The Implementation Guide to Student Learning Supports in the Classroom and Schoolwide: New Directions for Addressing Barriers to Learning

"Offers in-depth understanding for a wide variety of barriers to student learning as well as a learned synthesis of the best thinking about student motivation and healthy development…Adelman and Taylor′s book provides a perspective that helps practitioners understand all students who enter the classroom."
--Linda Miller, Consultant
Iowa Department of Education

"As psychologists and support staff we read innumerable journal articles regarding responses to intervention, learning disabilities, differentiated instruction, and the like. The authors here effectively address the total child and offer research-based suggestions on how to help all children."
--Sandra Screen, Ph.D., Director
Detroit Public Schools, MI

Ensure that every school has a comprehensive and adaptable system of learning supports in the classroom and throughout the school!

Every teacher knows about barriers to learning and teaching that interfere with student progress and academic achievement. These barriers to learning can hamper a student′s ability to participate effectively and benefit fully from classroom instruction and other educational activities. For school improvement efforts to succeed in ways that truly improve student achievement and student test scores, schools must provide students with learning supports in comprehensive, multifaceted, and cohesive ways.

This innovative Implementation Guide to Student Learning Supports in the Classroom and Schoolwide by Howard Adelman and Linda Taylor is designed to accompany their new School Leader′s Guide to Student Learning Supports. Together, these two handbooks comprise a complete and adaptable system for addressing barriers to learning and teaching. The authors offer specific ideas, procedures, resources, tools, and guides for motivating students, personalizing instruction and curriculum, promoting development, building school and community partnerships, and closing the gap between the learning supports students need and the learning supports they are currently receiving.

This unique guide for teachers, counselors, school administrators, and student support staff is based on an unparalleled New Directions for Student Support Initiative endorsed by more than 20 professional associations, including:

• The American School Counselor Association
• The American School Health Association
• The National Association of Pupil Services Administrators
• The National Association of School Nurses
• The National Association of School Psychologists
• The School Social Work Association of America
• And others!

Howard S. Adelman is professor of psychology and codirector of the School Mental Health Project and its federally supported National Center for Mental Health in Schools at UCLA. He began his professional career as a remedial classroom teacher in 1960. In 1973, he returned to UCLA in the role of professor of psychology and also was the director of the Fernald School and Laboratory until 1986.

In 1986, Adelman and Linda Taylor established the School Mental Health Project at UCLA. The two have worked together for over 30 years with a constant focus on improving how schools and communities address a wide range of psychosocial and educational problems experienced by children and adolescents. Over the years, they have worked together on major projects focused on dropout prevention, enhancing the mental health facets of school-based health centers, and developing comprehensive, school-based approaches for students with learning, behavior, and emotional problems. Their work has involved them in schools and communities across the country. The current focus of their work is on policies, practices, and large-scale systemic reform initiatives to enhance school, community, and family connections to address barriers to learning and promote healthy development. This work includes codirecting a national Center for Mental Health in Schools, which facilitates the National Initiative: New Directions for Student Support.

Linda Taylor is codirector of the School Mental Health Project and its federally supported national Center for Mental Health in Schools at UCLA.

In her early career, Taylor was involved in community agency work. From 1973 to 1986, she codirected the Fernald Laboratory School and Clinic at UCLA. In 1986, she became codirector of the School Mental Health Project. From 1986 to 2000, she also held a clinical psychologist position in the Los Angeles Unified School District and directed several large-scale projects for the school district.

Taylor and Howard S. Adelman have worked together for over 30 years with a constant focus on improving how schools and communities address a wide range of psychosocial and educational problems experienced by children and adolescents. Over the years, they have worked together on major projects focused on dropout prevention, enhancing the mental health facets of school-based health centers, and developing comprehensive, school-based approaches for students with learning, behavior, and emotional problems. Their work has involved them in schools and communities across the country. The current focus of their work is on policies, practices, and large-scale systemic reform initiatives to enhance school, community, and family connections to address barriers to learning and promote healthy development. This work includes codirecting a national Center for Mental Health in Schools, which facilitates the National Initiative: New Directions for Student Support.