General Wesley Clark to Chair Dropout & Truancy Prevention Network

DALLAS – The Dropout and Truancy Prevention Network (DTPN), a program that provides an innovative solution for aggressively tackling chronic truancy and the dropout crisis, using Wounded Warriors and others with physical challenges as mentors for at-risk students, announced today that it has named General (Ret.) Wesley K. Clark as its Chairman.

“We are privileged and honored to have General (Ret.) Wesley K. Clark as our Chairman,” said Peter A. Gudmundsson, CEO and President of DTPN. “General Clark is one of the nation’s most distinguished retired military officers and shares DTPN’s passionate dedication to providing at-risk youth with the positive adult guidance and lifestyle accountability support they need to make better choices about school attendance. As Chairman, General Clark will use his experience as a national leader to bring attention—and provide a solution—to the national epidemic of high school drop outs that afflicts most urban and many rural school districts. We look forward to his contributions to our mission to save lives by keeping children in school.”

General Clark said, “Truancy is a national epidemic that can be addressed successfully through innovative solutions. I look forward to bringing the DTPN solution to school districts, government entities and foundations. I recognize the value of teaming some of America’s greatest, our Wounded Warriors, to serve as phone-based mentors/coaches.”

Well respected by national, state, and local leaders, General Clark is known for his lifetime of achievement in government service both in and out of uniform. During his thirty-three years of service in the United States Army, he held numerous staff and command positions, served in Vietnam, and rose to the rank of 4-star general and NATO Supreme Allied Commander. Now in the private sector, General Clark is chairman and CEO of Wesley K. Clark & Associates, a strategic advisory and consulting firm, serves on the boards of several private corporations and non-profit organizations and comments regularly on politics, diplomacy and public affairs.

A typical DTPN Experience

Student A has been coming to school every day and attending mostly all of this classes since our parent/student meeting February 15th when we spoke with him and gave him the Drop-Out Truancy Network Prevention phone. I have seen him walking in the hallways and he looks a lot happier!

Thanks for your support.

In partnership,

(Urban School Leader on the East Coast)

DTPN ATTENDS NCJFCJ CONFERENCE IN NY

Judge Linda Penn and Mary Kerr of DTPN

Linda Penn and NCJFCJ President Judge Patricia M. Martin of Chicago

DTPN Partners with Amprey & Associates

DTPN is pleased to be partnered with Amprey & Associates.

Dropout Prevention PSA Video From Akansas

It does not take too many words or images to tell this story. Click on the video.

Send in the Marines!

When I was training as a U.S. Marine officer in the mid-1980s, my instructors imparted a lesson that, while culturally characteristic of that fighting organization, has stuck with me to this day. When faced with almost any sort of a tactical or operational challenge, the answer is to attack – and not just point at the enemy and shoot, but aggressively attack with a vengeance and with spirit.

That same ethos needs to be brought to bear on the dropout epidemic. We must attack, attack and attack again. This bias for action must define our response – or we will lose another generation while we study, dither and debate.

Guiding Principles – Youth-oriented Solution-focused

The ethical considerations discussed above guide the practice of mentor/coaching regardless of what approach is taken when talking with youth. Whether using cognitive, behavioral, motivational, humanistic, or other techniques in working with adolescents, one still need to have ethical principles to guide your implementation of these techniques.

In addition to a set of ethical guidelines, you also need to have a general approach or theory of behavior change. In this manual we will discuss techniques that come from many theories of behavior change. For example, we will discuss active listening from a client-centered perspective, reframing from a narrative perspective, cognitive restructuring from cognitive-behavioral perspective, and evaluating alternatives from problem-solving perspectives. Each of these techniques can be helpful, but when and how they are used must be based on an understanding of behavior change.

For example, an adolescent who has says he thinks the mentoring program is worthless is not going to respond well to any advice giving. He’s already had a lot of advice given to him, and he doesn’t like you enough to listen to your advice. You may need to actively listen at this point with him. On the other hand, if he has a great relationship with you and asks you for your advice and you tell him to think about the pros and cons of each possible decision (never give direct advice on which action to take – that’s not your role as a mentor/coach), then he may do as you suggest and list pros and cons and make a good decision. Knowing which approach to take at what time is important in your job as a mentor/coach.

The guiding principles or theories for behavior change we will be using in this manual are youth-oriented, solution-focused principles. Let’s take a look at each of these terms.

Once an adolescent is referred to the Right Back on Track Mentoring Program (RBT), he or she knows that the goal is to stay in school. While school attendance is an important overarching goal, it should not be the primary goal for the mentor/coach. Research indicates that an over-focus on making sure the youth is in school is detrimental to the mentor/coach – youth relationship. The adolescent already knows that everyone wants him or her back in school. All the adults in his or her life have said the same thing. But few adults have asked the adolescent about his or her goals. Perhaps they want to get a driver’s license, play the flute in the school band, get a job, become a beautician, or be the first in their family to finish college. By keeping a youth-oriented focus, the mentor/coach engages the youth by considering what the youth wants. Most adolescents have hopes and dreams. Some have given up or can’t even imagine anything good. Helping the youth examine possibilities can give them hope.

Solution-focused approaches turn the standard problem-solving approach around. In problem-solving a problem is identified and then methods to solve that problem are developed and evaluated. Learning problem-solving techniques can be very helpful, but they are, by definition, problem-focused. Just thinking about problems can be overwhelming for these adolescents. The solution-focused approach starts with the solution and works backwards. First start with the goal you want and then figure out how to get there. Sometimes you can rephrase this as thinking about what everything would look like if life was going well. Then you think about what steps need to be taken to get where you want to go – to make everything look like you want it to be. Throughout the process there will be problems that crop up that need to be solved, but the focus should remain on the goal and what positive steps need to be taken to get there. The solution-focused approach helps keep things from being problem saturated. One problem after another becomes overwhelming. One step towards the solution is exciting and rewarding.

As you work with youth, always keep in mind that this is for the youth and they must have buy-in to the process for it to work. Helping them develop goals and work towards those goals, rather than just trying to solve one problem after another, can give them a sense of accomplishment and ability.

Sometimes a youth’s goals may seem ridiculous or foolish. They may tell you their goal is to get out of school, which is something they had been doing quite successfully. But there is always some other goal they have, even if they can’t express it. Sometimes it may seem irresponsible, like hanging out with friends and smoking marijuana every day. But exploring their goal with them can be very enlightening. What would it look like if they spent all day hanging out with friends? What other goals would go along with that goal? There are many ways to help them think about their goal, and over time they will add goals and rethink what they would like. Even exploring what other goals they have had at other times in their lives can help open up new paths. In all cases, the solution-focused approach is open and interested. No matter how ridiculous the adolescent’s ideas may seem to you, never be dismissive or respond with sarcasm.

Being youth-oriented and solution-focused does not mean that whatever the youth says goes. Setting rules and guidelines, such as the youth carrying a cellular unit every day, talking together with their mentor/coach three times a week, and the mentor/coach contacting school personnel about program compliance, are all important components of the program. Indeed, setting consistent guidelines that everyone is expected to follow gives these youth structure, organization, and consistency. However, it is your ability as mentor/coach to connect with youth in a respectful, accepting way about something important to the youth that paves the path to success. Threats, punishment, or shaming youth are not paths to successful behavior change. No one ever got better because others pointed out all of their flaws. People improve by building on their strengths.

Fifth Rule for Mentoring/Coaching Youth

1. Respect the youth’s rights and dignity

Mentor/coaches should respect the rights and dignity of all persons with whom they work. Although the mentor/coach relationship does not have the same legal protections as a doctor-client relationship, every attempt should be made to respect the youth’s rights and make clear to him or her limits of the relationship.

· Mentor/coaches should try to understand youth’s personal goals, desires, and values and not undermine their ability to make their own decisions.

· Confidentiality issues: mentor/coaches should inform youth of limits of confidentiality. The mentoring/coaching relationship does not have the same rights to confidentiality as a therapist/doctor-patient relationship. Mentor/coaches may have to disclose information to parents or proper authorities, and these limits on disclosure should be explained to the youth. Other than parents and proper authorities, such as judges, school counselors, direct supervisors, or clinical consultants involved directly with the case, information gained through the mentor/coach relationship should remain confidential. No information about a youth should be disclosed to a mentor/coach’s own family, friends, or colleagues unless that person is directly involved with the mentored youth. If a situation is discussed in training settings with other mentor/coaches, then all attempts must be made to hide identifying information. In all cases, youth’s disclosure of intention to harm themselves or others and acknowledgement or suspicion of any abuse or neglect should be reported to the proper authorities.

What is a Mentor/Coach?

In the Right Back on Track Mentoring Program we use the term “mentor/coach” because the job is a cross between a mentor and a coach. The terms “mentor” and “coach” are often used interchangeably. However, there are differences in what mentors and coaches do.

A mentor can be conceptualized as an individual who has a personal interest in and is personally involved with the individual he or she is mentoring. Establishing a good relationship is a key element of the process for mentors. A mentor is interested in the mentee’s success and long-term development. A mentor may listen, give advice, help the mentee make decisions, and maybe even be a cheerleader for the mentee, but the mentee decides the goals and direction of the mentoring relationship.

A coach is focused on a goal and performance. A coach is typically much less personally involved with the person he or she is coaching. While it is important to have a good working relationship, the relationship is not the most important element for a coach to be successful. Indeed, in a coaching situation there is a specific agenda and goal in mind. Improving performance in order to reach that goal is the coach’s job.

When adolescents are referred to our program, they are aware that they have been missing school and adults are upset or worried about them. They also recognize that they are going to be monitored and the goal is to get them to stay in school. That sounds like it is perfect for a coaching relationship. There is an agenda and a goal. But this isn’t a football team where these adolescents want to play and are willing for someone to coach them to success. The apparent goal of staying in school may not be the adolescent’s goal. Coaching by itself only works when both parties have the same goal. While you will need to use coaching skills, adolescents will view you as just another adult who is monitoring and telling them what to do, and coaching by itself won’t be helpful.

The most important aspect of mentoring is relationship building. It is important to care about the success of these youth. Indeed, having a connection with someone who cares may be the most important element in the success of any program helping youth. In addition, successful programs with adolescents are youth focused. It is important to explore the adolescent’s interests and goals. While there may be a general goal of the adolescent staying in school, reaching that goal is more likely if the focus is on the youth’s goals. If the youth already had the goal of finishing school, he or she probably wouldn’t be in the program. In order to get buy-in from the youth, you need to use mentoring skills such as listening and helping the youth develop his or her own goals in order to be successful.

As a mentor/coach you will use skills employed by both mentors and coaches. Mentoring – building a youth-focused, trusting relationship – will be your initial goal, and coaching will occur in helping the youth attain his or her identified goals. As you go through this manual, attitudes and techniques are presented to help you in your mentoring and coaching roles.

Before leaving this section on mentoring and coaching, let’s talk about what a mentor/coach isn’t. A mentor/coach is not a therapist, clergy member, parent, or friend. It is important to understand your role because it is very easy to get these roles confused. Therapists, clergy, parents, and friends are all very important people in a youth’s life, and you may want to refer the youth to talk with these people in their life. However, their roles differ from the mentor/coach.

Therapists provide therapy and deal with mental health issues. They are licensed professionals trained to deal with psychological issues such as ADHD, depression, anxiety, and learning disabilities. Mentor/coaches do not provide mental health counseling.

Clergy, such a priests, pastors, and rabbis, are trained in religious and spiritual doctrine and practice. Mentor/coaches are not clergy and do not provide religious or spiritual advice.

Although mentor/coaches are often parents, they are not the parent of the youth they are mentoring or coaching. Mentor/coaches do not take on a parenting role.

Mentor/coaches are friendly but not friends with the youth. Mentor/coaches do not call the youth just to talk, plan parties, go out to eat, lend money, or engage in other friendship activities.

The role of a mentor/coach is extremely important. The mentor/coach plays a role that no one else in that child’s life does. By keeping fidelity to the mentor/coach role with consistent boundaries, the mentor/coach offers these adolescents a trusting, respectful way of interacting and learning.

Truancy & Dropout Epidemic

Each day in the United States well over one million middle and high school students will not attend any classes. Far from the whimsical popular culture portrayals of playing “hookey” in Huckleberry Finn or Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, chronic truancy virtually guarantees that these students will be socially and economically disadvantaged throughout their lives.

Truancy is the first step on the road to dropping out. Dropping out is the exit to underperformance and misery. And it isn’t just the truant student who suffers. Even the most conservative estimates cite the direct economic cost to the community of one student who drops out of school to be in excess of $200,000. If one considers lost wages, taxes, and other social costs over a lifetime, the impact rises to over one million dollars per dropout.

Communities, states, and even nations throughout the world are struggling to identify effective programs and policies to combat this social challenge. One of the difficulties with truancy prevention is that it touches so many fields of social activity that it gets lost between efforts. Law enforcement, family law, psychology, education, and politics all converge to influence the debate over effective responses. Within the context of this diversity of disciplines there is a rising consensus that something must be done about the problem before it gets too big to fix at all.

The front lines of the battle against truancy are staffed by school personnel and family and truancy court judges. It is these professionals who are charged with the mandate of “solving” the truancy epidemic even as it has become clear that no one party can handle the problem alone. Resolving the truancy and dropout epidemic takes the whole community working together with common purpose to protect, educate, and lead the new generation. To this end, social service organizations, government, and the private sector have joined to provide resources and best practices.

What Types of Youth Drop Out of School?

There is no single profile for the child or adolescent who starts skipping school or finally drops out. However, there are numerous risk factors that make staying in school more difficult. Low socioeconomic status (poor family education, low family income), single-parent household, and an early history of behavior problems (child exhibits conduct problems before age 10) are risk factors that are common to a host of ongoing developmental problems. These risk factors aren’t specific to truancy and dropping out, but they put the child at risk for ongoing stress and behavioral problems that lead to truancy. With ongoing problems such as poverty and family instability, school can seem like just another burden when one’s life is already chaotic and stressful.

Youth who are truant are also often more impulsive and emotionally reactive. All children react emotionally first and often appear impulsive. Indeed, the region of our brain that helps us act more rationally and think about our actions is the last to mature. In fact, it’s not until our mid-20’s that our brains are fully developed, although it is around age 16 that adolescents begin to approximate adult abilities to inhibit behavior. But our brains develop throughout childhood, and we learn to modulate our emotions and decrease impulsivity through the guidance of parents, teachers, and others in our lives. Without this guidance, a child’s emotions will rule their behavior. This is why consistent rules and support is vital to a child, but this consistency is often missing in the life of the truant child.

Many of these youth have little parental guidance and support. Indeed, many times the parents were dropouts themselves and provide few expectations for the child to complete school. In addition, many of these parents lack the skills to help their troubled children, so even though they want their child to be in school, they don’t know what to do. Some parents give up; others become angry and aggressive. Neither approach helps the child. Therefore, it isn’t surprising that many truant youth have few problem-solving skills since they have primarily learned to give up or act out. Many truant youth think that if they are having problems in school, then leaving school is the only reasonable choice. The idea of solving a problem in another way doesn’t even occur to them.

In addition, many truant youth suffer from psychological, learning, and/or physical disabilities. For example, a child with ADHD and a learning disability is much more likely to drop out of school than a child without these disabilities. If you are getting in trouble every day and find it difficult to understand what you are reading, then school feels like torture. After someone feels like a failure over and over, there becomes little incentive to keep trying. Dropping out of school alleviates the immediate pain of feeling like a failure every day.

Students who feel marginalized are also at greater risk of dropping out. This may include students who are socially isolated and have no friends. It may also include youth who have friends who are not in school. These friends may be older youth, other dropouts, or adults who are no longer in school. When a child’s primary social supports are other dropouts, then it is more likely they will drop out. In addition, gay, lesbian, and transgendered youth are at greater risk to become dropouts because they feel marginalized or ostracized.

Although truant youth may become resentful and fight authority, most truants and dropouts want structure and predictability. Having a caring, trustworthy person in their life is missing, and providing that structure and support helps them get their footing on the path to success.

Nebraska Governor Emphasizes Truancy Prevention in his State of State Address

Gov. Dave Heineman's comments were:

"Additionally, I am very supportive of Senator Ashford's efforts to reduce truancy. Last year, 22,000 Nebraska students missed more than 20 days of school, and students can't learn if they are not in school. For example, Commissioner of Education Roger Breed has informed me that students who miss more than 20 days of school score approximately 30 points less on the reading assessment. Many schools would see a significant increase in reading scores if truancy were reduced."

The full text is here.

There is no single approach to tackling truancy and school dropout. We know that it takes a concerted response from family, school, legal, and other community resources to help stem the tide of truancy. However, what is clear is that making connections with youth is vital to helping youth stay in school. The Right Back on Track Mentoring Program (RBT) makes connections with youth and helps them gain skills to be successful.

RBT couples electronic monitoring with mentoring and coaching to help youth stay in school and succeed in meeting their goals. RBT uses cellular location technology to track the student. Students carry a loose cellular device that offers location verification data as well as voice capabilities. The cellular unit can call school, home, 911, and in some cases a homework hotline. Location verification lets the youth know that he or she is being monitored for compliance in school attendance, which can be reported to parents, school counselors, judges, and other people working for the welfare of that youth. Monitoring helps adolescents know that they aren’t going to slip through the cracks and that adults really do care about where they are. At first, these adolescents may not like the monitoring or believe that adults really care, but when the adults in their life are actually working together, this consistency of response helps establish trust and safety.

The voice communication capabilities of the cellular device are what help set RBT apart from other truancy intervention programs. RBT employs mentor/coaches to help the youth be successful in the program. While monitoring a youth’s whereabouts is helpful, it is the human contact and interest in the youth’s development that makes a lasting difference for these youth. Mentor/coaches are able to maintain ongoing phone contact with these adolescents and help them develop goals and the skills to reach these goals. By establishing a positive relationship with the youth, the mentor/coach can help youth find the solutions they need to be successful in school and in life.

The program is a critical tool as we seek ways to combat the dropout crisis.

Happiness Advantage and Truancy

"Happiness is the joy you feel striving after your potential."

Shawn Achor

This is not directly related to dropout prevention, but I like the sentiment. It is an encouraging thought especially when working hard to defeat the negativity inherent in the dropout and truancy crisis.

I met Shawn this week and heard him speak. I found him informative, interesting and very thought provoking.

West Virginia Takes New Approach to Truancy Deterence

A lot of municipalities and states threaten to take driver's licenses away from truant. I legislator in West Virginia has now proposed taking the license away from the parents of those truants! It certainly shows that she is serious about this serious epidemic.

Although it sounds draconian, innovation in the face of social challenge should always be encouraged.

Good Truancy Podcast

An interesting 20 minute podcast with Jessica Pinson Pennington, executive director of the Truancy Intervention Project in Georgia, and Barbara Babb and Gloria Danziger of the Truancy Court Program at the Center for Families, Children and the Courts at the University of Baltimore School of Law.

Also a good overview article on Truancy can be found at EducationNext by June Kronholz.

Alabama Drop Out Epidemic

The state's number one problem is truancy and the droupout epidemic.

A good video tells the story here.

And the reporter has a fantastic voice!

Michigan Conference on Reducing State Budgets

At the Mackinac Policy Conference in Michigan, keen minds looking for state budget savings have honed in on the issue of truancy.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said:
"

We're talking about illiteracy, we're talking about truancy. Truancy is probably one of the biggest issues when it comes to juvenile delinquency. Truancy is huge. But people don't want to talk about spending money in those truancy programs. If we can get people in school we can correct some of the issues."

Truer words have rarely been spoken. . .

Wisconsin Learns That Counseling is Critical to AntiTruancy Success

An interesting article in a Wisconsin newspaper, the Racine Journal Times.

Locking up students for truancy (where they miss more school) does not work. Programs need to engage the student and draw them back to school. Mentoring and structure are the most effective components of a working program.

Kids Stay in School When They Connect Education to a Vocation

Kids stay in school when they see a future and connect their school efforts to attaining that goal. Interesting article at Lubbock Online.