Surveying student population

Hi, Christi -- The students at Lincoln High School in Walla Walla, WA, (of Paper Tigers fame) did their own ACE survey, and even added more questions. Science teacher Erik Gordon would be happy to answer questions. egordon@wwps.org

Michelle Flowers, principal at Martin Luther King, Jr., High School in Davis, CA, is starting to do the same. mflowers@djusd.net

Cheers, Jane

What're your goals here?

As a former educator and current Youth Advocate, I'd highly recommend a 2 gen approach to addressing ACES in your student population. The growing research surrounding ACES increasingly suggests that children who have high ACE scores (4 or more) have parents/caregivers with high ACE scores. Best practice is, now, commonly thought to be a 2 gen approach.

This may be daunting based upon your enrollment (2,050 students). I'd suggest trying to partner with your local children's hospital and/or local government health department in order to reach scale. Toward this end, an anonymous survey may help you "sell" this to your administration, parents, local partners, etc. 

You'll find this link and YouTube talks by Dr. Nadine Burke Harris extremely helpful. 

This is super important I think. Press on!

Ben.

And the link: https://centerforyouthwellness...building-a-movement/

I'm a school counselor for K-2 and have been wondering about how to survey younger students.

Also, wondering about parent permission and ethics.

Any ideas?

Chris Blodgett did some surveys of elementary students in Spokane. You might ask him what he used.

I am giving a presentation (teaching two classes actually) at a local high school in January. I wanted to give the ACE and have them fill it out anonymously. I'll have the counselors present the data later, after I leave since there is no way we'll be able to aggregate that data and present it after I speak. The purpose is to let other students know that others in the room suffer from trauma. That they are not alone. This particular population would be about 150 total. Which is doable by pencil/paper method. I have done this with questions before and the reaction by the students are often pretty astounding.

This is specifically a health science group of kids in high school and a diverse but intelligent student population. While I often speak on suicide and mental illness, this presentation will be more focused on drug use/abuse. When I keep everything I say within my personal story about my son who suffered from depression and addiction and died by suicide, I have  captive audience for 20 minutes. 

Ideally I'd like to use live software to aggregate the data live but these programs are cost prohibitive. 

I'm looking for which one page ACE survey to use for this. Is there more than one? (sorry but I'm a newb)

Hi, Anne: I'm copying my reply to Christ here, because it might be helpful to you:

Thank you. I will reach out to them. 

Ben Rosen posted:

What're your goals here?

As a former educator and current Youth Advocate, I'd highly recommend a 2 gen approach to addressing ACES in your student population. The growing research surrounding ACES increasingly suggests that children who have high ACE scores (4 or more) have parents/caregivers with high ACE scores. Best practice is, now, commonly thought to be a 2 gen approach.

 

This may be daunting based upon your enrollment (2,050 students). I'd suggest trying to partner with your local children's hospital and/or local government health department in order to reach scale. Toward this end, an anonymous survey may help you "sell" this to your administration, parents, local partners, etc. 

You'll find this link and YouTube talks by Dr. Nadine Burke Harris extremely helpful. 

This is super important I think. Press on!

 

Ben.

Thanks, Ben!  I agree re: importance.  The goal is to clarify how high-need our students and their families are in order to augment the services and training available.  Also, it would be very helpful in being able to show administration how integral being a trauma-informed school is to our students' success, in both their education and their futures!

Welcome!

Here's some helpful resource links:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ed...matized-kids/490214/

• General overview

https://kpjrfilms.co/films/

• Excellent award winning documentaries on trauma! Paper Tigers (personal element) & Resilience (includes more data reinforcement)

https://www.nhvrc.org/yearbook...e-visiting-yearbook/

• Provides state by state data represented w infographics (more engaging) of impact of home visits as part of trauma informed strategy.

http://ncase.me/neurons/

• Extremely helpful interactive resource to help children and adults understand the neurological limitations presented by trauma. I use this with youth I mentor to help them visualize and understand what we're trying to accomplish together and why.

https://www.understood.org/en/...lds-eyes/personalize

• Extremely helpful interactive resource to help adults understand what it's like to try to navigate with neurological/emotional/mental limitations presented by trauma. Note: Research increasingly associates ADHD, Sensory Processing Disorder, Oppositional Defiance Disorder, etc. with trauma and is beginning to establish trauma as the root cause.

Another idea would be to have every student and parent simply provide you with an ACE score # without having to share to which questions they answered "Yes". This is how Dr. Burke Harris' clinic does their initial intake I believe. Regardless, it's a "safer" way for children and adults to respond.

Best to you!