case study of alternative school

Advertisement

Alternative Schools, Career and Technical Education, and Emerging Adult Black Men in Reentry: A Case Study

• Published: 18 November 2022
• Volume 40 , pages 455–472, ( 2023 )

Cite this article

• Charles H. Lea III   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5157-1052 1 ,
• Marcus Brown   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4855-303X 2 &
• Riya Bhatt   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2472-2257 2  

504 Accesses

6 Altmetric

Explore all metrics

Employment is identified as a key factor that supports emerging adult Black men in reentry with making a successful the transition to adulthood. Although anti-Black racism creates barriers to them securing and maintaining legitimate employment, strength-based, education-focused alternative schools that are structured to meet their intersectional needs and experiences can help to promote their transition to employment. Yet, little is known about how these schools promote resilience and career readiness among this population and the ways in which they perceive these strategies to support their transition to employment. As such, this single, exploratory qualitative case study, which included observations, interviews, and focus groups sought to better understand how, if at all, an alternative school promotes resilience and career readiness among emerging adult Black men in reentry. Work readiness training, internships, and job search and placement assistance emerged as meaningful career and technical services and support that the young men with making the transition into employment. While working and attending school simultaneously posed challenges to school engagement and completion, the findings highlight the important promotive and protective role strength-based alternative schools can play in promoting positive educational and employment-related experiences and outcomes among emerging adult Black men in reentry.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price includes VAT (Russian Federation)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Rent this article via DeepDyve

Institutional subscriptions

Abrams, L. S., & Terry, D. (2017). Everyday desistance: The transition to adulthood among formerly incarcerated youth . Rutgers University Press.

Google Scholar  

Acevedo, N., & Solorzano, D. G. (2021). An overview of community cultural wealth: Toward a protective factor against racism. Urban Education . https://doi.org/10.1177/00420859211016531

Article   Google Scholar  

Alexander, K. P., & Hirsch, B. J. (2012). Marketable job skills for high school students: What we learned from an evaluation of After School Matters. New Directions for Youth Development, 2012 (134), 55–63.

Article   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Alim, H. S., & Paris, D. (2017). Culturally sustaining pedagogies: Teaching and learning for justice in a changing world . Teachers College Press.

Amineh, R. J., & Asl, H. D. (2015). Review of constructivism and social constructivism. Journal of Social Sciences, Literature and Languages, 1 (1), 9–16.

Arditti, J. A., & Parkman, T. (2011). Young men’s reentry after incarceration: A developmental paradox. Family Relations, 60 (2), 205–220.

Arnett, J. J. (2006). Emerging adulthood: Understanding the new way of coming of age. In J. J. Arnett & J. L. Tanner (Eds.), Emerging adults in America: Coming of age in the 2men’sentury (pp. 3–19). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/11381-001

Chapter   Google Scholar  

Bailey, Z. D., Krieger, N., Agénor, M., Graves, J., Linos, N., & Bassett, M. T. (2017). Structural racism and health inequities in the USA: Evidence and interventions. The Lancet, 389 (10077), 1453–1463.

Bernard, H. R. (2006). Research methods in anthropology: Qualitative and quantitative approaches . AltaMira Press.

Berzin, S. C., & De Marco, A. C. (2010). Understanding the impact of poverty on critical events in emerging adulthood. Youth & Society, 42 (2), 278–300. https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118X09351909

Bhattacharya, K. (2017). Fundamentals of qualitative research: A practical guide . Routledge.

Book   Google Scholar  

Bird, K., Dawkins, C., & Johnson, L. (2020). From surviving to thriving: Supporting transformation, reentry, and connections to employment for young adults . Center for Law and Social Policy, Inc. (CLASP). https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED604405.pdf

Blowe, E. H., & Price, T. (2012). Career and technical education: Academic achievement and graduation rates of students in the Commonwealth of Virginia. SAGE Open . https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244012455437

Bowleg, L. (2008). When Black+ Lesbian+ woman≠ Black Lesbian woman: The methodological challenges of qualitative and quantitative intersectionality research. Sex Roles, 59 (5), 312–325.

Bowleg, L. (2012). The problem with the phrase women and minorities: Intersectionality—an important theoretical framework for public health. American Journal of Public Health , 102 (7), 1267–1273.

Article   PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Brand, B., Valent, A., & Browning, A. (2013). How career and technical education can help students be college and career ready: A primer . College and Career Readiness and Success Center. https://www.aypf.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/CCRS-CTE-Primer-2013.pdf .

Brunner, E., Dougherty, S., & Ross, S. (2019, September). The promise of career and technical education . Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2019/09/20/the-promise-of-career-and-technical-education/

Bullis, M., Yovanoff, P., Mueller, G., & Havel, E. (2002). Life on the “outs”—Examination of the facility-to-community transition of incarcerated youth. Exceptional Children, 69 (1), 7–22.

Bushway, S. D., & Apel, R. (2012). A signaling perspective on employment-based reentry programming: Training completion as a desistance signal. Criminology & Public Policy, 11 (1), 21–50.

Butts, J. A., Bazemore, G., & Meroe, A. S. (2010). Positive youth justice: Framing justice interventions using the concepts of positive youth development . CUNY Academic Works, John Jay College of Criminal Justice. https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1411&context=jj_pubs

Cable, K. E., Plucker, J. A., & Spradlin, T. E. (2009). Alternative schools: What’s in a name? Education Policy Brief. Volume 7, Number 4, Winter 2009. Center for Evaluation and Education Policy. http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED510969

Carver, P. R., Lewis, L., & Tice, P. (2010). Alternative schools and programs for public school students at risk of educational failure: 2007–08. FirWhat’sk. NCES 2010-026. National Center for Education Statistics. http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED508882

Charmaz, K. (2006). Constructing grounded theory: A practical guide through qualitative analysis . Sage.

Chin, J. G. (2017, March). Collateral consequences. Academy for justice: A report on scholarship and criminal justice reform. https://ssrn.com/abstract=2948025

Choi, S. J., Jeong, J. C., & Kim, S. N. (2019). Impact of vocational education and training on adult skills and employment: An applied multilevel analysis. International Journal of Educational Development, 66 , 129–138.

Chowdhury, L., Davis, J., & Hammond, D. (2019). Agents of change in healing our communities. In Prisoner reentry in the 21st century (pp. 357–367). Routledge.

Couloute, L., & Kopf, D. (2018, July). Out of prison and out of work: Unemployment among formerly incarcerated people. Prison Policy Initiative. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/outofwork.html

Crawford, N. N. (2021). We’d go well together: A critical race analysis of marijuana legalization and expungement in the United States. Public Integrity, 23 (5), 459–483.

Crenshaw, K. W. (2017). On intersectionality: Essential writings . The New Press.

Creswell, J. W., & Poth, C. N. (2016). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches . Sage Publications.

Davis, M., Sheidow, A. J., McCart, M. R., & Perrault, R. T. (2018). Vocational coaches for justice-involved emerging adults. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, 41 (4), 266.

De Nike, M., Shelden, R., Macallair, D., & Menart, R. (2019, February). Collaborating for successful reentry: A practical guide to support justice-involved young people returning to the community . Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED597305.pdf

Dumas, M. J. (2016). Against the dark: Antiblackness in education policy and discourse. Theory into Practice, 55 (1), 11–19.

Ellison, M. L., Klodnick, V. V., Bond, G. R., Krzos, I. M., Kaiser, S. M., Fagan, M. A., & Davis, M. (2015). Adapting supported employment for emerging adults with serious mental health conditions. The Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research, 42 (2), 206–222.

Feierman, J., Levick, M., & Mody, A. (2009). School-to-prison pipeline…and back: Obstacles and remedies for the re-enrollment of adjudicated youth. The New York Law School Law Review, 54 , 1115.

First Step Act of 2018, Pub. L. No. 115-391. (2018). https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/756

French, B. H., Lewis, J. A., Mosley, D. V., Adames, H. Y., Chavez-Dueñas, N. Y., Chen, G. A., & Neville, H. A. (2020). Toward a psychological framework of radical healing in communities of color. The Counseling Psychologist, 48 (1), 14–46.

Ganz, M., Kay, T., & Spicer, J. (2018). Social enterprise is not social change. Stanford Social Innovation Review , 16 (2), 59.

Ginwright, S. (2018). The future of healing: Shifting from trauma informed care to healing centered engagement. Occasional Paper, 25 , 25–32.

Glynn, M. (2013). Black men, invisibility and crime: Towards a critical race theory of desistance . Routledge.

Gottschalk, P. (2005). Can work alter welfare recipients’ beliefs? Journal of Policy Analysis and Management: The Journal of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, 24 (3), 485–498.

Grace, J. E., & Nelson, S. L. (2019). “Tryin’to survive”: Black male students’ understandings of the role of race and racism in the school-to-prison pipeline. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 18 (4), 664–680.

Herrenkohl, T. I., Hong, S., & Verbrugge, B. (2019). Trauma‐informed programs based in schools: Linking concepts to practices and assessing the evidence. American Journal of Community Psychology, 64 (3–4), 373–388.

Hirsch, B. J. (2015). Job skills and minority youth: New program directions . Cambridge University Press.

Hirsch, B. J. (2017). Wanted: Soft skills for today’s jobs. Phi Delta Kappan, 98 (5), 12–17.

Hlavka, H., Wheelock, D., & Jones, R. (2015). Exoffender accounts of successful reentry from prison. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 54 (6), 406–428.

Hope, E. C., Hoggard, L. S., & Thomas, A. (2015). Emerging into adulthood in the face of racial discrimination: Physiological, psychological, and sociopolitical consequences for African American youth. Translational Issues in Psychological Science, 1 (4), 342.

Huerta, A. H., & Hernandez, E. (2021). Capturing the complexity of alternative schools: Narratives of Latino males in an overlooked educational space. The Urban Review, 53 (5), 814–837.

Jackson, R., Brown, Z., & Wadley, B. A. (2021). Antiblackness. In Encyclopedia of queer studies in education (pp. 34–37). Brill.

Jagers, R., Rivas-Drake, D., & Borowski, T. (2018). Toward transformative social and emotional learning: Using an equity lens . Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning. https://measuringsel.casel.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Framework_EquitySummary.pdf

Justice Center. (2015, November). Reducing recidivism and improving other outcomes for young adults in the juvenile and adult criminal justice systems . Council of State Governments. https://csgjusticecenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Transitional-Age-Brief.pdf

Kelly, D. M. (1993). Last chance high: How girls and boys drop in and out of alternative schools . Yale University Press.

Kim, J. H. (2011). Narrative inquiry into (re) imagining alternative schools: A case study of Kevin Gonzales. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 24 (1), 77–96.

Kubrin, C. E., Squires, G., & Stewart, E. (2007). Neighborhoods, race, and recidivism: The Community reoffending nexus and its implications for African Americans. In SAGE race relations abstracts (Vol. 32, pp. 7–37).

Kurlychek, M. C., & Johnson, B. D. (2019). Cumulative disadvantage in the American criminal justice system. Annual Review of Criminology, 2 , 291–319.

Ladson-Billings, G. (2022). The dreamkeepers: Successful teachers of African American children . Wiley.

Laker, D. R., & Powell, J. L. (2011). The differences between hard and soft skills and their relative impact on training transfer. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 22 (1), 111–122.

Langhout, R. D., & Thomas, E. (2010). Imagining participatory action research in collaboration with children: An introduction. American Journal of Community Psychology, 46 (12), 60–66. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-010-9321-1

Lea, C. H., Crumé, H. J., & Hill, D. (2020). “Traditions are not for me”: Curriculum, alternative schools, and formerly incarcerated young black men’s academic success. Social Sciences, 9 (12), 233.

Lea, C. H., Malorni, A., & Jones, T. M. (2019). “Everybody is an artist”: Arts-based education and formerly incarcerated young black men’s academic and social-emotional development in an alternative school. American Journal of Community Psychology, 64 (3–4), 333–347.

Lea, C. H., Mohr, G., McCarter, S. A., Coughlin, S. B., Gottlieb, A., Partlow, B. S., Mathews, K. S., & McLeod, B. A. (2022). Promote smart decarceration and eliminate racism grand challenges for social work: Reimagining marijuana policy. Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, 49 , 27.

LeBel, T. P. (2012). Invisible stripes? Formerly incarcerated persons’ perceptions of stigma. Deviant Behavior, 33 (2), 89–107.

Lewis, K., & Gluskin, R. (2018). Two futures: The economic case for keeping youth on track . Measure of America, Social Science Research Council.

Lindell, K. U., & Goodjoint, K. L. (2020). Rethinking justice for emerging adults: Spotlight on the great lakes region . Juvenile Law Center. https://www.cmcainternational.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Rethinking-Justice-for-Emerging-Adults.pdf

Lockwood, S. K., Nally, J. M., Ho, T., & Knutson, K. (2015). Racial disparities and similarities in post-release recidivism and employment among ex-prisoners with a different level of education. Journal of Prison Education and Reentry, 2 (1), 16–31.

Lofland, J., Snow, D. A., Anderson, L., & Lofland, L. H. (2005). Analyzing social settings: A guide to qualitative observation and analysis (4th ed.). Wadsworth Publishing.

Looby, E. J., Holmes, C. L., Li, T., & Donald, L. (2022). Collateral consequences: Incarceration, communities, and reintegration. In Counseling strategies for children and families impacted by incarceration (pp. 270–296). IGI Global.

Lopez-Humphreys, M., & Teater, B. (2019). Transformations of the self: Learning from the experiences of returned citizens participating in peer mentor support training. Urban Social Work, 3 (2), 136–155.

Loprest, P., Spaulding, S., & Nightingale, D. S. (2019). Disconnected young adults: Increasing engagement and opportunity. RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 5 (5), 221–243.

Majid, S., Liming, Z., Tong, S., & Raihana, S. (2012). Importance of soft skills for education and career success. International Journal for Cross-Disciplinary Subjects in Education, 2 (2), 1037–1042.

McLoyd, V. C., & Hallman, S. K. (2020). Antecedents and correlates of adolescent employment: Race as a moderator of psychological predictors. Youth & Society, 52 (6), 871–893.

Mears, D. P., & Travis, J. (2004). Youth development and reentry. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 2 (1), 3–20.

Merriam, S. B. (2009). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation . Jossey-Bass.

Mizel, M. L., & Abrams, L. S. (2019). Practically emotional: Young men’s perspectives on what works in reentry programs. Journal of Social Service Research . https://doi.org/10.1080/01488376.2019.1617225

Morenoff, J. D., & Harding, D. J. (2014). Incarceration, prisoner reentry, and communities. Annual Review of Sociology, 40 , 411–429.

Mortimer, J. T. (2012). Transition to adulthood, parental support, and early adult well-being: Recent findings from the youth development study. In Early adulthood in a family context (pp. 27–34).

Nygreen, K. (2013). These kids: Identity, agency, and social justice at a last chance high school . University of Chicago Press.

Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (2019, December). How states made available Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act funds to support correctional education . U.S. Department of Education.  https://s3.amazonaws.com/PCRN/uploads/How_States_Made_Available_Perkins_Funds_for_Correctional_Ed.pdf

Osgood, D. W. (2005). On your own without a net: The transition to adulthood for vulnerable populations . University of Chicago Press.

Pager, D., & Western, B. (2009, October). Investigating prisoner reentry: The impact of conviction status on the employment prospects of young men . National Institute of Justice. https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/228584.pdf

Parson, L. (2019). Considering positionality: The ethics of conducting research with marginalized groups. In Research methods for social justice and equity in education (pp. 15–32). Palgrave Macmillan.

Payne, Y. A. (2011). Site of resilience: A reconceptualization of resiliency and resilience in street life–oriented Black men. Journal of Black Psychology , 37 (4), 426–451.

Payne, Y. A., & Brown, T. M. (2010). The educational experiences of street-life-oriented black boys: How black boys use street life as a site of resilience in high school. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 26 (3), 316–338.

Payne, Y. A., & Brown, T. M. (2021). “I don’t let these felonies hold me back!”: How street-identified black men and women use resilience to radically reframe reentry. Race and Justice . https://doi.org/10.1177/21533687211047948

Porowski, A., O’Conner, R., & Luo, J. L. (2014). How do states define alternative education ? (REL 2014–038). U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Regional Educational Laboratory Mid-Atlantic. http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs

Prescott, J. J., & Starr, S. B. (2020). Expungement of criminal convictions: An empirical study. Harvard Law Review, 133 (8), 2460–2555.

Reisdorf, B. C., & DeCook, J. R. (2022). Locked up and left out: Formerly incarcerated people in the context of digital inclusion. New Media & Society, 24 (2), 478–495.

Reskin, B. (2012). The race discrimination system. Annual Review of Sociology, 38 (1), 17–35.

Rios, V. M. (2011). Punished: Policing the lives of Black and Latino Boys . NYU Press.

Rugh, J. S., Albright, L., & Massey, D. S. (2015). Race, space, and cumulative disadvantage: A case study of the subprime lending collapse. Social Problems, 62 (2), 186–218.

RuizdeVelasco, J., & McLaughlin, M. (2010). Alternative schools in California: Academic on-ramps or exit ramps for Black, Latino, and Southeast Asian boys. In C. Edley Jr. & J. Ruiz de Velasco (Eds.), Changing places: How communities will improve the health of boys of color (pp. 140–155). University of California Press.

Sawyer, W., & Wagner, P. (2022). Mass incarceration: The whole pie 2022. Prison Policy Initiative.  https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2022.html?c=pie&gclid=Cj0KCQjwhLKUBhDiARIsAMaTLnEF9Tr1F_Yddvki8UHOOe3EaT75fuzbKJqSusgxQ9HNMwH1jwEcSb0aAmiYEALw_wcB

Schiraldi, V. N., Western, B. P., & Bradner, K. (2015). Community-based responses to justice-involved young adults . National Institute of Justice. file:///Users/c.h./Downloads/ESCC-CommunityBasedResponsesJusticeInvolvedYA%20(2).pdf

Second Chance Reauthorization Act of 2018, Pub. L. No. 115-391. (2018). https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/3635/text

Seibel, K. (2019). Social enterprise: a route to systems change for women formerly incarcerated. Columbia Social Work Review, 17 (1), 16–27.

Shamrova, D., & Cummings, C. (2017). Participatory action research (PAR) with children and youth: An integrative review of methodology and PAR outcomes for participants, organizations, and communities. Children and Youth Services Review, 81 , 400–412.

Sidorowicz, K., & Yang, A. (2021). Strengthening college and career readiness with social and emotional learning: Integrating Explicit SEL in CTE. In Leading schools with social, emotional, and academic development (SEAD) (pp. 247–272). IGI Global.

Skiba, R. J., Horner, R. H., Chung, C.-G., Rausch, M. K., May, S. L., & Tobin, T. (2011). Race is not neutral: A national investigation of African American and Latino disproportionality in school discipline. School Psychology Review, 40 (1), 85.

Smit, B. (2002). Atlas.ti for qualitative data analysis. Perspectives in Education, 20 (3), 65–75.

Smith, A. (2020). Connecting social-emotional learning (sel) to career success . Association for Career and Technical Education.  https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED616661

Snape, L., & Atkinson, C. (2016). The evidence for student-focused motivational interviewing in educational settings: A review of the literature. Advances in School Mental Health Promotion, 9 (2), 119–139.

Snodgrass Rangel, V., Hein, S., Rotramel, C., & Marquez, B. (2020). A researcher-practitioner agenda for studying and supporting youth reentering school after involvement in the juvenile justice system. Educational Researcher, 49 (3), 212–219.

Steinberg, L., Cauffman, E., & Monahan, K. C. (2015, March). Psychosocial maturity and desistance from crime in a sample of serious juvenile offenders . Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. http://www.ojjdp.gov/pubs/248391.pdf

Steinberg, L., Chung, H. L., & Little, M. (2004). Reentry of young offenders from the justice system: A developmental perspective. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 2 (1), 21.

Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century, Pub. L. No. 115-224, 132 Stat. 1563 (Perkins V Act). (2018). https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/2353/text

Tanner, J. L., Arnett, J. J., & Leis, J. A. (2008). Emerging adulthood: Learning and development during the first stage of adulthood. In Handbook of research on adult learning and development (pp. 56–89). Routledge.

Taylor, M. (2016). Adult earnings of juvenile delinquents: The interaction of race/ethnicity, gender, and juvenile justice status on future earnings. Justice Policy, 13 (2), 1–24.

Thigpen, J., Keith, E., Jr., Johnson, A., & Anthony Paniccia, M. A. T. (2018). A case study phenomenon approach: Are alternative schools education programs for K-12 a holding cell for Black students in an Eastern North Carolina school system? CreateSpace Publishing.

Tolbert, M. (2012). A reentry education model. Supporting education and career advancement for low-skilled individuals in corrections . U.S. Department of Education Office of Vocational and Adult Education.  https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ovae/pi/AdultEd/reentry-model.pdf

U.S. Government Accountability Office (USGAO). (2019, June). K-12 education: Certain groups of students attend alternative schools in greater proportions than they do other schools . Committee on Education and Labor.  https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-19-373

Vaught, S. E. (2011). Juvenile prison schooling and reentry: Disciplining young men of color. In F. R. Sherman & F. H. Jacobs (Eds.), Juvenile justice: Advancing research, policy, and practice (pp. 310–330). Wiley.

Vygotsky, L. (1978). Interaction between learning and development. Readings on the Development of Children , 23 (3), 34–41.

Wang, M. C., & Gordon, E. W. (2012). Educational resilience in inner-city America: Challenges and prospects . Routledge.

Wang, M. C., Haertel, G. D., & Walberg, H. J. (1994). Educational resilience in inner cities. In M. C. Wang & E. W. Gordon (Eds.), Educational resilience in inner-city America: Challenges and prospects (pp. 45–72). Lawrence Erlbaum.

Wang, M. C., Haertel, G. D., & Walberg, H. J. (1997). Fostering educational resilience in inner-city schools . U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, Educational Resources Information Center. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED419856.pdf

Waxman, H. C., Gray, J. P., & Padron, Y. N. (2004). Promoting educational resilience for students at-risk of failure. In Educational resiliency: Student, teacher, and school perspectives (pp. 37–62).

Wehrman, M. M. (2010). Race, concentrated disadvantage, and recidivism: A test of interaction effects. Journal of Criminal Justice, 38 (4), 538–544.

Western, B. (2006). Punishment and inequality in America . Russell Sage Foundation.

Western, B., & Pettit, B. (2010). Incarceration and social inequality. Daedalus, 139 (3), 8–19.

Western, B., & Sirois, C. (2019). Racialized reentry: Labor market inequality after incarceration. Social Forces, 97 (4), 1517–1542.

White-Johnson, R. L. (2015). The impact of racial socialization on the academic performance and prosocial involvement of Black emerging adults. Journal of College Student Development, 56 (2), 140–154.

Williamson, D. (2008). Legislative history of alternative education: The policy context of continuation high schools. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.170.2361&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Wilson, W. J. (2011). When work disappears: The world of the new urban poor . Vintage.

Wood, D., Crapnell, T., Lau, L., Bennett, A., Lotstein, D., Ferris, M., & Kuo, A. (2018). Emerging adulthood as a critical stage in the life course. In N. Halfon, C. B. Forrest, R. M. Lener, & E. M. Faustman (Eds.), Handbook of life course health development, 123–143 (pp. 123–144). Springer.

Yin, R. K. (2013). Case study research: Design and methods . SAGE Publications.

Yosso, T. J. (2016). Whose culture has capital?: A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth. In Critical race theory in education (pp. 113–136). Routledge.

Zimmer-Gembeck, M. J., & Mortimer, J. T. (2006). Adolescent work, vocational development, and education. Review of Educational Research, 76 (4), 537–566.

Download references

The authors did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Columbia University School of Social Work, New York, USA

Charles H. Lea III

University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work, Houston, USA

Marcus Brown & Riya Bhatt

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Contributions

CHL III performed study conception, design, material preparation, data collection, and analysis. CHL III, MB, and RB wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript and read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Charles H. Lea III .

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest.

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the institution and national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The Internal Review Board committee approved this study of the University of California, Los Angles.

Consent to Participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

Publisher's note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Lea, C.H., Brown, M. & Bhatt, R. Alternative Schools, Career and Technical Education, and Emerging Adult Black Men in Reentry: A Case Study. Child Adolesc Soc Work J 40 , 455–472 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-022-00907-8

Download citation

Accepted : 31 October 2022

Published : 18 November 2022

Issue Date : August 2023

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-022-00907-8

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Alternative schools
• Emerging adults
• Young Black men
• Find a journal
• Publish with us
• Track your research

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

Exploration Alternative School: A Case Study

Related Papers

Middle School Journal

Brendan Desilets

Marcy Fetzer

Ray Handley

Jennie L . Hanna

Journal of the American Academy of Special Education Professionals

Robin Parks Ennis

Esther Minsky

Susan Glassett Farrelly

Alternative education plays a critical role in the opportunity gap that persists in the US public education system. However, there has been little research on alternative schools. Scaffolded by a theoretical framework constructed from critical theory, self determination theory (SDT) and student voice, this research examined how well students in alternative schools were being served. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to document, describe, and analyze the student experience at alternative school. The first phase used self-determination theory and extant data to describe students attending an alternative school. Distinct groups of students were established using cluster analysis. These groups provide a vehicle for maximal variation sampling of participants in the second phase, a narrative inquiry. This study found that SDT predicts which students are on track to meet their educational goals, and that these students experience personalized education and develop strong student-teacher relationships. The student stories establish the importance of alternative programs. They also give voice to the need to change the ways our educational system employs alternative programs and provide guidance on how to improve their effectiveness.

Susan McCammon

Intervention in School and Clinic

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders who display disruptive behaviors in general education settings are increasingly being educated in alternative education settings. Alternative education settings can vary widely, but they typically have smaller classroom sizes and educational staff who are trained to teach students who were not successful in their previous educational settings. This Current Topics column provides (a) an introduction to how students are placed in those settings, (b) a description of common alternative educational settings, and (c) an overview of effective educational, behavioral, and mental health services available to children and youth in alternative educational settings.

RELATED PAPERS

J. Van Der Werf

Joaquín García Nistal

… Journal of Criminology and Sociological Theory

Mojtaba Mahdavi

Hưng Lê Thành

The Historical Review/La Revue Historique

Ourania Polycandrioti

FEMS Microbiology Letters

Marina Lazić

Denis Vasenkov

Revista Brasileira de Informática na Educação

Francisco Carlos Gallego Mendes

Journal of Biotechnology

Joaquim Cabral

Lydiah Waswa

Physis: Revista de Saúde Coletiva

Helena Shimizu

Physical Review B

A. Kalitsov

Revue économique

Denis Fougère

Atherosclerosis

MingJie Yang

Sains Malaysiana

NUR HIDAYAH

AZIZI ELHADJ ALI

European Journal of Cancer Supplements

D. Ettinger

Japanese Journal of Pharmacology

Lei-ming Ren

ELUA. Estudios de Lingüística Universidad de Alicante

Elisa Barrajón López

john Zakour

Donald Suarez

PSU Research Review

Tendai Makoni

rtytrewer htytrer

Nature microbiology

Kelly Wrighton

Physical Review D

Nicole Bell

See More Documents Like This

RELATED TOPICS

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

• Advanced Search
• Journal List
• J Transl Med

Adolescent mental health education InSciEd Out: a case study of an alternative middle school population

Joanna yang.

1 Clinical and Translational Science, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN USA

Roberto Lopez Cervera

2 Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN USA

Susannah J. Tye

3 Psychiatry and Psychology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN USA

Stephen C. Ekker

4 Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN USA

Chris Pierret

Associated data.

The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to privacy agreements made during school board approval but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. Copies of all study metrics are available by inquiry.

Mental illness contributes substantially to global disease burden, particularly when illness onset occurs during youth and help-seeking is delayed and/or limited. Yet, few mental health promotion interventions target youth, particularly those with or at high risk of developing mental illness (“at-risk” youth). Community-based translational research has the capacity to identify and intervene upon barriers to positive health outcomes. This is especially important for integrated care in at-risk youth populations.

Here the Integrated Science Education Outreach (InSciEd Out) program delivered a novel school-based anti-stigma intervention in mental health to a cohort of seventh and eighth grade at-risk students. These students were assessed for changes in mental health knowledge, stigmatization, and help-seeking intentions via a classroom activity, surveys, and teacher interviews. Descriptive statistics and Cohen’s d effect sizes were employed to assess pre–post changes. Inferential statistical analyses were also conducted on pilot results to provide a benchmark to inform future studies.

Elimination of mental health misconceptions (substance weakness p = 0.00; recovery p = 0.05; prevention p = 0.05; violent p = 0.05) was accompanied by slight gains in mental health literacy (d = 0.18) and small to medium improvements in help-seeking intentions (anxiety d = 0.24; depression d = 0.48; substance d = 0.43; psychosis d = 0.53). Within this particular cohort of students, stigma was exceptionally low at baseline and remained largely unchanged. Teacher narratives revealed positive teacher views of programming, increased student openness to talk about mental illness, and higher peer and self-acceptance of mental health diagnoses and help-seeking.

Conclusions

Curricular-based efforts focused on mental illness in an alternative school setting are feasible and integrated well into general curricula under the InSciEd Out framework. Preliminary data suggest the existence of unique help-seeking barriers in at-risk youth. Increased focus upon community-based programming has potential to bridge gaps in translation, bringing this critical population to clinical care in pursuit of improved mental health for all.

Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov, ID: {"type":"clinical-trial","attrs":{"text":"NCT02680899","term_id":"NCT02680899"}} NCT02680899 . Registered 12 February 2016, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/ {"type":"clinical-trial","attrs":{"text":"NCT02680899","term_id":"NCT02680899"}} NCT02680899

The priority of mental health

Prevention and treatment of mental illness remain significantly underserved health needs, despite poor mental health being of worldwide concern [ 1 ]. Youth are uniquely vulnerable, as most mental illnesses have early onset [ 2 ]. Effective help-seeking remains low, and attitudinal barriers—particularly stigma and inadequate mental health literacy—are commonplace [ 3 ]. Regardless of established need, few stigma-reduction programs target adolescents [ 4 ], and broader promotion–prevention interventions are lacking [ 2 ]. Youth-centric programming is therefore a critical need given the formative and persistent role of adolescence in development.

Theoretical frameworks to break down the barriers

While structural barriers to mental healthcare exist for broader policy intervention, knowledge and attitudes are readily addressable at the individual level. Improvements have been made in recent years to both study and bolster the public’s mental health literacy, but dissemination of accurate information remains a necessary focus for betterment of mental health [ 5 , 6 ]. This is particularly true for youth, where mental health literacy efforts have traditionally been flagging [ 7 ]. One theoretical framework often applied to health interventions is the knowledge–attitude–behavior (KAB) model. In this model, increased knowledge can change attitudes and result in behavioral modification [ 8 , 9 ]. The knowledge–attitude–behavior continuum plays a key role in modern definitions of mental health literacy with evidence to suggest that improved knowledge and reduced stigma can result in increased help-seeking and improved outcomes in mental health [ 10 ]. Meta-analysis additionally shows that educational programming can alter stigma toward mental illness, particularly for youth audiences [ 11 ].

Traditional health education at the bedside only works, however, if patients enter healthcare systems in the first place. Underserved populations who tend to not seek care may therefore be better reached though community-based methods [ 12 , 13 ]. For youth, K-12 classrooms represent a unique community platform in health intervention due to the significant amount of time youth spend in school [ 14 ]. Yet, there is insufficient evidence for efficacy of school-based anti-stigma programming pertaining to mental illness [ 15 ]. Interventions targeting youth with mental illness or at high risk for developing mental illness are rare and comparatively unstudied. Lack of research evidence in this space is a priority, as it contributes to care fragmentation. Translational research is necessary to bridge the gap from bedside to curbside for the most vulnerable children and adolescents [ 16 ]. The study herein presents preliminary results from a school-based anti-stigma intervention in mental health piloted by one such translational program called Integrated Science Education Outreach (InSciEd Out).

The InSciEd Out framework

InSciEd Out [ 17 ] is an intracurricular partnership that connects K-12 teachers with scientists and other health professionals to design school-based units targeting salient health topics. These units give real world context to selected state standards taught in the classroom and replace previous curricula targeting these standards. Under this novel framework, a foundation of science excellence for all students [ 18 , 19 ] is extended to address student learning related to health, disseminating health education into the community. Because of this, InSciEd Out is a truly translational program that capitalizes upon longitudinal community engagement to help test, interpret, implement, and assess the impact of knowledge. These data transfer elements address a spectrum of translational science aimed toward behavioral changes and improved public health [ 20 ].

The InSciEd Out program is a community-based participatory research model where health topics of focus are chosen in collaboration with partnering schools and their community leaders. Selected teacher partners undergo a 12-day scientific and pedagogical internship before collaborating to design, implement, and assess their health-focused units. One key aspect of the produced lessons is that students are encouraged to be active creators rather than passive consumers of knowledge. This student-driven inquiry is at the heart of the health literacy that InSciEd Out fosters. Clinically-focused interventions using InSciEd Out’s health-related curricula are called prescription education [ 21 ] and are driven in part by the KAB health model. InSciEd Out’s mental health arm consequently seeks to improve attitudes and downstream behaviors toward mental illness through addressing mental health literacy.

Longitudinal study of InSciEd Out reveals sustained gains in science literacy, demonstrating capability of InSciEd Out-facilitated knowledge transfer [ 19 ]. An initial assessment of prescription education in influenza-focused curriculum found improvements in unprompted knowledge of preventative behaviors [ 21 ].

Study design

This pilot study presents findings from the inaugural run of InSciEd Out prescription education curriculum in mental health. Its quasi-experimental design follows a single cohort of seventh and eighth grade students at an InSciEd Out partner public alternative school in the Midwestern U.S. While alternative education is a broad term encompassing all nontraditional educational programming [ 22 ], the study school here voluntarily admits its ~ 350 students (grades 7–12) based on entrance criteria that include potential chemical dependence or mental health issues. These students are “at-risk” youth, defined as youth with diagnosed/diagnosable mental illness or who have a high likelihood of developing mental illness.

The intervention was a 20-day anti-stigma classroom experience in the 2015–2016 school year. Intervention lessons replaced non-mental health focused lessons addressing selected state standards in science, math, and language arts. The intervention unit culminated with mentored science research projects based on student-driven questions in mental health. One highlight of this curriculum was its integration of biogenetic explanations of mental illness with broader social and cultural context through a combination of education and contact programming (Table  1 ).

Table 1

Lesson components and target concepts

The InSciEd Out mental health unit in this study first built a foundation of knowledge in mental health before facilitating student exploration of mental health topics with personal relevance

Assessing student outcomes

This case study was hypothesis-generating by design due to its novel population. Nevertheless, it aimed to test the premise that students undergoing InSciEd Out mental health curriculum exhibit pre–post increases in mental health literacy, decreases in mental illness stigmatization, and increases in hypothetical mental health help-seeking behavioral intentions. Study metrics were chosen to align with the KAB theoretical framework. Classroom activities and student surveys were administered pre–post intervention. Pilot status, novelty, and lack of a comparable partner school drove the decision to not recruit an external control.

Misconceptions activity

A curriculum-embedded activity on mental health misconceptions used anonymous student polling to assess preliminary, cohort-level mental health literacy. Anonymous cohort polling precluded matched analyses. The activity incorporated ten misconceptions assembled from websites of repute [ 23 – 26 ] grouped into three categories, covering mental illness: (1) being fictitious, irrelevant, and caused by personal weakness (generally and specifically for substance use and depression); (2) having no recovery and no prevention; and (3) causing patients to be violent/unpredictable, be unintelligent, and need separation in healthcare.

Mental health surveys

Three previously published and validated adolescent surveys totaling 28 questions were selected to assess mental health knowledge, stigmatization, and help-seeking behavioral intentions. Reliability and validity testing were not completed in the study population due to restricted sample size and lack of a comparable population for validation.

There is no gold standard mental health knowledge inventory, particularly for youth. Here the study used the Westbrook Mental Health Knowledge Test (WMHKT) , a 13-question, true/false/not sure survey on knowledge of generalized mental health [ 27 ]. Analysis primarily concerned correctness of response without distinguishing between incorrect and “not sure” responses.

To assess whether knowledge changes were accompanied by attitudinal change, the Adolescent Attribution Questionnaire (AQ - 8 - C) measured stigmatizing attitudes [ 27 , 28 ]. The AQ-8-C is the short-form, eight-question attribution questionnaire for assessment of public stigma. It measures stereotypes of blame, anger, pity, help, dangerousness, fear, avoidance, and segregation. Each question is rated on a 9-point Likert scale with question 7 (help) reverse coded. Higher scores indicate higher stigma, so pre–post change shows stigma reduction when negative. Primary analysis concerned overall stigma score with secondary analysis of each stereotype.

Lastly, the General Help - Seeking Questionnaire Vignette Version (GHSQ - V) was administered to assess whether knowledge and attitude changes extended to changes in intended behavioral modification. The GHSQ-V measures help-seeking intentions, health literacy, and perceived need for help [ 29 ]. Seven vignettes for different health conditions are posed, and respondents indicate their intention to seek help via 7-point Likert scales. Various help sources are queried for each scenario, and additional fields are provided for respondents to give a diagnosis (literacy) and to indicate whether they think the individual in the vignette needs help (perceived need). Preliminary analysis to generate a summative score for the GHSQ-V revealed highest scale reliability with exclusion of item I “would not see help” (Table  2 ). Missing responses were therefore filled in with the average value of responses in A–H (all other help sources) to facilitate total scoring. Help sources were not split into formal and informal sources due to small sample size and scale reliability. Analysis of fill-in responses for diagnoses accepted schizophrenia for psychosis, any reference to alcohol or drugs for substance misuse, and heart attack or stroke for heart disease.

Table 2

Creation of a summative score for the GHSQ-V

Cronbach’s alphas support exclusion of item “I” (reverse coded) to maximize scale reliability. Iterative reliability is calculated for the full scale and partial scales excluding each item. The option with highest reliability in each column is italicized

Teacher exit interviews

Semi-structured interviews were conducted post-curricular implementation with the two partner teachers to capture a larger narrative of student change. Questions were designed to explore teachers’ perceptions of (1) the curriculum, (2) metrics for assessing curricular effect, and (3) changes in student knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. Interviews were recorded and transcribed before primary coding by two independent coders. Resultant coding was compared and condensed into a final coding manual for secondary coding into emerging themes.

Statistical analyses

Of 19 eligible students, 14 assented to formal pre- and post-survey assessments. All participating teachers consented to interviews. Due to small sample size, primary results largely refer to changes in response distribution (average ± standard deviation, unless otherwise indicated). Effect sizes were calculated as Cohen’s d values from d = M post - M pre S D pooled , where S D pooled = S D pre 2 + S D post 2 2 . They are included for subscales for thoroughness but are subject to potentially low reliability and should be interpreted with caution. To supplement these descriptive statistics, inferential statistics were also conducted to provide a benchmark for future studies. Statistical tests were performed in JMP Pro 12 (2015). To be conservative, two-tailed p-values are reported. Misconceptions data was analyzed via Fisher’s exact test due to incompletely matched samples; average change in response on each survey inventory was assessed by Wilcoxon signed rank tests due to variable normality and small sample size.

Mental health knowledge

The classroom activity, surveys, and teacher interviews painted a narrative of curricular effects. First, the misconceptions activity showed significant elimination of student misconceptions of mental illness (Table  3 ). At baseline, at least one student present indicated agreement with every misconception posed besides separation. By post-evaluation, none of the students present still agreed with any of the misconceptions, demonstrating with statistical significance (χ 2 , p = 0.00–0.05) for four of the statements posed that the InSciEd Out curriculum lowered students’ mental health misconceptions. After Bonferroni correction, misconception elimination for statement 5 was still statistically significant.

Table 3

Mental illness misconceptions

Students eliminate mental illness misconceptions post-InSciEd Out curriculum. Statements with significant change are italicized, and the statement that remains significant under multiple comparisons adjustment is asterisked

Analysis of the Westbrook Mental Health Knowledge Test partially corroborated this trend toward gains in mental health literacy. There was a shift toward higher post-scores in the negative skewness of the data (Fig.  1 a). Individual item analysis of the number of students answering each question correctly (Fig.  1 b) revealed that the largest gains were in questions 2 (“mental illness is like other diseases because a person who has it has symptoms that a doctor can diagnose”) and 4 (“the brain of a healthy person works the same as that of a mentally ill person”). Conversely, students scored poorest on question 11, which asked if “depression is a disease.” Matched change showed a 0.43 ± 2.59 increase in overall mental health knowledge from pre- (8.14 ± 2.07, median 8) to post- (8.57 ± 2.71, median 9.5) that was not statistically significant with an effect size of d = 0.18. GHSQ-V vignette identification was variable at baseline (stressed = 7%; psychosis = 21%; heart disease = 21%; anxiety = 29%; suicidal = 36%; depression = 43%; substance = 64%) and comparable at post-evaluation, excepting improvement in depression recognition (+ 36%).

Westbrook Mental Health Knowledge Test. Students trend toward gains in mental health knowledge on the Westbrook Mental Health Knowledge Test post-intervention. Pre-scores are white; post-scores are grey; dotted lines indicate maximum possible score; “+” is the mean. a Cumulative score distribution. b Number of correct student responses, out of 14 eligible students, for each question

Mental illness stigmatization

The AQ-8-C extended results in knowledge to attitudinal shifts. Analysis revealed low baseline stigma that remained largely unchanged (Fig.  2 a). This low baseline left nearly no room for stigma decrease post-intervention. Stigma was particularly low for the items of blame, segregation, and anger. The largest changes were seen in constructs of pity (− 0.86 ± 3.18) and help (1.21 ± 2.19) (Fig.  2 b). Students scored 17.14 ± 4.80 pre- and 16.79 ± 4.79 post- for a matched stigma reduction of 0.36 ± 4.68 and an effect size of d = − 0.07 (Table  4 ). Effect sizes for individual stereotypes are provided in Table  4 for completeness but were heavily influenced by floor effects.

Adolescent Attribution Questionnaire. Student stigma is low at baseline and remains largely unchanged post-intervention. Pre-scores are white; post-scores are grey; dotted lines indicate minimum and maximum possible score; “+” is the mean. a Cumulative score distribution. b Score distribution for each of the different domains measured

Table 4

Adolescent Attribution Questionnaire (AQ-8-C)

Student stigma is low at baseline and remains largely unchanged post-intervention

Mental health help-seeking intentions

Ultimately, behavioral change is the outcome with highest clinical relevance. GHSQ-V data showed student responses trending toward increased hypothetical help-seeking intentions (Fig.  3 ). Responses became more centralized post-intervention with particular shortening of the interquartile range in the suicidal, substance, and psychosis vignettes. This regression to the mean is likely more representative of actual behavior and important for students who previously indicated a strong reluctance to seek help. Although none of the post-intervention changes were statistically significant under conservative two-tailed analyses, results in depression (Wilcoxon signed rank p = 0.12; d = 0.48) and psychosis (Wilcoxon signed rank p = 0.11; d = 0.53) approached statistical significance with additional small to medium effects in anxiety d = 0.24 and substance misuse d = 0.43 (Table  5 ). There appeared to be a general shift toward health help-seeking overall with a medium pre–post effect size for heart disease (d = 0.56). Perceived treatment need was high at baseline (79–100%) and remained largely unchanged post-intervention (86–100%).

General Help-Seeking Questionnaire: Vignette Version. Students trend toward more centralized or increased help-seeking post-intervention. Pre-scores are white; post-scores are grey; dotted lines indicate minimum and maximum possible score; “+” is the mean

Table 5

General Help-Seeking Questionnaire Vignette Version

Students improve hypothetical help-seeking intentions post-InSciEd Out curriculum

Overall, the teachers reported positive perceptions of the unit and of their students’ outcomes. The mental health content was relevant, and lessons with active inquiry were especially well received. In retrospect, surveys were not perceived to be the ideal source of data collection, particularly for a population of “reluctant learners” with “years and years of school failure.” One suggestion for future data collection was to conduct interviews with individual students to assemble a student-driven narrative. The teachers felt this might be a more sensitive metric of student growth.

Teachers reported numerous changes in student behaviors post-curricular implementation. Generally, the curriculum elicited high student participation. There were noted improvements to student willingness to risk their voice, both when talking about mental health and when presenting classwork to community members, teachers, and peers. Students were perceived to now have a common language to converse about mental health and consequently shared first/second-hand experiences more openly. Teacher 1 stated: “We would never hear [the students…] in the other years, or even at the beginning of the year […], own what they had,” but “because now they understand that these things all [fall] under mental illness, […] they [are] more willing to accept that that’s what they [have]. There [isn’t] that negative stigma attached to it.” Teacher 2 reported that students post-unit are “more tolerant of their classmates who have issues” while simultaneously encouraging peers to “do something” by seeking help. The teachers reported beliefs that their students now have a better idea of when to seek help for their mental health.

These preliminary findings show three trends meriting future study. First, at-risk adolescents may fundamentally differ from their peers. Baseline mental health literacy was significantly higher in this sample (8.14 ± 2.07) when compared to that of a previously published [ 27 ], general middle school population (6.87 ± 2.30) (GraphPad unpaired t-test p = 0.04; Table  6 ). Stigmatization was also lower in this at-risk cohort. One explanation could be prior exposure to the mental health system. Another rationale could be that there is a dimension of stigma unmeasured by the AQ-8-C. Establishing baseline literacy and stigma in this unique adolescent population is important, both to shed light on how to decrease care fragmentation and to tailor future health interventions to the needs of this vulnerable group.

Table 6

Reformatted Westbrook Mental Health Knowledge Test for Comparison

Students improve their mental health knowledge on the Westbrook Mental Health Knowledge Test post-intervention. A detailed percentage breakdown is given here for ease of comparability to previous studies

Second, despite low inventory-reported stigma, teacher interviews suggest stigma remains a barrier for at-risk youth. More sensitive metrics, perhaps through individual interviews, are needed to better capture these students’ stories. This adolescent cohort may share more openly in venues prioritizing verbal communication, especially given positive reception to lessons involving open dialogue, project-based learning, and oral presentations. Clever data capture designed to be minimally invasive has the potential to draw out rich stories that cannot be easily gleaned from more traditional methods.

Lastly, this case study demonstrates potential feasibility and acceptability of curricular-based, anti-stigma mental health interventions for at-risk youth. This is an area of research that is sorely lacking in the current evidence base. Preliminary trends toward efficacy in mental health promotion make school-based partnerships a potentially efficient platform for health education dissemination. Mental well-being during childhood and adolescence is often inextricably tied to academic success. As such, schools have a vested interest in fostering open discourse about mental health amongst their students.

This pilot study is limited by its single cohort design and small sample size of a vulnerable population. To minimize risk, teacher exit interviews were conducted in lieu of student interviews, and actual student help-seeking behavior was not measured. An external control was not employed due to the preliminary nature of this study, the school-specific implementation of mental health curriculum, and lack of a comparable peer cohort. Random assignment was likewise not possible given the classroom environment, as InSciEd Out lessons are embedded into existent curricula. Future directions will work toward sample size enlargement facilitating recruitment of an external control, which will aid psychometric testing of existent tools and development of new assessment tools. In addition to this, upcoming studies will work with clinical partners to capture measures of actual student help-seeking behavior. Study metrics will also be monitored longitudinally with follow-up for retention.

The pilot case study herein underscores the utility and potential of school-based mental health promotion efforts, particularly through InSciEd Out’s community-based framework. Targeted improvements in mental health literacy and moderate improvements in help-seeking intentions were accompanied by large decreases in mental health misconceptions. Inventory-reported stigma was low and largely unchanged. Nevertheless, teacher observations suggested anecdotal evidence of increased student self-identification with mental health diagnoses, openness to share, and peer acceptance.

Early and effective intervention is an undervalued tool for preventing or mitigating the negative, long-term consequences of poor health. Improved mental health for all can only be realized if affected individuals and their social support structures have sufficient literacy to recognize and understand mental illness, at least at a basic level. A necessary byproduct of this understanding is that stigma toward mental illness needs to decrease, or become eliminated, such that help-seeking is the norm rather than the exception. As such, anti-stigma interventions deserve heavy focus, particularly in high-risk populations. The students in this study represent a segment of general adolescents with demonstrated need for mental health promotion efforts. Although this study’s sample size is small, it is enriched for youth with increased risk of developing mental health issues. These students are difficult to reach in general K-12 populations and represent an underserved segment of adolescents.

Although care must always be exercised when working with vulnerable populations, community programming can no longer ignore at-risk youth simply because such studies are difficult to design and execute. Translational research pushing bedside to curbside has potential to give voice to the experiences and needs of this unique cohort in pursuit of improved mental health for all.

Authors’ contributions

JY headed study design, data collection, data analysis, and drafting of this work. RLC coded transcripts for interview data analysis and aided with critical manuscript revision. SJT, SCE and CP contributed to conception and design of the study and critical revision of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Acknowledgements

Thanks go to Madeleine E.M. Hammerlund for her help in administration of the mental health surveys, Dr. Ashok Kumbamu for his review of the semi-structured interview questions and insight into qualitative coding methodology, and Thomas J. LaBounty for his statistical guidance. Additional thanks go out to InSciEd Out team members and especially to the alternative school teacher partners for their support of this project.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Availability of data and materials

Consent for publication.

Consent was obtained from the teachers to utilize quotes from their interviews anonymously.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The survey and interview portions of this study were approved by the Mayo Clinic Institutional Review Board (IRB) with a waiver of informed parental consent under 45CFR46.116. Classroom data in the misconceptions activity was also collected under normal program evaluation in a study declared exempt by the Mayo Clinic IRB.

This publication was made possible in part by CTSA Grant Number UL1 TR000135 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official view of the NIH. Additional funding for this work was provided through philanthropic support of InSciEd Out through the Mayo Clinic Office of Development. JY’s graduate studies were supported in part by the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program. RLC’s position in the Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP) is supported in part by NIH grant R25 GM 75148 and SCE’s NIH R01 grant 5R01HG006431. RLC is now at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, and JY is with Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Abbreviations

Contributor information.

Joanna Yang, Email: [email protected] .

Roberto Lopez Cervera, Email: ude.nmu@729zepol .

Susannah J. Tye, Email: [email protected] .

Stephen C. Ekker, Email: [email protected] .

Chris Pierret, Phone: 507-293-0814, Email: [email protected] .

• Program Finder
• Admissions Services
• Course Directory
• Academic Calendar
• Hybrid Campus
• Lecture Series
• Convocation
• Strategy and Development
• Implementation and Impact
• Integrity and Oversight
• In the School
• In the Field
• In Baltimore
• Resources for Practitioners
• Articles & News Releases
• In The News
• Statements & Announcements
• At a Glance
• Student Life
• Strategic Priorities
• Inclusion, Diversity, Anti-Racism, and Equity (IDARE)
• What is Public Health?

Hidden Food Insecurity: The Adolescents Who Aren’t Getting Enough to Eat

Adolescents often miss out on the benefits of food programs that tend to target adults and younger kids.

Lindsay Smith Rogers

In 2022, 17 million U.S. households faced  food insecurity , meaning that they were unable to acquire sufficient food for everyone in the home. Several federal programs provide resources to bridge the gap, yet they often miss a key group: youth ages 14–18, who need more calories than younger kids.

In this Q&A, adapted from the  March 6 episode of  Public Health On Call , adolescent health researcher  Kristin Mmari , DrPH, MA, talks about the long-term impacts being hungry can have on young people and why most programs aimed at relieving food insecurity don’t help this age group. Mmari, an associate professor in  Population, Family and Reproductive Health , also rebuts false claims that nutrition assistance programs contribute to childhood obesity.

What exactly is food insecurity?

Food insecurity is when a person lacks access to nutritious food for normal growth and development. This may be caused by either unavailability of food or a lack of resources to obtain food.

There are different levels of food insecurity, from moderate to more severe food insecurity. When someone is severely food insecure, that means that they have maybe not eaten for the whole day. They’re hungry. But even those with moderate food insecurity may have to sacrifice some things to get food, and they may also not be getting the most nutritious foods. As you know, highly processed foods are usually cheaper.

How common is this in the US?

It’s very common in low-income households. It hasn’t been researched as much among adolescents compared to adults or children. Estimates are that it’s very high, but it’s also hidden. When I first looked into this about four or five years ago, it was largely unknown among adolescents.

But when we started interviewing adolescents in Baltimore, it was very common. In fact, just in our small sample, 53% were food insecure. And a third of those were severely food insecure. It’s something adolescents don’t like to discuss; many adolescents said that admitting that they’re hungry or food insecure is almost the worst thing that they can admit.

What age range do you use to define adolescence?

Adolescence is typically 10–19-year-olds, as defined by the World Health Organization. In our study, we looked at 14–18-year-olds. Other studies have looked at the full range, but we’ve found that among children that have food insecurity issues, the older an adolescent is, the more likely they are to be food insecure.

Why does food insecurity uniquely impact adolescents?

It hits adolescents differently because they’re in a critical period of development where they’re actively growing, their brains are expanding, their metabolic rates are increasing—all kinds of changes are happening to their bodies. And it’s at this moment when they have a need for more calories.

This isn’t often considered in terms of the whole food insecurity issue. When we talk about food assistance programs, we typically think of families with younger children. A lot of food pantries are geared to them. But we don’t associate adolescents with food insecurity.

There’s been some recent research linking food insecurity to a number of behavioral problems and problems with learning and academic achievement. If you can imagine adolescents in school who don’t have their caloric requirements met, you can imagine that their learning is going to be affected. A wide variety of other health outcomes are impacted as well.

Can you talk about some of those other health outcomes?

Some studies have linked adolescent food insecurity with cognitive issues, obesity, diabetes, and other outcomes like substance use and even sexual risk behaviors. For the study we did a few years ago, we conducted focus groups with adolescents. One of the things that was so heartbreaking to hear was that in all six of the Baltimore neighborhoods where we did these focus groups, girls described having to engage in transactional sex to get money to pay for food. It was very common.

Boys, meanwhile, would engage in basically “anything,” as they said. If you think of the “squeegee kids” [who wash windshields at intersections for money]—a lot of them mentioned doing that to get money for food. They said that was easier than going to places like food pantries, where they were often judged and people didn’t seem to want them there.

What about federal programs, like SNAP benefits? Why are adolescents falling through the gaps?

There are a number of reasons. For one, we have to look at how the SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] benefits are calculated. SNAP benefits are tied to the USDA’s Thrifty Food Plan , which accounts for what would be a nutritious meal at a minimum price for four individuals in a family: a man and a woman, ages 20–60, a child ages 6–8, and another child ages 9–11. That calculation doesn’t include adolescents over that age who need more calories.

The other thing is that the benefits go to the head of the household. And in many low-income households, while adolescents aren’t called the head of the household, they are actually the ones responsible for many of the family's food needs. Many adolescents we spoke to were having to shop for food, yet they don’t have the benefits that come with SNAP debit cards. It’s rare that the household head gives them the cards to purchase food. They have the responsibility without these benefits, essentially.

You did this study of groups within Baltimore. Tell us a little bit more about what you found.

Just recently, during the COVID pandemic, we conducted a study to look at the impact of three different types of federal food assistance programs during the pandemic. We worked with the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development and Support Services in Baltimore City to recruit 284 adolescents. 

In a nutshell, we found that for adolescents, there really was no association between these additional benefits offered during the pandemic and food insecurity. 

In another part of the study, we asked adolescents themselves what they think they need to be able to deal with food insecurity. I think the most common answer was that they felt SNAP benefits need to increase. Many of the adolescents also felt that they should be given the benefits directly. We talked with policymakers, and they didn’t feel that that would go over well because we often think of adolescents as not being the most responsible. That’s the typical stereotype. But in fact, like I said before, these are adolescents who are often, in many ways, the most responsible in their households for getting food. So I think there is kind of that misconception out there.

I read that legislators across the U.S. are cutting these food programs. One of them cited childhood obesity as a reason to not give people access to programs that might help alleviate food insecurity. What do you have to say about that?

There is actually a link between food insecurity and obesity, and I think there needs to be more research to look at that. We all know that healthy food is much more expensive, especially in low-income neighborhoods. It’s no wonder that if the only choices are highly processed foods, there may be an obesity link. If anything, that exemplifies the problem even more.

What opportunities are there for solutions?

One of my colleagues, Kaitlyn Harper , has been working with young people in Baltimore on this issue and has implemented an online food pantry where adolescents can purchase foods. Another thing we’re thinking of trying is going through Instacart, where we can load up like a card, almost like a SNAP benefit card, and adolescents can choose and purchase foods that way. We’d like to do a study to see if adolescents purchase healthy food. What do they purchase? How often do they use it? And ultimately, does it reduce food insecurity? 

But there’s more than that. The neighborhood where you live makes a big difference in terms of accessing food. I’m also really interested in community gardening and urban farming and the relationship of where those places are in relation to where adolescents live. There are a number of ideas to be examined. And young people are the ones who are the most informative because they know what works best for them, so we need to listen to them to learn which approaches work.

Lindsay Smith Rogers, MA, is the producer of the Public Health On Call podcast , an editor for Expert Insights , and the director of content strategy for the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. 

• How to Make Sure Food is Available in a Crisis
• Farmer Chippy Cultivates Hope
• Bloomberg School Faculty Lead New Project to Improve WIC Enrollment

Related Content

Student Spotlight: Glendedora Dolce

Study Estimates Nearly 70 Percent of Children Under Six in Chicago May Be Exposed to Lead-Contaminated Tap Water

Wendy Bennett Empowers Women and Families Through Research 

Sydney Santos Nurtures Health Equity

Student Spotlight: Bee-Ah Kang

Supreme Court: Bar exam will no longer be required to become attorney in Washington State

The bar exam will no longer be required to become a lawyer in Washington, the state Supreme Court ruled in a pair of orders Friday.

The court approved alternative ways to show competency and earn a law license after appointing a task force to examine the issue in 2020.

The Bar Licensure Task Force found that the traditional exam “disproportionally and unnecessarily blocks” marginalized groups from becoming practicing attorneys and is “at best minimally effective” for ensuring competency, according to a news release from the Washington Administrative Office of the Courts.

Washington is the second state to not require the bar exam, following Oregon, which implemented the change at the start of this year . Other states, including Minnesota, Nevada, South Dakota and Utah, are examining alternative pathways to licensure.

“These recommendations come from a diverse body of lawyers in private and public practice, academics, and researchers who contributed immense insight, counterpoints and research to get us where we are today,” Washington Supreme Court Justice Raquel Montoya-Lewis, who chaired the task force, said in a statement. “With these alternative pathways, we recognize that there are multiple ways to ensure a competent, licensed body of new attorneys who are so desperately needed around the state.”

There will be three experiential-learning alternatives to the bar exam, each for people following a different path of legal study. The specifics, scale and implementation plan for the pathways have yet to be developed.

Law school graduates can complete a six-month apprenticeship while being supervised and guided by a qualified attorney, along with finishing three courses.

Law students can become practice-ready by completing 12 qualifying skills credits and 500 hours of work as a licensed legal intern. Upon completion of those requirements, they would submit a portfolio of that work to waive the bar exam.

Typically, students will complete an internship between their second and third years of law school, gaining about 400 hours of experience, according to the task force’s report. Then, if they do about three hours a week of legal work through their final year of law school, students could have 500 hours of experience upon graduation, leaving the portfolio to complete before licensure.

Lastly, law clerks can become lawyers without enrolling in law school by completing standardized educational materials and benchmarks under the guidance of a mentoring attorney, along with the 500 hours of work as a licensed legal intern.

While people always have been able to study law under another attorney, then become licensed themselves by taking the bar exam, this new pathway creates standardized education materials and removes the examination requirement.

Gonzaga School of Law Dean Jacob Rooksby said he is supportive of alternative pathways but hopes they will be implemented at a smaller scale first.

“I’m on board with it in concept,” Rooksby said. “The devil is in the details.”

The pathway for law students supposes that law schools will be involved in some level, Rooksby said. It’s unclear how that will impact Gonzaga at this point, he said.

“I urged that we move in this direction cautiously and viewing it almost as a case study or a trial to see: How could the different schools implement it but in a small scale?” he said.

He proposed allowing no more than 5% of an incoming class to pursue the experiential pathway at first until the profession can gauge interest from students and employers. Rooksby also has some concerns that this pathway would be of particular interest to people with family connections in the legal field, which likely wouldn’t be contributing to the goal of diversifying the profession.

He hopes for “guardrails” so that the goal of increasing diversity and meeting legal needs in marginalized communities is met.

Rooksby expects the earliest an alternative pathway process could be implemented at Gonzaga would be in 2025.

The Supreme Court called for the investigation and adoption of assessments and programs to help ensure lawyers remain competent throughout their careers, not just at initial licensure.

These changes are in addition to Washington adopting the new National Conference of Bar Examiners’ NextGen bar exam, which focuses more on practice and real-world skills. That exam will be implemented in summer 2026.

The court also lowered the bar exam minimum passing score from 270 to 266, a reduction previously made during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rooskby said first-year students at Gonzaga would be taking the new exam, and the school has begun working on an adjusted curriculum. He’s happy the exam focuses more on practical skills than the traditional standardized test memorization.

“The combination of adopting the NextGen bar exam and lowering the score are positive steps to close the access to justice rate that we have in Washington state and other states have as well,” he said.

The Washington State Bar Association will implement the changes. A timeline has yet to be set. The bar association did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The task force, made up of representatives from more than 30 groups and areas of practice, also examined the character and fitness process for lawyer licensure. The state Supreme Court plans to discuss and potentially make decisions on the task force’s recommendations in that arena next month.

More health care happening outside the doctor’s office

Technology is redefining health care and it’s not only cutting-edge surgical treatments and advances in important routine screenings like mammograms.

Blog The Education Hub

https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2024/03/22/what-to-do-if-you-think-your-child-has-measles-and-when-to-keep-them-off-school/

What to do if you think your child has measles and when to keep them off school

Cases of measles are rising across England, including among children. It’s an infection that spreads very easily and for some people can cause serious problems.

There’s no specific medical treatment for measles, so it’s important to get vaccinated as it’s the best protection against becoming seriously unwell.

The measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine is one of the  routine childhood vaccinations,  so most children are already vaccinated against measles. If your child has received both doses of the vaccine, they are unlikely to have the virus.

Here, we explain everything you need to know about the rise in measles cases, from getting your child vaccinated to when to keep them off  school .

What are the symptoms of measles?

Measles usually starts with cold-like symptoms (cough, runny nose), a high temperature, and red, sore, watery eyes (conjunctivitis), followed by a rash a few days later. The rash looks brown or red on white skin. It may be harder to see on brown and black skin.

The rash typically starts on the face and behind the ears before spreading to the rest of the body. Some people may also get small white spots (Koplik spots) in their mouth.

Find out more on the  NHS website .

What should you do if you think your child has measles? 

If a child has been vaccinated, it is highly unlikely they have measles.

You should ask for an urgent GP appointment or get help from NHS 111 if you think you or your child may have measles.

Don’t go to the GP or any other healthcare setting without calling ahead first to prevent the further spread of measles.

If your child has been diagnosed with measles by a doctor, they should stay off nursery or school for at least 4 full days from when the rash first appears.

They should also avoid close contact with babies and anyone who is pregnant or has a weakened immune system.

What is the best way to protect against measles?

The best protection against measles for children and adults is to get both doses of the MMR vaccine.

Children are offered a vaccine free on the NHS at 12-months-old and then a second dose when they turn 3-years-and-4-months-old.

But you can catch up at any age – if you or your child haven’t yet been vaccinated, you should contact your GP practice to book a free appointment.

Two doses of the MMR vaccine offer lifelong protection against measles.

In the UK, we have 2 MMR vaccines which work very well. One of them contains porcine gelatine and the other one doesn’t. If anyone would prefer to have the vaccine that does not contain gelatine, they can talk to their practice nurse or GP.

Cold-like symptoms can be an early sign of measles. Should you still send your child to school?

If your child has been vaccinated, it’s very unlikely that they have measles.

School attendance  is vitally important to your child’s learning and health.

According to the NHS, it’s fine to send your child to school with a minor cough or common cold, provided they don’t have a temperature.

When should you keep your child off school or nursery and how long for?

If your child has measles, they should stay off nursery or school for the entire infectious period (4 days before the rash first appears and for at least 4 full days from when the rash first appears where the date the rash appears is day 0). They should avoid close contact with babies and anyone who is pregnant or has a weakened immune system.

Your child can go back to their education or childcare setting once they feel well and following the completion of the 4 day period after the rash first appears.

If your child is unvaccinated against measles and is a close contact of a measles case (for instance a sibling), the health protection team may advise that your child should remain off school or nursery for a number of days to reduce the spread of meases. The number of days will vary on the circumstances. The best way to protect your child from measles and ensure they can continue to attend school is to ensure they have both doses of the MMR vaccine.

If you’re not sure whether your child is due a vaccination or has missed a vaccination, you can check their Red Book or contact your GP practice.

If your child has missed their first or second dose of MMR vaccine, you should contact your GP practice to book an appointment.

Should you keep your child off school if another pupil has been diagnosed with measles?

Your child should continue to attend school if another pupil has been diagnosed with measles as long as they have no symptoms and have not been advised otherwise by the Health Protection Team or GP.

Most children will be protected against measles  if they have had both their MMR vaccinations.

The local Health Protection Team will work with the school or setting to advise on further action.

What should I do if I can’t get a GP appointment and I suspect measles?

Ask for an urgent GP appointment or get help from NHS 111, let them know you suspect measles.

Measles can spread to others easily. Call your GP surgery before you go in. They may suggest talking over the phone.

You can also call 111 or  get help from 111 online .

The child or staff member should not attend the education or childcare setting until they have received advice.

Can I still get my child vaccinated even if they’re older? 

Yes. Anyone who has not had 2 doses of the MMR vaccine should ask their GP surgery for a vaccination appointment.

It’s best to have vaccines on time, but you can still catch up on most vaccines if you miss them. Two doses of the vaccine are needed to ensure full protection.

For schools, nurseries and other education settings

What should education settings do if they have a suspected or confirmed measles case.

If an education setting is told that a child or staff member has seen their doctor in person and been diagnosed with measles, the setting should contact the UKHSA Health Protection Team so that they can investigate and support as required. If measles is suspected by the GP or healthcare professional, they will also notify the UKHSA Health Protection Team, who may then reach out if there is a setting associated with the case.

Education and childcare settings are not expected to diagnose cases, and parents or carers do not need to contact the health protection team. If parents, carers, or staff are concerned that they or a child have symptoms, they should contact their doctor or NHS111. They should alert the surgery or other healthcare setting of symptoms before attending any appointment to prevent the further spread of measles.

How should schools code measles absences?

For confirmed cases, schools should continue to use usual register codes for absence due to illness.

If a child needs to isolate following public health advice, the most appropriate code is likely to be an absence authorised by the school (code C).

As part of its planned changes to the attendance system, the Government is establishing a new register code to cover absences due to public health guidance.

The new code is planned to take effect from September 2024.

Will the Department for Education and Ofsted take measles absences into account when reviewing the attendance statistics for schools?

Schools play a vital role in improving attendance, but not all factors influencing attendance are in their control.

Ofsted will take these factors into account. Schools should demonstrate that they’re doing all they can to achieve the highest possible attendance, even if their attendance numbers are lower than previously.

What advice should special schools follow? Is there any additional advice for pupils who may be more vulnerable to exposure to measles?

Special schools and settings should also follow the  UKHSA guidance .

The Health Protection Team will carry out a risk assessment of the situation based on the information provided.

They will ask the education setting to share information to help them understand the size and nature of the outbreak and the vaccination status of pupils, and advise on any recommended actions.

The MMR vaccine is the safest and most effective way to protect yourself against measles, mumps, and rubella.

What advice is there for staff who might be more vulnerable, for example if they’re pregnant or unvaccinated?

Measles is a viral infection that spreads very easily and can cause severe illness, especially in certain groups including babies, small children, pregnant women, and people with weak immunity.

For adults, it is never too late to catch up on any missed MMR vaccinations. People should contact their GP practice to book an appointment.

Anyone considering getting pregnant should make sure that they are protected by having two doses of the MMR vaccine before they become pregnant.  Unvaccinated pregnant people should make sure they are vaccinated soon after the baby is born, to protect them during future pregnancies. As a precaution, the MMR vaccine is not recommended for pregnant women. This is because it is a live vaccine.

If you’re pregnant and you have been in close contact with someone who has measles, you should ask for an urgent GP appointment or get help from NHS 111.

A staff member isn’t sure if they’ve had the MMR vaccine and their GP doesn’t have their vaccine records. Can they have another dose?

Anyone with an unknown vaccination history should ask their GP for a vaccine appointment. If your vaccine records are not available or do not exist it will not harm you to have the MMR vaccine again. Two doses of the MMR vaccine is the best protection against measles, mumps and rubella.

Are babies who are too young to be vaccinated protected?

Babies who are too young to be vaccinated are not protected from measles. It is still safe for children and babies who are too young to be vaccinated to attend nursery and early years setting, unless they have been advised otherwise by a health protection team or GP.

The best way to protect children under 1, who are more vulnerable, is by ensuring other children and members of the household are fully vaccinated with two doses of MMR. This significantly reduces the risk of them passing the virus onto the young child. Early education settings can help by promoting the importance of the MMR vaccine.

Are staff who aren’t vaccinated and have to stay off work on public health advice entitled to pay for this period?

Unvaccinated staff who have been in contact with measles cases may be asked to stay away from school or childcare settings for a number of days, based on a risk assessment by the Health Protection Team.

The Department for Education has no remit over sick pay, which is at the discretion of the school.

Some useful links to guidance and resources:

The Department for Education hosted a national webinar on the increase in measles cases, with speakers from UK Health Security Agency, the NHS, and school leaders with recent experience of dealing with a measles outbreak. The webinar covered information on measles, current epidemiology, the importance of the MMR vaccine and how to get it, and how to manage cases and outbreaks in educational settings. View this here.

Measles - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

Supporting immunisation programmes - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Managing outbreaks and incidents - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

UKHSA resources for settings:

• Measles: protect yourself, protect others leaflet
• Measles: don’t let your child catch it poster
• Measles: don’t let your child catch it flyer (with translations)
• Thinking of getting pregnant leaflet (German measles or rubella)
• MMR, MenACWY and coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine comms toolkit for universities  helping to protect students from vaccine preventable infectious diseases.

Copies of printed publications and the full range of digital resources to support the immunisation programmes can be ordered through the  health publications  platform.

You may also be interested in:

• How to protect against measles – vaccines for school pupils
• What are the latest rules around COVID-19 in schools, colleges, nurseries and other education settings?
• Vaccines for students: how to get up to date

Tags: measles , Measles symptoms , mmr , MMR vaccine , UKHSA guidance , Vaccine against measles

Sharing and comments

Share this page, related content and links, about the education hub.

The Education Hub is a site for parents, pupils, education professionals and the media that captures all you need to know about the education system. You’ll find accessible, straightforward information on popular topics, Q&As, interviews, case studies, and more.

Please note that for media enquiries, journalists should call our central Newsdesk on 020 7783 8300. This media-only line operates from Monday to Friday, 8am to 7pm. Outside of these hours the number will divert to the duty media officer.

Members of the public should call our general enquiries line on 0370 000 2288.

Sign up and manage updates

Follow us on social media, search by date, comments and moderation policy.

Suggestions

• PowerMatch AmpLink 24-channel input card
• PowerMatch Dante network card
• PowerShareX PSX1204D
• PowerShare PS604D

Top Results

CASE STUDY – EDUCATION | MIDDLEBOROUGH HIGH SCHOOL

Select…

ABOUT THE PROJECT

With $100 million dedicated to the rebuild of Massachusetts’ Middleborough High School, the transformation is noted as the largest renovation the school district has ever seen. The new and improved school was built with a noble purpose — to engage each student with an innovative, 21st century learning experience. The building and campus have been completely transformed with 165,000 square feet of academic-focused construction and an on-site athletic facility complete with a stadium supporting a variety of sporting activities. This includes a three-story academic wing; a health and fitness wing complete with a gymnasium, fitness and weight room; and a third wing housing the performing arts that is inclusive of an auditorium, black box theater, television production studio, and an area for both band and choral programs.

The school wanted the auditorium to be used for not only students and teachers, but also community members. To exceed these goals, the school needed to provide a sound system that could keep up with the diverse activities planned for this space. The original auditorium fell short of meeting the high school’s needs with a claustrophobic, unwelcoming layout utilizing dated technology and equipment. Since auditoriums are the heart of a school where the community can come together for a shared activity, Middleborough High School envisioned a space that would fulfill that purpose and truly embody its culture

Sean Siciliano, coordinator of district technology for Middleborough High School, explained that their auditorium will be used for more than just high school performances. It would be a flexible venue designed for a variety of activities, such as plays, concerts, assemblies and town hall meetings. Additionally, the events not only provide the community with the capability to gather and entertain, but also opportunities to prepare students for the future through student-supported AV activities working the advanced equipment.

THE BOSE PROFESSIONAL SOLUTION

Given the magnitude of the construction project, the school brought in consulting firm 3Si to focus on the design of the auditorium and Pro AV Systems and Levangie Electric to develop and install a sound system that would engulf every attendee with superior quality and clarity. The school now has a completely transformed multiuse venue with a spacious 750-person seating capacity outfitted with a customized Bose Professional solution.

The full digital audio mixer, complete with Dante technology, allowed the team to take advantage of limited wiring and network the technologies together for ultimate communication capabilities. For instance, administrators and student event workers can now talk to each other between the auditorium and TV studio, allowing for seamless event execution.

To provide concert-quality sound with a high level of scalability and configurability, a PowerMatch PM8500N power amplifier is paired with the ShowMatch SM10, SM20 and SM5 DeltaQ array loudspeakers for unsurpassed sound quality and vocal clarity. They finished the custom solution with the ShowMatch SMS118 subwoofer to extend the low frequency ranges.

“The Bose Professional system was the best purchase for us,” Siciliano commented. “Implementing AV technology was a way to empower our students and give them the opportunity to learn these advanced systems.”

Pro AV Systems’ Director of Bid Desk and Communications, Adrienne Blasioli, and Project Manager, Slade Forni, were pleased with the exceptional outcome of the design and technology advancements that met the learning objectives the school requested.

“The auditorium, in combination with the black box theater, is a showpiece where they can hold events, but it’s also a classroom space where kids can learn,” Blasioli said.

Forni added, “The Bose Professional team was very responsive, easy to work with and helpful throughout the process.”

The school moved into the building in April 2021 and wasted no time breaking in the space. The theater department hosted its first show in May, albeit with a limited audience due to social-distancing restrictions. As the school year progressed, they held their first school committee meeting in the auditorium and a scholarship event for seniors that summer. Being the largest, most technologically advanced and centrally located venue in town, the school now invites the community to take part in its school functions and can host external events, like the town hall meeting. The school is now able to serve its students, administration and community in a multi-functional space that invites a culture of performance, engagement and learning.

“The Bose Professional system was the best purchase for us … Implementing AV technology was a way to empower our students and give them the opportunity to learn these advanced systems.”

— Sean Siciliano Coordinator of District Technology Middleborough High School

PRO AV SYSTEMS

With more than 75 years of combined experience, Pro AV Systems is New England’s leading full-service audiovisual integrator well-versed and seasoned in a variety of different markets, to help clients design and engineer a system for a variety of applications. We work to develop efficient workspaces that will delight and astound. Whether it’s a one-touch video conferencing room or a full-scale auditorium AV system, we are the company to trust.

Middleborough High School Case Study