The Positive Education Program in Practice

Mary M. Quinn, David Osher, and Thomas Valore

"At West Shore, students are individuals; at public school, they’re numbers. My teachers here treat me with respect so I return that respect. We are not only supposed to have

opinions on different issues, but are encouraged to voice those opinions. It may not change the outcome of the situation, but at least we get a chance to state our point of view."

—Jeffrey (17 years old)

Despite our country’s stated commitment to meeting the individual needs of all its children, regardless of ability or disability, many children with emotional or behavioral problems are denied the "normal existence" that most of us take for granted. In fact, we as a nation often spend a great deal of time, effort, and money protecting ourselves from these children rather than providing the supports and teaching the skills necessary to successfully reintegrate them into society. Many programs and practices designated for children and youth with emotional or behavioral problems do little more than segregate and contain students and their behavior until they either drop out or are "pushed out" of the public education system. While this is certainly not the intent of most programs, it is too often the result.

There are many indicators that the public education experience for children and youth labeled Seriously Emotionally Disturbed (SED) is less than ideal. This truth is not only eloquently voiced in the words of students like Jeffrey, but is evidenced by the extremely high dropout rate, estimated to be as high as 56% for students labeled as SED (U.S. Department of Education, 1994). An even sadder reality is that data show that about 73% of students labeled SED who drop out of school will be arrested within the first five years of leaving school (Wagner, D’Amico, Marder, Newman, & Blackorby, 1992). To fulfill our obligation to protect and nurture all children, we need to identify and exchange information on more effective practices and programs that will prepare these children and youth to be productive, contributing members of their society.

Fortunately, an increasing number of programs are addressing the complex needs of children and youth with emotional and behavioral problems. While each of these programs is unique and complex, they have much in common:

• Reintegration back into local schools as quickly as appropriate is a central goal for each student.
• High academic expectations are held by everyone.
• Social skills instruction is provided in order for students to acquire the skills that are necessary for them to succeed in mainstream educational settings, as well as to be productive members of society.
• Committed teachers genuinely like their students and are dedicated to their success.
• A high staff-to-student ratio is ensured.
• An array of support services are available to staff, students, and their family members.
• Empowerment of students and their families is a high priority. The skills and supports necessary to achieve this goal are provided (Osher, 1996).

A detailed look at just one of the impressive programs that fits these criteria—the day treatment centers of Cleveland’s Positive Education Program—can teach us a lot about how to create effective alternative programs.

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Cuyahoga County, Ohio, where Jeffrey attends high school, is an excellent example of a community that is offering alternative solutions for children and youth with emotional or behavioral problems and their families. Through a unique nonprofit agency known as the Positive Education Program (PEP), this community successfully integrates the services of more than eight major agencies to provide for over 1,400 children with emotional or behavioral problems and their families annually. This concept is reflected in PEP’s mission statement: "To provide integrated services to children and adolescents experiencing significant social, emotional, and behavioral problems, and to their families, using a collaborative, ecological approach."

PEP first began in 1971 as a consulting service that specialized in learning disabilities and behavioral problems. Opening its doors as an educational institution in the spring of 1976, PEP has since grown dramatically and has become many "programs" designed to better meet all of the complex needs of children and youth with emotional or behavioral problems, as well as their families: two early intervention centers, six day treatment centers, two group homes, a special needs day treatment program, a supported employment program, and a school- and community-based case management program.

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All of the programs are based on the seminal Re-ED model (Re-education of Emotionally Disturbed Children and Adolescents) developed by the late Dr. Nicholas Hobbs. Hobbs developed this model as an alternative to institutionalization and sought to remove young people "the least possible distance" from their normal environment. By mobilizing those persons significant to the child to become change agents, Re-ED seeks to foster consistency in all aspects of the child’s ecology including his or her home, school, and community. PEP organizes its activities around the 12 principles included in Figure 1. PEP staff, who participate in intensive and ongoing staff development activities, have internalized these principles and seek to embody them in their day-to-day activities.

One PEP program is the day treatment service centers for the school-age children and youth in Cuyahoga County who have emotional disturbance so severe that their needs cannot be met effectively in public school programs. To facilitate the reintegration of students into their regular school environment, the day treatment facilities actually have many similarities with public schools. However, PEP staff recognize that problems often occur outside of the regular school building and hours, so each center has a liaison staff member who "works with families, neighborhood and community services, juvenile court, private professionals, and any other significant or potentially significant people in the child’s life." While these liaison staff provide an emergency service 24 hours a day, seven days per week, their main concern is to prevent crises by setting up the child’s environment to promote his or her continued success and reintegration.

Parents in particular are essential members of the planning team. The support, mutual respect, and absence of blame that characterizes even the earliest interactions between PEP staff and parents serve to build trust and set the foundation upon which almost all other programming is based. Parents are encouraged to learn the concepts and techniques used in the PEP classrooms. Parents are also invited to participate in weekly discussions on such topics as the principles of behavior management, organizing the family living schedule to promote appropriate behavior, using good communication skills, or any other topic of interest to parents regarding the complex needs associated with raising a child with emotional or behavioral problems.

Engaging parents to participate in this therapeutic process of working with staff to achieve goals for their child is not easy. Teacher-counselors exert great effort and patience forming positive relationships with parents as well as students. Four basics for getting started follow.

1. Home Visits. A first step in getting started with relationship building is visiting the student’s home. Home visits occur just prior to or very soon after the students arrive in the classroom. They take place on a day and time convenient to the family. During the visit, staff and family get to know one another on a comfortable and friendly turf. Staff take this opportunity to convey their philosophy that parents are the true experts on their children and that they are partners in the treatment process, to hear the family’s and student’s story, and to collaborate with the family to establish goals and objectives based on the child’s strengths and weaknesses. In some cases, however, families new to the school want no part of school personnel in their private lives and especially in their homes. In such cases, staff become more patient, slowing the pace and focusing more on supportive, helpful, positive phone contacts and the home/school passport.

Donte's Home/School Passport

2. Home/School Passport. Ongoing communication is critical to developing trusting relationships between staff and parents. The two parts of the home/school passport structure the daily contact between school and home. The first part contains target behaviors that will be addressed and rated at school; the second contains those behaviors to be addressed and rated at home. (See sample) The target behaviors for both school and home are identified through a collaborative effort with parents, students, and staff. Sometimes, students refuse to carry the passport back and forth to school. To address this, teacher-counselors provide daily incentives at school (e.g., bonus behavioral points, group points toward a group reinforcer). At home, parents can also provide incentives (e.g., earn a chore off, extended bed time).

The home/school passport builds on successes. In fact, teacher-counselors usually suggest that one or more non-problematic behaviors be included so the student will be encouraged by success, motivated to work on more difficult targets, and willing to carry the passport back and forth. This also provides parents an opportunity to give positive feedback that is in some cases the first step in changing negative interaction patterns.

3. Phone Contacts. During the early weeks of treatment, staff frequently call parents. Staff reinforce parents’ importance in the treatment process, inform them what their child is doing well, and discuss general business. Problems are discussed as well, but with a non-accusatory, solution-oriented approach. The staff member conveys support, along with hope and helpful ideas. Trust builds as staff, parents, and students handle problems cooperatively.

4. Private/Brief Counseling Sessions. These sessions have been effective in developing positive, trusting relationships with youth. These sessions can occur throughout the day, and are usually one-on-one meetings that occur between the Teacher-Counselor or Associate Teacher-Counselor and the student. The content of the meetings is individualized to the student. Meetings can occur at the beginning of the day as a way to assess the student’s present emotional state. They can also occur throughout the day to (a) review individual goals, (b) debrief problems, (c) prepare the students for an academic subject or activity that has been historically unpleasant for the student, (d) mediate problems that occurred outside the school in another part of the student’s ecology, and (e) provide positive reinforcement, thereby increasing the probability of prosocial behaviors.

These educational and family services are combined in such a way as to empower families and their children with emotional or behavioral problems to make positive changes in their lives. One such student, Jeffrey (see Figure 2), provides an example of a "typical" adolescent who, through the services provided at PEP’s day treatment, has a chance at a more independent and fulfilling life.

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Unlike many programs that serve as little more than dumping grounds where the community’s difficult children are isolated from the rest of society, PEP is a community-wide effort to collaboratively provide effective practices to address the many and varied needs of children and youth with emotional and behavioral problems. Through the combined efforts of the schools, agencies, organizations, and families, Cuyahoga County accomplishes what would otherwise be impossible. This models the adage that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Traditional programs and practices that produce frustration, failure, and the social isolation of children and youth with emotional and behavioral problems must be replaced by alternative programs, such as PEP, that maximize their efforts to effectively address the complex needs of the whole child and his or her family. Society cannot continue to deny itself the contributions of this group of citizens. While two years ago, Jeffrey was considered little more than a menace, today he has enriched the lives of many who have been touched by him, his poetry, and his music.

Mary M. Quinn is a Research Analyst at the American Institutes for Research in Washington, D C. She is currently working on information exchange for the Center for Effective Collaboration and Practice and is the president of Teacher Educators for Children with Behavior Disorders. She can be contacted at 1000 Thomas Jefferson, NW, Suite 400, Washington, D.C. 20007, or by e-mail at mquinn@air-dc.org.

David Osher directs The Center for Effective Collaboration and Practice, which identifies, develops, communicates, and promotes the exchange of useful and usable information about children and youth with emotional and behavioral problems. He is senior research analyst at American Institutes for Research, where he and his colleagues have helped the Department of Education to develop and implement
its National Agenda for Achieving Better Results for Children and Youth with Serious Emotional Disturbance. He is a regular contributor to Reaching Today’s Youth.

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Hobbs, N. (1994). The twelve Re-ED principles of Nicholas Hobbs. In The troubled and troubling child. Washington, DC: American Education Association.

Osher, D. (1996). Working with students who are behaviorally challenging. Washington, DC. Chesapeake Institute.

Wagner, M., D’Amico, R., Marder, C., Newman, L., & Blackorby, J. (1992). What happens next? Trends in post-school outcomes of youth with disabilities. The second comprehensive report from the National Longitudinal Transition Study of special education students. Menlo Park, CA: SRI International.

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The 12 Basic Principles of Nicholas Hobbs

1. Life is to be lived now, not in the past, and lived in the future only as a present challenge.

2. Trust between child and adult is essential, the foundation on which all other principles rest, the glue that holds teaching and learning together, the beginning point for reeducation.

3. Competence makes a difference; children and adolescents should be helped to be good at something, and especially at schoolwork.

4. Time is an ally, working on the side of growth in a period of development when life has a tremendous forward thrust.

5. Self-control can be taught and children and adolescents helped to manage their behavior without the development of psychodynamic insight; and symptoms can and should be controlled by direct address, not necessarily by uncovering therapy.

6. The cognitive competence of children and adolescents can be considerably enhanced; they can be taught generic skills in the management of their lives, as well as strategies for coping with the complex array of demands placed on them by family, school, community, or job; in other words, intelligence can be taught.

7. Feelings should be nurtured, shared spontaneously, controlled when necessary, expressed when too long repressed, and explored with trusted others.

8. The group is very important to young people; it can be a major source of instruction in growing up.

9. Ceremony and ritual give order, stability, and confidence to troubled children and adolescents, whose lives are often in considerable disarray.

10. The body is the armature of the self around which the psychological self is constructed.

11. Communities are important for children and youth, but the uses and benefits of community must be experienced to be learned.

12. In growing up, a child should know some joy in each day and look forward to some joyous event for the morrow (Hobbs, 1994).

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Re-ED Principles in Action

Jeffrey: A Case Study

Jeffrey was initially referred by his public school for behaviors such as "oppositional-defiance," "passive aggression," verbal aggression toward teachers and peers, social withdrawal, interpersonal difficulties, and intermittent physical aggression. Due to truancy and suspensions, Jeffrey had not attended school consistently for the two years prior to his expulsion, and although assessment data revealed that he was a bright student, he had no high school credits and little hope of graduation.

Both Jeffrey and his mother became partners in his treatment program. Jeffrey’s mother revealed that he responded to her when she treated him with respect (a right afforded to all students enrolled in any of PEP’s programs—Re-ED Principle 2). Jeffrey helped develop his anger-control training program by identifying that writing often helped to calm him when he was angry (Re-ED Principles 1, 5, 6, & 7). With the help of his teacher, Jeffrey agreed that when he needed to de-escalate, he would go by himself to the end of the hallway and write. It soon became evident that Jeffrey was a gifted writer, and his work was shared with a professor at a local university. The professor agreed to augment Jeffrey’s program by tutoring him in writing and English. Jeffrey’s work has since been published (see poem next page) (Re-ED Principles 2, 3, & 12).

During a discussion of Jeffrey’s future plans, he identified a love of music and revealed a desire to produce records. Jeffrey, with assistance from his teacher, obtained information on degrees in music offered by various universities, and a staff member who shared Jeffrey’s interest became his mentor.

To achieve his goals, Jeffrey has elected to attend summer school to make up for the time he lost before entering the day treatment center. He has also secured a job (through a job development program) that provides him with spending money and allows him to save money for his long-term goal—college (Re-ED Principles 3, 6, & 11).

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