As communities across the country struggle to address school safety and health, the Johns Hopkins School of Education has launched a five-part lecture and discussion series that takes on these questions and other critical school-safety issues. Introduced during America’s Safe Schools Week (October 21-27, 2019), the series showcases the research of faculty affiliated with the university’s Center for Safe and Healthy Schools.
“This is one of the biggest issues of our time,” said School of Education Dean Christopher C. Morphew, who launched the center—the first of its kind at a national research university—last May. “As a 21st-century school of education, we intend to be out front, leading the discussion with cutting-edge research and evidence-based solutions that focus on student well-being, safety, and learning success.”
In the first lecture, on October 21, Jonathan Links, the university’s vice provost and chief risk and compliance officer, presented his groundbreaking research on the COPEWELL community-resilience systems model. Used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to predict community functioning and recovery from large-scale emergency events, the model is now being adapted by CSHS as SchoolWell, a framework for safe and healthy public schools and districts.
“All of us—parents, teachers, school leaders, policymakers—have a lot to learn about making our schools safe and healthy,” said Annette Campbell Anderson, the center’s academic program director. “With these lectures we are bringing together vital information that hasn’t been taught yet.”
The five lectures also serve as core teaching units of the School of Education’s new safe and healthy schools curriculum, which is integrated into the coursework for all of its students in counseling, initial teaching preparation, special education, and school administration.
Other events in the series will examine the impact of school resource officers, student risk behaviors, and family engagement in school safety and health, as well as how to effectively use data from schools to improve their safe and healthy function.
The Center for Safe and Healthy Schools Lecture and Discussion Series
Monday, October 21, 2019
“SchoolWell: Creating a Safe and Healthy Schools Model”
Jonathan Links, PhD
Vice Provost & Chief Risk and Compliance Officer, Johns Hopkins University
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
“The Role of Family Engagement in Promoting Safe and Healthy Schools”
Joyce L. Epstein, PhD
Director, Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships
Professor, Johns Hopkins School of Education
Register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-role-of-family-engagement-in-promoting-safe-healthy-schools-tickets-71814614445
Wednesday, December 18, 2019
“Risk Behaviors that Impede Safe and Healthy School Practices”
Vanya C. Jones, PhD
Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/risk-behaviors-that-impede-safe-healthy-school-practices-tickets-71815302503
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
“School Resource Officers (SROs) and School Violence”
Sheldon Greenberg, PhD
Professor, Johns Hopkins School of Education
Register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/school-resource-officers-sros-and-school-violence-tickets-71815595379
