. Her work will include creating and managing online courses and programs; teaching courses in counselor education and counseling psychology; advising graduate students; and supporting the CACREP accreditation process.
She also had previously served in numerous roles at the University of Connecticut, including as an academic advisor, adjunct faculty member, academic counselor, and university specialist at the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.
Jessica Stargardter ’16 (ED), ’17 MA (right) gathers with students from her West Rocks Middle School class for “The Future is Us” art exhibit. (Shawn Kornegay/Neag School)
Editor’s Note: The Rogers Educational Innovation Fund awards $5,000 each year to an elementary or middle school teacher in Connecticut who leads an innovative classroom project.
Two innovative art projects funded by the Neag School’s Rogers Educational Innovation Fund, including a photojournalism art exhibit in Norwalk, Connecticut, and a mural project at a middle school in Hartford, Connecticut, brought together middle school students this past spring.
The fund is in place thanks to the support of the late Neag School of Education Professor Emeritus Vincent Rogers and his late wife, Chris, a lifelong teacher. While Professor Rogers wasn’t able to personally enjoy the fruits of the projects his fund supported due to his passing in December 2020, the projects lived on at a middle school and an art gallery.
The Future Is Us
Neag School alumna Jessica Stargardter ’16 (ED), ’17 MA, recipient of the 2019 Rogers Educational Innovation Award, is a gifted and talented educator for Norwalk (Conn.) Public Schools. Stargardter’s project, which involved a group of eight-graders from West Rocks Middle School calling themselves “The Future Is Us,” focused on having students document real-world societal challenges and empowering change in their communities through photojournalism.
“I made the project super student-centered, and the kids have taken so much ownership over their learning.”
— Jessica Stargardter ’16 (ED), ’17 MA
“I made the project super student-centered, and the kids have taken so much ownership over their learning,” Stargardter says. “It’s cool to see how my original vision of the project evolved through their input.”
Initially inspired by a graduate course in human rights and social justice, Stargardter incorporates what she learned in that class with her students. “Everything I do, everything I teach,” she says, “I’ve taken that with me and incorporated those themes into my teaching.”
Stargardter (left) gathers with her group of middle school students during the art exhibit. (Shawn Kornegay/Neag School)
To start, Stargardter asked the students about their personal passions, pushing them to articulate why particular topics mattered to them.
“We want to highlight how we already are tackling global problems on a larger scale,” the group wrote in their art exhibit opening program. “This exhibit aims to celebrate and gather the Norwalk community and empower others to take action.”
The students started to design the project at the start of the 2020 school year. Together with Stargardter and MAD Lab, a creative hub offering unique physical and digital art space in Norwalk, the students developed the exhibition over six months. It culminated in a gallery showing and community event that was open to the public earlier this summer.
In the beginning stages of the project, one of the students reached out to MAD Lab, which quickly became interested in helping with the project, offering more than a physical space to hold an exhibition.
“Staff from the MAD Lab decided to mentor the students, which has been wonderful,” says Stargardter. “They call themselves creatives, including all different types of artists. They meet weekly with the students and mentor them on where their art should go and how it is being portrayed. We paid for the art space from the grant, but the mentoring was free.”
Students carried the project out throughout the year despite a regularly changing learning model caused by the pandemic. Sometimes they met in person, and sometimes remotely. Most of the students were hybrid, meeting in-person half the time and virtually the other half of the time.
The students were responsible for all aspects of the project, including budgeting, securing the venue, and working with adults on requesting permissions.
“They are so excited, and a little bit stressed at the same time, but in a good way,” Stagardter says. “They were being pushed out of their comfort zone while also helping them realize their strengths. They are learning skills they can apply to real-world situations.”
Ultimately, the exhibit showcased the students’ mixed-media art, Polaroids and photographs, information about local organizations, and activities all focused on five subtopics: climate change, community service, mental health, self-love, and wearing masks. The student artists broke up into groups based on these topics and used the Polaroids to capture how they had been taking action to tackle these global issues.
Stargardter hopes to keep the project going with future students.
“I love how the community has come together,” she says. “It’s amazing to see, despite everyone’s challenges. It’s been cool to see for the kids and for the kids to feel like, ‘Oh, this matters.’”
Community Mural-Making
Jason Gilmore (right) stands in a hallway at McDonough with two of his middle school students in front of their art mural. (Shawn Kornegay/Neag School)
Jason Gilmore, the recipient of the 2020 Rogers Educational Innovation Award, is an art teacher at Hartford’s McDonough Middle School. Due to the pandemic, his winning proposal for creating a set of murals with students evolved into a virtual project.
“Working virtually this past school year has been challenging, especially for the kids,” says Gilmore.
For one, he says, “we had logistical challenges with securing and locating the supplies in the beginning, along with distributing the kits.”
Through a collective effort involving his family members, Gilmore put together more than 200 art supply kits. Then the effort expanded to the school staff — from the principal to the school secretary to the security guard — who helped distribute the kits to McDonough’s students.
“Some kits were dropped off at the students’ homes if they were not able to come to school,” he recalls. “It became a positive way to reach out to families.”
The art kits, he says, became an incentive for the kids to connect.
“This project, and the support from the Rogers Fund, meant a lot to me.”
— Jason Gilmore
Gilmore’s health issues initially required him to work remotely; as a result, he taught art virtually for part of the year from his basement through Google Meets.
“We looked at mural examples and talked about them, and we talked about various things and topics they cared about,” he says.
At first, some students did not feel confident sharing their art virtually with their peers. Gilmore found a way to resolve that.
“The students had different levels of English skills and different learning styles,” he says. “We used an online tool called Padlet, where the students could share their ideas without identifying [themselves].”
Students came up with themes based on topics they were passionate about and with which felt personal connection: “Celebrating Diversity,” “The Cultural of Food,” and “Celebrating Our Cultures (Hartford/USA, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Brazil).”
One of the middle school students from Jason Gilmore’s class stands before the mural she helped design and paint. (Shawn Kornegay/Neag School)
Five of the six murals were painted by the students in Gilmore’s in-person art classes. But when school went virtual, having students paint the larger mural proved to be another hurdle. To connect the students’ concepts in a final product, Gilmore took their ideas and drawings and put them into one composition aligned with the themes. Each class got a printout of the design and filled in the colors to create the final composition.
“I had to rethink art teaching, and expanded the process of community mural-making, something I had not thought of previously,” Gilmore says.
The final product included six painted murals installed at different locations throughout the school:
Mural 1 “Food is Our Culture” – This mural, designed and painted by eight-grade virtual and in-person students, depicts the Black Lives Matter (BLM) 13 guiding principles. This group chose to focus on black villages, talked at length about their family traditions, and incorporated imagery of different foods as representations of their respective culture and families.
Mural 2 “Music is in Our Roots” – This mural, designed by eighth-grade virtual students and painted by sixth-grade in-person students, focused on celebrating the students’ family roots. A commonality they depict across all their cultures is music, dance, carnival, and beach culture.
Mural 3 “Beautiful Things” – This mural was designed and painted by virtual and in-person sixth-grade students focused on the 13 guiding principles of BLM in schools. The class chose to illustrate diversity: “We acknowledge and respect differences and commonalities.”
Mural 4 “Celebrate Diversity” – This mural designed by eighth-grade virtual students and painted by Gilmore similarly focused on diversity and the 13 guiding principles of BLM in schools.
Mural 5 “Pathways” – Designed by seventh-grade virtual students and painted by sixth-grade in-person students, this mural addresses the choices that middle school students face every day.
Mural 6 “Unity in Diversity” – This mural, designed and painted by sixth-grade students, also focused on the 13 guiding principles of BLM in schools. The students worked together to create the statement: “We are better together … we fall when we are divided by our differences.”
For the future, Gilmore hopes the mural program stays — and grows — at the school.
“I want it to become a part of the art program and part of the school’s community outreach programs. I may even make it portable, including providing it for other teachers within this school and teachers at other schools in the community. Hopefully, the mural supplies will become regularly supported.”
Through the mural project, Gilmore says, students were able to develop new skills and relationships, and find new interests in art and or education.
“The project was successful through creative solutions of the whole community with people striving together, traversing barriers,” he says.
Gilmore is proud of the students’ creations and knows they can feel proud about their part in beautifying their community, even under challenging circumstances.
“This project, and the support from the Rogers Fund, meant a lot to me,” says Gilmore. “Just being able to keep focused with this project through being so disconnected from the school and the wonderful kids helped.”
Read more about Gilmore’s project through his blog, “The Mural Intervention Project Part 3,” and view a special message from Dean Jason Irizarry.
School districts are using federal COVID-19 relief funds to hire more mental health professionals. (iStock photos)
Editor’s Note: Co-written by Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor Sandra Chafouleas, along with alumnaAmy Briesch ’05 MA, ’09 6thYear, ’09 Ph.D., an associate professor of school psychology at Northeastern University, this article on key issues for school mental health services with kids returning to classrooms originally appeared in The Conversation.
Even before COVID-19, as many as 1 in 6 young children had a diagnosed mental, behavioral or developmental disorder. New findings suggest a doubling of rates of disorders such as anxiety and depression among children and adolescents during the pandemic. One reason is that children’s well-being is tightly connected to family and community conditions such as stress and financial worries.
Particularly for children living in poverty, there are practical obstacles, like transportation and scheduling, to accessing mental health services. That’s one reason school mental health professionals – who include psychologists, counselors and social workers – are so essential.
As many kids resume instruction this fall, schools can serve as critical access points for mental health services. But the intensity of challenges students face coupled with school mental health workforce shortages is a serious concern.
As researchers on school mental health, we believe this shortage is a serious problem given the increase in mental health challenges, such as anxiety, gaps in social skills and grief, that schools can expect to see in returning students.
As researchers on school mental health, we believe this shortage is a serious problem given the increase in mental health challenges that schools can expect to see in returning students.
Anxiety should be expected given current COVID-related uncertainties. However, problems arise when those fears or worries prevent children from being able to complete the expected tasks of everyday life.
Meanwhile, school closures and disruptions have led to lost opportunities for students to build social skills. A McKinsey & Co. analysis found the pandemic set K-12 students back by four to five months, on average, in math and reading during the 2020-2021 school year. Learning loss also extends to social skills. These losses may be particularly profound for the youngest students, who may have missed developmental opportunities such as learning to get along with others.
And it’s important to remember the sheer number of children under 18 who have lost a loved one during the pandemic. A study published in July 2021 estimates that more than 1 out of every 1,000 children in the U.S. lost a primary caregiver due to COVID-19.
Hiring more school psychologists
Schools can help kids and their families get mental health support they might not otherwise have access to. (Getty Images)
Hiring more school psychologists may not be simple. The National Association of School Psychologists recommends a ratio of 1 psychologist for every 500 students. Yet current estimates suggest a national ratio of 1-to-1,211. It’s like having to teach a class of 60 instead of 25 students.
Shortages are particularly severe in rural regions. There are also not enough culturally and linguistically diverse school psychologists.
Scarcity of school mental health personnel affects important student outcomes from disciplinary incidents to on-time graduation rates – especially for students attending schools in high-poverty communities.
To address these shortages, legislators have proposed federal bills that aim to expand the school mental health workforce. Meanwhile, local school districts and state education agencies are using American Rescue Plan funds to increase mental health training, hire additional mental health staff or contract with community mental health agencies.
Preparing all school personnel
We believe increasing the number of mental health providers in schools is important. Workforce increases, however, must be coupled with attention to readying all school personnel to cope with students’ anxiety, grief and gaps in social skills.
For example, when it comes to anxiety, schools can help students build both tolerance of uncertainty and coping skills through strategies such as seeking support, positive reframing, humor and acceptance. School mental health professionals can train other staff members on simple strategies to use in a nurturing relationship. Long-term benefits such as sense of belonging can happen when each student has an informal mentoring relationship that offers emotional nurturance and practical help.
More schools have adopted social-emotional learning curriculums in recent years. However, additional time may be needed to teach and reinforce basic skills such as taking turns and sharing.
In addition, school mental health personnel can assist with defining a clear process for identifying who needs help, and be ready to share resources about grief and how kids respond to loss.
Partnering with families and communities
Even with these efforts, schools cannot be expected to identify and meet all young people’s mental health needs. Strong partnerships with families and communities are critical.
Seeking input from families may offer valuable information about student experiences. This might be done, for example, by adding questions to beginning-of-the-year student forms. Knowing how families are experiencing loss or insecurities, for example, can help school mental health personnel plan for and target supports.
The youth mental health crisis requires a comprehensive response. We believe the priority should be ensuring equitable access to a mental health professional through school settings.
