U.S. Department of Education Story Archives - Page 2 of 4

Federal Funds To Address Mental Health In Schools

The programs will be funded over the next five years by $10 million from the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.

The first round of funding for an ambitious national mental health program has been announced.

Last month, both Concord University and West Virginia University announced the creation of programs designed to put more counselors in schools across West Virginia.

The programs will be funded over the next five years by $10 million from the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. President Joe Biden signed the measure into law last June to tackle the mental health crisis in schools.

The program has increased the number of school social workers by nearly 50 percent compared to pre-pandemic levels. School counselors and psychologists are both up 10 percent and school nurses are up 42 percent.

The state Department of Education estimates more than 150 new school-based mental health professionals will be hired in West Virginia with the program’s investments.

The department also announced up to $2.6 million in funding for a new Mental Health Personnel Technical Assistance Center to support grantees in meeting the goals of their grant. This center will help identify and develop resources to support grantees in addressing the social, emotional, and mental health needs of PreK-12 students and staff.

The center will also provide support to the field more broadly – to grantees and beyond – by disseminating best practices in recruiting, training, placing, and retaining school-based mental health services providers.

Three W.Va. Students Named U.S. Presidential Scholars

Three high schoolers from around the state have been named to this year’s class of U.S. Presidential Scholars.

They are Dalton S. Cook from Westside High School in Clear Fork, Rania Zuri from Morgantown High School and Isabella Mackenzie Herrod from Liberty High School.

Herrod was specifically named a Presidential Scholar in Career and Technical Education.

They’re part of a group of 161 students selected for the accomplishment nationwide. This year, more than 5,000 candidates qualified through either their performance on the SAT or ACT exams, or through nominations from school officers or organizations.

The program was created in 1964 to recognize the nation’s most distinguished high school seniors. In 2015, it was extended to recognize students going into career and technical education fields.

The program selects scholars from the pool of candidates each year through a review committee, which evaluates students based on their “academic achievement, personal characteristics, leadership and service activities and an analysis of their essay,” according to its website.

Cook, Zuri and Herrod have been recognized for their achievements in statements from U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, as well as Sens. Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito.

“U.S. Presidential Scholars have always represented the future of our country and the bright promise it holds. I want each of these remarkable students to know: your passion and intellect, pursuit of excellence, and spirit of service are exactly what our country needs,” Cardona said.

All three students will be honored with an online recognition program this summer and will be awarded with the U.S. Presidential Scholars medallion.

Latest National Assessment Reinforces Academic Decline Post-COVID-19

The latest national assessment of academic ability shows a continued decline in student achievement nationwide.

Eighth graders on average scored five points lower on a U.S. History assessment in 2022 than in 2018, and almost 10 points lower than in 2014, according to test results published by the U.S. Department of Education Wednesday.

Known as the nation’s report card, the National Assessment of Educational Proficiency continually assesses what students in the country know.

The results echo declines in reading and math published in the fall.

Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, presented the assessment results. She said history and civics results further highlight educational issues post-COVID-19.

“The assessment isn’t just about the facts, it’s not just about dates and times and people and all those great things that you and I both know that’s on the assessment,” she said. “It’s about taking that information and conducting some critical thinking and some of the evaluative work relevant to that information. And I think this is where we’re seeing some real problems in these results.”

Unlike the reading and math scores reported last fall, which relied on a sample size of more than 200,000 students, the U.S. history and civics scores are based on a much smaller sample size, about 16,000 students, which does not allow for detailed, state by state analysis.

Carr pointed towards the decline between 2014 and 2018 history assessments to indicate that something beyond COVID-19 is impacting student achievement in the subject.

“I think we can all agree that COVID had an impact in both sets of assessments, reading and math, history and civics, but what was going on in U.S. History in particular, started long before COVID,” she said.

Carr also dismissed reports that instructional time for U.S. history and civics had declined significantly, with 90 percent of students assessed reporting their teachers spent three to four hours a week on U.S. history.

“These subjects are not getting squeezed out I think in the way that people sometimes might imagine,” Carr said. “There’s been a bit of a decline, but nonetheless, a lot of instruction is going on in these areas.”

Concord Will Use Federal Funds To Address Mental Health In Schools

There is a dramatic need for more social workers in schools, and one state university is creating a program to help.

Over the next five years, Concord University will receive close to $5 million from the U.S. Department of Education Mental Health Service Professionals Demonstration Program.

The money will help create the CU in Schools program, which will place 40 Masters in Social Work (MSW) students in high-need education agencies across the state to complete their advanced-year field placements.

Scott Inghram, the Masters of Social Work program director and chair of the Social Work and Sociology department, said the program is the result of a collaborative effort.

“We’ve had support from the West Virginia Department of Education. We’ve also partnered with West Virginia State University to try to make this program as successful as we can,” Inghram said.

Inghram said that upon completion of their placement, graduate students will be employment ready and should be able to practice in the same high need school in which they were placed.

“There are incentives for the students to participate, including full tuition and stipends for their internship or their practicum,” he said. “There’s also incentives for the counties to hire our graduates once they’ve completed our program.”

Shawn Allen, an associate professor of social work at Concord, said the need for social workers is high across the country, but especially in West Virginia.

“The recommended national ratio for students to social workers in schools is one social worker for every 250 students. In West Virginia right now, the ratio is one social worker for every 15,433 students,” Allen said. “When we saw the opportunity for this funding, we knew that it would be a great way to try to help meet some of that need.”

Social workers provide services to school systems including advocating for students, assessment of student and family needs and therapeutic interventions related to mental health and substance misuse services.

“When you look at the national data, a lot of the things that they say are missing, social workers can provide,” Allen said. “Our graduates, when they finish our program, they’re employment ready. Really, they can slide right in and help meet that need, linking kids to resources and their families to resources that they might need.”

According to a study released by the Annie E. Casey Foundation in 2022, there was a 23 percent increase in the percentage of children with anxiety or depression in West Virginia between 2016 and 2020.

W.Va. Schools Receive Nearly $6 Million In Safety Funding

West Virginia schools are set to receive $5.7 million in grant money from the U.S. Department of Education to help keep them safe and supportive for students.

West Virginia public schools are set to receive $5.7 million in grant money from the U.S. Department of Education to help keep them safe and supportive for students.

The money comes from the federal Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that Congress passed in June. The legislation closed loopholes in gun safety laws and promoted access to mental health services. It also assigns funding to help support school safety through the Stronger Connections grant program.

In a statement, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said supporting school safety “improves academic achievement, promotes emotional well-being, reduces disciplinary actions, and increases positive behaviors.”

The money is set to go to state educational agencies, which will then award funding to local school systems based on their current needs. Cardona made suggestions on how the funding be used in a public letter to state school officers.

His suggestions include support for underserved students and student mental health, as well as ways to get communities engaged on how to best make schools safer and more inclusive.

Cardona also suggested the funds specifically go toward local agencies in areas that have high rates of poverty and have dealt with issues like:

A high student-to-mental health professional ratio
High rates of chronic absenteeism, exclusionary discipline like suspension or expulsion, bullying and harassment, community and school violence, or substance use
A recent experience with a natural disaster or traumatic event

This also comes after Cardona visited West Virginia University and spoke with student leaders about mental health earlier this month.

W.Va. Schools Recognized By U.S. Department Of Education

C.W. Shipley Elementary School in Jefferson County, Evans Elementary School in Jackson County and Culloden Elementary School in Cabell County were three of the 300 schools recognized as Blue Ribbon Schools nationwide.

Three West Virginia schools have been named National Blue Ribbon Schools by the U.S. Department of Education.

C.W. Shipley Elementary School in Jefferson County, Evans Elementary School in Jackson County and Culloden Elementary School in Cabell County were three of the 300 schools recognized nationwide.

They join a group of 9,000 schools distinguished since the program was created in 1982.

The honors are given out based either on a school’s high-performing academics or by closing specific achievement gaps. All three West Virginia schools were recognized on the basis of their academics.

The program’s website says these schools have some of the “highest achieving students (the top 15 percent) in English and mathematics, measured by state assessments.”

The announcement was made by Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, who also visited WVU Wednesday to discuss mental health issues with students.

Cardona said in a statement that the schools recognized had gone “above and beyond to keep students healthy and safe” while the nation recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic while “meeting their academic, social, emotional and mental health needs.”