PROJECT 2

McCARTHEY DRESSMAN EDUCATION FOUNDATION

ACADEMIC ENRICHMENT GRANT

The McCarthey Dressman Education Foundation offers Academic Enrichment Grants designed
to develop in-class and extra-curricular programs that improve student learning. The Foundation
considers proposals that foster understanding, deepen students’ knowledge, and provide
opportunities to expand awareness of the world around them.

The Academic Enrichment Grants provide funding for programs that nurture the intellectual,
artistic and creative abilities of children from low-income households. The McCarthey Dressman
Education Foundation awards grants to individuals in amounts up to $10,000 per year for a
maximum of $30,000 over three years, provided the eligibility requirements continue to be met.

Consider applying for a grant if you have a unique idea for a project that will supplement
your regular classroom curriculum or after-school activity.

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

THE McCARTHEY DRESSMAN EDUCATION FOUNDATION CONSIDERS APPLICATIONS

FOR FINANCIAL SUPPORT FROM EDUCATORS WHO…

are employed by schools

have the background and experience to complete the project successfully
have direct and regular contact with students in grades pre-k to 12
work with students from low-income households
are willing to work in collaboration with the Foundation

BASIC PROPOSAL DETAILS

The proposal should be 2000 words minimum, not including your references page and should
incorporate the following elements:

Cover letter: introduce readers to the contents of the proposal, a summary of your proposed
project, and the amount requested.
Introduction: describe the following

Your school X
What is your proposed project?
What problem or issue are you trying to address? X

What is the significance of what you are trying to do? To whom does it matter? What do you
hope to accomplish? X
- significance focused on improving the mental well-being of continuation high school
students by providing them with a wellness center equipped to handle most of their basic needs.
This matters because the continuation high school population faces more difficulty than most
average high schools. Most students work to support their families and are below the poverty
line. We hope to accomplice the allocation of resources and form a safe place for these
students to come to and be able to decompress, talk to someone, receive career guidance, take
a nap, do their laundry, and sit with themselves. We want to advocate for mental well-being and
target this specific population because we believe that these students not only deserve more
resources but the chance to feel cared for and supported through their unconventional high
school experience.
What is the motivation for this proposal (e.g., ideas, stories, experiences, interactions,
readings)? Tell a compelling story about what led you to make this proposal. X

Literature review: Get the audience up to speed on current, relevant research on your topic and
synthesize information in support of your idea.
Project Description: Describe the following

- Provide a clear description of your project along with your justification. What
exactly do you propose doing? What is your overall vision and plan?
- Describe what will be produced from this project that can be disseminated.
(Examples: student products such as journals, DVD, power point etc.)
- Describe your plan to implement the project, including timeline and specific
projects.

Assessment Plan: How will you evaluate this project? Describe the indicators of
effectiveness you will use, such as numbers of students involved, new skills participants
will acquire, audiences impacted by the student work, benefit to the community, benefit
to students, etc.

Budget: Indicate if you are applying for 1-3 years and address the following for each
year (you can put this information in chart form):

- What will the money be used for?

- How are the expenses related to your program?
- When will the money be spent?
- Amount of money needed?

THINGS TO COVER:
- Cover Letter (Michelle)
- Background (Madi)
- Program activities (Michelle)
- Timeline (Madi)
- Students products and outcomes (Michelle)
- Assessment plan (Ziyang)
- Budget (Nora)
- Staff development (optional)
Tips for this assignment:

You need to pick an actual school. You can use a school one of your group members attended
or pick another school in California (I will have resources to help you find a school).

You need to use a little bit of imagination! You will be pretending you are a teacher in this school
and writing from this position.

The project you propose does not have to be big in scope. Don’t try to solve all the world’s
problems in this project. In fact, the smaller in scope the better. You can draw on your own
experiences as a student (what’s something you loved in school or that you loved outside of
school and wish was in school) or use something you learned about in one of your classes here
at UCSB. You can also draw on your passions in your personal life. What’s something you are
involved with outside of school that might be valuable to students in school? Yoga? Gardening?
Meditation? Hiking? Cooking? Financial literacy? An excursion of some kind? A sport? Surfing?
Horses? How can you work these into school? How would they benefit students? What other
ideas like this do you think would benefit students?

There seem to be two ways to come at this assignment: 1) Have an idea and then make a case
for it or 2) Have a problem and then find a way to solve it

NOTES:
michelle
- School: Cashe Creek High School - Yolo, CA
- Bell schedule begins with an Advisory period, which is a great opportunity for
students to use the wellness center
- Project Idea: The school has a wellness, resource center tailored to students’ success
and well-being, even beyond graduating. This allows students to gain guidance towards
a specific career path and/or interest(s)
- Provide snacks and volunteer hours as an incentive for participation
- Hours: before and after school, during lunch
- Mental health room/wellness center offered “24/7”
- Career and future guidance during lunch & after school
- Mental health area (yoga, meditation, puzzles, books)
- Washer and dryer
- Clothes closet (donations)
- Tutoring
- Food pantry / food banks
- Feminine products
- Counselor/educator
-
 - What we hope to accomplish, Who & Significance:
- Community wellness/resource center
- Demographic of students in the community who need these resources

- Motivation (ideas, stories, experiences): Madi, Yuanzhe

- Draw from personal experiences
-
- Literature Review: everyone
-

Topic Breakdown
Mental Health
- Michelle Brataatmadja
- Yuanzhe Yang
- Ziyang Lyu
- Nora Pulido
- Michelle Brataatmadja
(everyone) !!

continuation schools
- Nora Pulido
- Madison Tobin

wellness centers at other schools

- Yuanzhe Yang

mental health
- How can we get students to support themselves?
Continuation Schools
California’s Continuation Schools
- Overview of continuation schools
- Data about students
- More likely to drop out
- More likely to be Hispanic, African American, and English language learners
- Highlighted difficult circumstances and challenges
- Accountability Measures for Continuation (The Alternative Schools Accountability Model
(ASAM))
- Lack of a data system for info
- Vary in focus and quality
- Strong youth development programs
- Programs that operate in a mid-range of quality, attention, and opportunity
- A “dumping ground” for disruptive students and ineffective educators
- Lack of coordinated youth policies and appropriate professional development are
common concerns
- Strong partnerships with outside institutions (page 7)
- Partnerships with local community colleges
- Relationships with local businesses to provide jobs or internships for students, or
with community agencies to provide community service opportunities
- Vocational education
- Relationships with mental health agencies or community-based mental health
services to provide programs on drug and alcohol treatment, and on partnerships
with probation departments to offer informational talks to their students and
collaborate on student placements

Report: Continuation schools failing to ensure student success

 - Another good, short overview of continuation schools

Alternative Education Options: A Descriptive Study of California Continuation High Schools

- Originally designed to provide a flexible schedule for working students
- The single common denominator is that most continuation students have
reached age 16 lacking sufficient academic credits to remain on track to graduate
with their age cohort, but the data also reveal them to be a highly vulnerable
population characterized by multiple risk behaviors and other nonacademic
learning barriers
- Student Data; more likely to…
- Be Hispanic, African American, and English language learners
- Be in foster care or living with a relative other than a parent
- Move from school to school
- Struggle with alcohol and other substance use
- Be physically victimized in and out of school
- Be in a high number of physical fights at school
- Lack of a good data system
- Factors that might account for why some continuation schools perform better than
others, among the indicators significantly linked to higher API performance were student
perceptions about how connected they felt to the school, school safety, and about the
presence of caring relationships, high expectations, and opportunities for meaningful
participation in their schools
- Are charged with doing more, in less time, but with roughly the same resources per
student, as all other schools
- They indicate that this feature of state policy leaves them ill-equipped to meet
student needs and is ultimately one of the most frustrating and unfair constraints
with which they must contend
- While continuation schools usually have enough enrollment to hire at least one part-time
academic counselor, most schools we visited did not have enough to qualify for a
librarian, nurse, or dedicated attendance officer. None reported hiring staff specializing in
English language development instruction, despite the fact that almost half of the
schools we visited had enrollments of 25% or more ELL.
- Successful student experiences in alternative education programs depend not only on
effective opportunities for academic engagement but also on critical support services
often accessible only from out-of-school agencies
- Most students underscored the importance of the extra help and time they received to
accomplish work. But most also acknowledged that their teachers and the principal
regarded them as teachable and this seemed to make all the difference to students.
- Partnerships provide essential and particular resources for continuation schools, but
they do not exist to the same extent at every school
- Several continuation schools rely on relationships with county mental health
agencies or community-based mental health programs to provide drug and
alcohol treatment, and partnerships with Probation to offer informational talks to
students and collaborate on student placements
https://www2.wested.org/www-static/online_pubs/AEOIssueBrief-4-08.pdf

“Several continuation school administrators actively cultivated relationships with local

businesses to provide jobs for students as well as opportunities for creditcarrying internships.
Others developed relationships with a number of community agencies that provide youth
services and multiple opportunities for community service. Several continuation schools rely on
relationships with county mental health agencies or community-based mental health programs
to provide drug and alcohol treatment, and partnerships with Probation to offer informational
talks to students and collaborate on student placements. “

“The law provides for the creation of continuation schools ‚designed to meet the educational
needs of each pupil, including, but not limited to, independent study, regional occupation
programs, work study, career counseling, and job placement services.‛ It contemplates more
intensive services and accelerated credit accrual strategies so that students whose
achievement in comprehensive schools has lagged might have a renewed opportunity to
‚complete the required academic courses of instruction to graduate from high school.‛

https://lao.ca.gov/2007/alternative_educ/alt_ed_020707.pdf

“Between 10 percent to 15 percent of high school students enroll in one of the state’s
four alternative programs each year. These programs serve many of the state’s at-risk students.
We recommend fixing the state and federal accountability programs so that
schools and districts are held responsible for the success of students in alternative programs.
We also recommend funding reforms that reinforce the district’s responsibility for creating
effective options for students.”

“We also recommend that county offices have the responsibility to help districts work more
closely with county agencies that frequently have contact with alternative school students.
These include law enforcement, probation, mental health, and job training agencies that work
under the county umbrella. Currently, these connections are very limited or nonexistent in most
districts. Given the problems and needs of some students, a stronger relationship between
schools and these agencies could greatly benefit students”

How to Better Serve Continuation Students

Wellness Centers at Other Schools
Effects of School-Based Mental Health Services on Youth Outcomes | Journal of Human
Resources (uwpress.org)
- Overall Impact:
No significant improvements were observed in average attendance, test scores,
substance use, or suicidal ideation. However, there was evidence of reduced antisocial
behaviors (such as suspensions and juvenile justice involvement) and a reduction in
self-reported suicide attempts.

- Service Utilization:
Only about 5% of students typically utilized SBMH services in schools offering them,
suggesting a limited "first-stage" effect on mental health services that might not be
sufficient to detect broader impacts.

Effectiveness of school-based psychological interventions for the treatment of depression,

anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder among adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa: A
systematic review of randomized controlled trials | PLOS ONE
- Impact on Symptoms:
School-based interventions significantly reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety, and
PTSD among adolescents.

Frontiers | A systematic review of the long-term benefits of school mental health and wellbeing
interventions for students in Australia (frontiersin.org)
- Overall Impact:
This review identified 29 programs with demonstrated long-term efficacy in promoting
and supporting students' mental health and wellbeing. The benefits included reduced
rates of anxiety and depressive symptoms, improved self-esteem and body acceptance,
reduced suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and improved social skills and capacity to cope
with adversities and challenges among students.

Why Every School Should Have a Wellness Center.: EBSCOhost (ucsb.edu)

Mental Health:
How to Get Students Thinking About Their Own Learning
- Overall impact:
There are several methods to motivate students to regulate their study, such as planning
ahead and connecting prior knowledge.

Cognitive Science Explains Why Students Don’t Like School

- Overall impact:
It gives several reasons why students refuse study in school and some methods to solve
it.
Why America Has a Youth Mental Health Crisis, and How Schools Can Help
- How the COVID-19 Pandemic affected students’ work ethic and emotional well-being
- 42% of high school students reported feeling sad or hopeless (2021), which is a
26% increase from 2009
- Affects their participation in their usual activities

Wellness Center:
School ‘wellness centers’ could be an answer to soaring mental health needs in California
- A sharp increase in young people’s mental health needs over the past decade or so due
to…
- the prevalence of social media, rising rates of poverty that have put stress on
families, and an uptick in disasters such as wildfires and floods. The pandemic,
which has led to school campus closures and economic hardship for millions in
California, has also contributed to students’ feelings of despair.
- “1 in 6 high school students in California has considered suicide in the past year, and 1
in 3 report feeling chronically sad”
- The schools would provide space on campus and a staff member, most likely at a district
office or County Office of Education, to coordinate the services and agencies, but the
cost of the actual services would be paid by local health agencies or nonprofits that bill
Medi-Cal, the government’s health insurance plan for low-income residents.
- Some offered:
- Short-term counseling
- Group, family, and individual therapy
- Social workers; licensed clinicians are trained to handle more serious mental
health and behavior problems. They can visit families at their homes, make
diagnoses and refer students or their families to other specialists within the
county health department — such as medical doctors or addiction counselors.

California colleges now have centers to help students with basic needs like food and housing
- Focuses on College campuses, but some good information on basic needs
- Basic needs centers, the resources offered differ from campus to campus, but most tend
to help students who are experiencing housing and food insecurity. Others also offer
other support like paying for auto insurance, finding low-cost medical care, paying for
internet and applying for public benefits.
- “It doesn’t matter how great the classroom experience can be, or how great the
instructional materials or instructors are, if students have fundamental needs that cannot
be met, they cannot complete and persist in our institutions,” said Rebecca Ruan
O’Shaughnessy, vice chancellor for educational services and support at the California
Community College Chancellor’s Office.

Coming Together as a Community: Establishing a Full-Service Family Resource Center

- The idea behind centers like ours is that school is the logical place for communities to
connect low-income school children and their parents with the health and social services
they need to deal with the many ills affecting them -- homelessness, hunger, alcohol and