UCSB, Boston College Win Main Grant to Prepare Particular Training, Faculty Psychology Students | UCSB
Research shows that over a third of children and adolescents over the age of 18 meet the criteria for a psychiatric disorder. However, only a small percentage of students with mental health problems receive the necessary special educational offers – not least because of the lack of qualified specialists.
Recognizing the urgent need for more and better prepared researchers in this field, the U.S. Department of Education has awarded UC Santa Barbara and Boston University a $ 2.7 million grant to fully fund a cohort of nine PhD students : three in school psychology and three in special science training at the UCSB and three in special education at the BU.
The project is officially known as TEAMS: Collaboration to Train Special Education and School Psychology Scholars to Advance Equity in the Study of Mental Health Among Students: A Special Education Leadership Preparation Program.
“Project TEAMS encompasses so much of our core business,” said Jeffrey Milem, Dean of Jules Zimmer Dean of the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education. “Through this scholarship, we will teach leaders who will help build equitable communities.
“It will also help us transform school systems to better serve vulnerable populations as we work with interdisciplinary partners to deliver effective, respectful, equity, and community-based services and research.”
Special education teachers and school psychologists play a vital role in managing the mental health needs of all students, especially as students are most likely to receive psychological interventions in schools. Unfortunately, schools are simply unable to provide these students with what they need.
The National Association of School Psychologists recommends a ratio of one school psychologist for every 500 students to provide full school psychology services. Current data assume a national ratio of 1: 1211.
School-based support for student mental health requires teachers to be well prepared to use evidence-based interventions to support student social, emotional, and behavioral development and to prevent the development of emotional / behavioral disorders.
The TEAMS project will prepare leaders in special education and school psychology with a comprehensive and wide range of services and research, including assessment and intervention in relation to the social, emotional and mental health needs of students; ecological systems that serve culturally, linguistically and racially diverse students with emotional / behavioral disorders; Methods of generating new research relating to students with emotional / behavioral disorders; Methods for preparing various special educators; and school psychologists to work together in interdisciplinary teams.
“This project includes extensive interdisciplinary collaboration between colleagues at UCSB from the Department of Counseling, Clinical and School Psychology and the Department of Education, as well as collaborations with colleagues from the Wheelock College of Education and Human Development at Boston University,” said Shane Jimerson, professor and Principal Investigator at UCSB
“The research and future faculties that emerge from this collaboration will help advance equal opportunities and transform mental health support services for culturally and linguistically diverse children,” said Jimerson.
The TEAMS project fully finances the students for the duration of their doctoral studies and provides them with materials and travel expenses. In addition, postgraduate students from Boston University and UCSB will arrive to visit the other sites, tour schools, and collaborate with faculties and students.
All nine students will begin their PhD in the fall of 2022 – the program is particularly interested in accepting masters graduates – and must therefore apply now to the Gevirtz School at UCSB or to Wheelock College at Boston University.
Jennifer Grief Green, PI at Boston University and a graduate of UCSB’s Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology, said the program will support the most vulnerable students.
“We specifically focus on research that emphasizes equal opportunities and inclusion of culturally, linguistically and racially disadvantaged students who are most affected by systemic and racial trauma, who are disproportionately represented in terms of special educational services and are less likely to receive needed psychological services. ” She said.
