One kid’s trauma can be a lot to handle. Managing a whole school of kids who have been traumatized  can seem insurmountable. These kids are more likely to act out in class, have attendance problems, and get lower grades than their peers.

Michigan native Kim Kazmierczak has witnessed these behaviors first hand as the principal of Woodrow Wilson Middle School in Council Bluffs, Iowa. It’s a public school with just under 1,000 kids in grades 6-8 and 120 staff. 85% of Wilson's kids get free or reduced price lunch.

This is Iowa. There wasn't a war or some cataclysmic accident in the town. These kids were just poor, and more likely to have had the adverse experiences that add up to trauma. When Kazmierczak became principal three years ago, she had an average of 60 students a day sent to her office for acting out in class.

She started paying extra attention to these students. Instead of simply disciplining them, which didn’t seem to work anyway, Kazmierczak started doing something different: screening them for trauma. She had been to a conference on how adverse childhood experiences impact student learning, so she started implementing what’s called “trauma-sensitive strategies.” This means the school began to anticipate what these students’ needs were and set up a systematic way to support them.

It’s been incredibly successful, which is probably one reason why Kazmierczak was recognized as Iowa's 2015 Middle Level Principal of the Year. In just three years, Wilson has seen a 15% increase in student achievement and a 75% decrease in behavioral problems. Instead of 60 kids a day in the principal’s office, Kazmierczak now only sees about 3.  

For the rest of this story by Brittany Bartkowiak, go to: http://stateofopportunity.mich...s-pay-attention-iowa