Building Rural Schools’ Mental Health Professional Pipeline
Department of Educational Psychology and CounselingEducation and SocietyResearch and DiscoveryUncategorized
Appeared in ACCOLADES: The University of Tennessee’s College of Education, Health & Human Sciences
July 3, 2024
There’s a cloud of increased anxiety and other mental health issues looming over childhood. That cloud grew with the pandemic and is continuing to loom because of a critical national shortage of mental health professionals in schools.
But there is a bright spot on the horizon for some school districts in rural Tennessee and rural Appalachia. Two grants awarded to programs within the college aim to alleviate the shortage and help drive away this cloud over our kids. Both programs serve as a pipeline to increase the flow and retention of highly trained mental health professionals into these areas.
Project RAISE
A five-year, $12 million US Department of Education grant was awarded in January 2023 to UT’s Center for Literacy, Education, and Employment through the Tennessee Department of Education. It focuses funds on enticing and paying graduate-level school psychology, school social work, and school counselor interns to work in rural schools across the state. Research leading into the project, called Rural Access to Interventions in School Environments (RAISE), painted a clear picture of the dire situation.
“Almost 44.6 percent of our rural school districts across the state of Tennessee didn’t have a full-time mental health provider, which is pretty critical,” says April Ebbinger, director of psychological and behavioral supports for the Tennessee Department of Education, state principal investigator, and Project RAISE director. “We needed to find ways to remove barriers to get these providers out to the rural districts.”
One big barrier is that mental health internships that are required to graduate often offer little or no pay. Project RAISE breaks that barrier with stipends ranging from $15,000 to $40,000 to students who participate in the training and internship program.
“CLEE pays those stipends, and that’s where the bulk of the funds are going. Funds also go toward professional development, in-person training, and as another incentive, interns are given memberships within our state organizations and registration fees for state organization conferences, which they might not normally have the funds to do,” says Lisa Crawford, CLEE associate director and Project RAISE’s principal investigator at UT.
The Tennessee project partners include UT, Middle Tennessee State University, the University of Memphis, and the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga. CLEE manages the program for the entire state at the direction of Ebbinger.
In addition to normal classwork, Project RAISE trainees receive a year of training developed by content experts from the project’s university partners. When the students are on the job in a rural school, an onsite mental health professional supervisor fields day-to-day questions. Ongoing training and professional development opportunities, accessible professors, the content experts, and CLEE staff provide additional support.
Project RAISE has placed 23 interns in rural Tennessee schools with more students in the training pipeline.
“Ninety of Tennessee’s 95 counties are considered rural. About 60 school districts are currently participating. The project will ultimately take in 70 interns per year,” says Ebbinger.
In return for training and financial support, newly minted graduates will work for two years in a high-need school in Tennessee. The hope is that the graduate eventually settles in a rural Tennessee school district.
“Our goal is to give them the financial and professional support they need to keep them in these communities where they see families at church and at the grocery store. We start to move the marker with mental health outcomes when these providers build relationships not only with their clientele, the students, but also with the families and the communities at large,” says Ebbinger.
The Rural Appalachian Mental Health Partnership Targets High-Need Schools
The US Department of Education invited institutions of higher education to apply for similar funding through a separate grant. UT’s Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling did just that—with a focus on high-need, rural Appalachian schools.
The Rural Appalachian Mental Health Partnership program was awarded a $4 million grant to recruit and train six school counseling/dual track RAMHP Scholars and six school psychology RAMHP Scholars each year of the five-year grant, for a total of 60 students. RAMHP places the Scholars, who are trained in serving the mental health needs of rural students, in its Cocke County, Grainger County, Greene County, and Newport City partner schools. Many school districts rely on contracted mental health professionals to fill the need.
“There are districts that email me every year wanting to hire a school psychologist, and they just have difficulty finding one and hiring one,” says Merilee McCurdy, professor and principal investigator for RAMHP.
The RAMHP program provides $10,000 scholarships in the first year and $20,000 in the second year along with travel and expense stipends. Following graduation, the RAMHP scholars serve two years in a school district identified by the program as high-need, low income, having a high student-to-counselor/student-to-school psychologist ratio, or significant student mental health needs.
For some students, working in rural Appalachia is a calling they hadn’t expected. The RAMHP training has led school counseling graduate student Ana Sustaita to see that she and other counselors can make a huge contribution to rural Appalachian schools—one student at a time.
“We are the trusted adult that a kid needs. They can talk to me, and I can advocate for them,” says Sustaita.
With Project RAISE and RAMHP recruiting and training students, soon rural Tennessee and rural Appalachian school districts looking to hire mental health professionals will have highly trained, committed and community-minded candidates in the pipeline ready and eager to serve.
Learn more about applying: ProjectRaiseTN.com | RAMHP
Teaching The Whole Child
Appeared in Our Tennessee, April 4, 2024 | View Original Article
By Macy Roberts | Courtesy Photos
The Center for Literacy, Education and Employment (CLEE) at UT Knoxville aims to ensure all students possess the knowledge, skills and opportunities needed to flourish in the classroom. The center’s work touches the lives of students across the state but especially students with disabilities.
With a budget of $9 million from federal and state funds, the Access for All Learning Network (AALN) is the center’s largest initiative impacting literacy across the state. It originated as a $5.5 million State Personnel Development Grant the U.S. Department of Education awarded the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) in 2015, says CLEE Director Angela Wegner.
“That grant was to ensure that we were supporting students with disabilities,” she says. “One, in the general education space, but then also making sure that we had strong instructional practices in special education intervention.”
Following the conclusion of the grant in 2020, the center and TDOE sustained their commitment to ensuring access to inclusive environments and high-quality instruction for students with disabilities.
AALN increases access to inclusive learning environments with high-quality core instruction for students with disabilities in preschool through eighth grade. To accomplish this, CLEE partners with school districts across the state to provide in-depth coaching and professional
development to participating district leaders and educators.
The initiative has undergone significant developments over the years. The latest transformation occurred in the summer of 2022 and saw a transition to a coaching model that will expand into a supportive network of districts. Previously, AALN focused on a train-the-trainer model, which provided professional development to district leaders. This professional development was then redelivered by leaders to educators in their district. Now, AALN provides intensive one-on-one coaching for district leaders and teachers to foster more engagement and collaboration.
AALN is currently divided into the K-8 Access for All Learning Network and Early Childhood Access for All Learning Network. CLEE provides both coaching and professional development to district leaders, but the early childhood network focuses on giving preschool teachers more specialized attention from coaches. Additionally, the K-8 network emphasizes the pivotal role of high-quality instructional materials utilized in an inclusive learning environment.
Statewide coordinator for the early childhood network Amanda Mason says that, because pre-K is the foundation of a child’s education, special focus in those classrooms is crucial and can change the trajectory of children’s educational experiences for the rest of their schooling. Early-childhood coaches visit pre-K classrooms to offer individualized coaching each month and provide teachers with one-on-one support.
“That support could look broadly like overall instructional practices or overall quality of the environment,” Mason says. “Because preschool is so much learning through play, that environmental component is really important.”
Torie Renfroe, a pre-K teacher at Parsons Elementary School in Decatur County, has been working with the AALN for two years.
“Each year I have been able to see students with special needs make huge gains and also see other students learn amazing skills that will last them a lifetime,” Renfroe says. “We say all the time that this program is helping us teach our students to not only learn and grow from our rich literacy environment but also from their peers. We are better able to teach the whole child.”
Angela Long, statewide coordinator for the K-8 network, says that, when leading professional development for district leaders, fostering more inclusive settings and promoting collaboration between both sides of education—general education and special education—are deemed essential.
“We want to see our students with disabilities working in the same capacity as their general education peers,” Long says.
Long and Mason started at CLEE as coaches for the West Tennessee region. They share a background as special education teachers and emphasized how valuable it is for many former teachers and special education instructors to be the ones leading the network.
“When we’re designing content or working with district leaders, that’s our perspective,” Mason says. “We’ve been there, and we’ve lived it, and we’re trying to give people what we wish we would have had—what would have made us be the teacher that we wish we could have been for some of our students.”
CLEE Staff Honored by UT College of Education, Health and Human Services
The Center for Literacy, Education and Employment and its exemplary staff featured prominently in the recent 2013 CEHHS Annual Recognition Ceremony at the University of Tennessee, on Tuesday, April 23rd.
Prominent among Center staff recognized was Connie White, Associate Director, who was honored by Dean Bob Rider with a prestigious Dean’s Service Award for her long-time service to the college and history of attracting over $18 million in awards and contracts to the college and CLEE during her tenure to date. This is the first time such an honor has been awarded to staff of any center at CEHHS.
Earlier in the ceremony, Connie was recognized as the CEHHS principle investigator with the highest total awarded in grants and contracts in the 2012 fiscal year – over $5.7 million. Also recognized for their work as principle investigators attracting significant investments to CEHHS were Associate Directors Beth Ponder and Stephanie Cowherd, and Center Director Geri Mulligan. The Dean also praised the Center for Literacy, Education and Employment as having attracted over half the total awards & contracts monies received by the college as a whole in 2012.
During the ceremony retiring CLEE staff Cathy Houser and Carol Martin were thanked and applauded for their years of service to the college. Also recognized with years-in-service awards were Center staff: Gail Cope, Peggy Roberts, Duren Thompson, Lisa Kinkade, Jonathan Kelly and Kristie Wright.
Congratulations to all those honored – you, and ALL our talented staff members, are the Center’s most valuable assets!
CLEE in the News: More on the Alcoa STEM Camp!
(photo Tom Sherlin)
Another great article on the CLEE STEM camp held in March 2013 from the Blount County Times
Alcoa Elementary, UT Join together for STEM Camp, Matthew Stewart
Previous posts on CLEE’s UT STEM Camp include:
For more information on CLEE’s work in STEM education, and/or our work supporting standards in K-12 education, please contact the Center’s School and Family Team.
On the News: CLEE sponsors Alcoa STEM Camp
Check out this WATE video – showing our Alcoa kids excited about STEM learning – during Spring Break!
Alcoa Kids, CLEE staff & UT Grad students explore science and engineering while creating solar cars
Alcoa kids and teachers spend Spring Break learning!
Discussing Mathematics Concepts
Counting teeth – making scientific observations, collecting data…
In the News! 2013 STEM Camp at Alcoa Elementary School
S
TEM Camp at Alcoa Elementary School, a unique program hosted by the Center for Literacy, Education and Employment in March 2013, has been making news!
Recently CLEE staff member Kim Chaney Bay appeared on WBIR along with Christy Newman, Communication Director with Alcoa to talk about the 2012 Alcoa Foundation grants and the 2013 STEM Camp project.
View the video:
WBIR Interview STEM Camp at Alcoa – Kim & Christy
Support STEM Camp at Alcoa Elementary School during Spring Break 2013! If you would like to join forces with CLEE for this one-of-a-kind experience, please consider making a donation for that purpose. No amount is too small or too large. We have a golden opportunity to create a groundbreaking effort toward STEM training in Tennessee, and you can help.
CLEE Staff at Transition Fair – Jackson TN
Schools, organizations, families and students need supports in order for learners to achieve a seamless transition from high school to post-secondary education, vocational training or employment – especially when the transitioning student faces potential barriers such as intellectual or physical disabilities. The Center for Literacy, Education and Employment is part of nation-wide efforts to provide those supports.
Photo Courtesy of WBBJ-TV
Click to view their report on the event.
As part of this work, Melvin Jackson, CLEE Transition Coordinator in West Tennessee, participated in the Jackson Madison County Transition Fair on October 27. This event was open to the community and designed to support students with disabilities by providing interagency information for parents, students, teachers, and others on transition topics such as housing, guardianship, employment, schooling, recreation, community services, and more. As part of the fair, Melvin provided information on transition and self-determination to attendees, networked with many who attended, and discussed resources available here at the Center.
Joey Ellis, STEP (left) and
Melvin Jackson, CLEE (right)
Pictured at right is Melvin with Joey Ellis, the Middle Tennessee Coordinator for STEP (Support and Training for Exceptional Parents). CLEE and STEP partner on several Tennessee initiatives including providing support for students with disabilities who are transitioning to post-secondary career or college, and their families. CLEE’s Tennessee initiative with Transitions and Self-Determination for students with disabilities is funded by the Tennessee Department of Education, Division of Special Education, and the Boling Center for Developmental Disabilities.
Jackson TN Chamber Spotlights Corporate Connections
Lisa Kinkade, with the Proclamation of Disability Employment Awareness Month
in Jackson and Madison County
Check out the great article on Corporate Connections in the Jackson TN Chamber of Commerce Newsletter – based on an interview with regional account representative Lisa Kincade!
View the Article/Interview with Lisa
View the full Jackson Chamber Newsletter
Corporate Connections account representatives seek to increase employment opportunities for individuals served
by the Tennessee Division of Rehabilitation Services. Representatives like Lisa Kincade, conduct marketing, education and outreach activities to engage the business community, providing statewide disability resources and employment services to assist Tennessee businesses in recruiting, hiring, and retaining employees with disabilities.
For more information about Corporate Connections services please contact Stephanie Cowherd scowherd@utk.edu .