Chicana Activists - Rebels or Good Girls?

In the article, Using a Chicana Feminist Epistemology in Educational Research, Dolores Delgado Bernal "provides a forum in which Chicanas speak and analyze their stories of school resistance and grassroots leadership," in this case referring specifically to women who participated and organized the 1968 East L.A. School Blowouts.

She "asked the women how the social, cultural, and sexual realities of their lives manifested in the duality of 'good schoolgirl' and 'bad activist student.' "

"Their good schoolgirl behavior of speaking up in class, asking questions, and offering leadership to sanctioned student organizations was acceptable behavior (and even encouraged). However, when they practiced these same behaviors during the school boycotts, they were perceived as deviant. Their behavior had not changed -- others' interpretation of their behavior had. In other words, they helped me to see that their 'good schoolgirl' behavior that was so openly rewarded by good grades, student council positions, and respect from teachers was the exact same behavior that was unfairly punished when they used it to protest the inferior quality of their education."

If you have a voice, then use it.

Stories about the Math in Social Work - Interns & Family Therapy for Effectiveness

The Student to SSW Ratio & SW Interns

The recommended student to school social worker ratio is 800 to 1. That is, one full-time school social worker for every 800 students. This still sounds like a lot to some professionals! NASW actually recommends a ratio of 350 to 1 in the types of schools that most of us work in at LAUSD.

Most of the schools that can afford to invest in a full-time school social worker have thousands of students. Two social work interns, each working 20 hours a week, approximate one full-time social worker. School social workers can double their efforts and help to close the ratio gap with just two social work interns.

When I first did this at a 2,000-student elementary school in South Los Angeles, I went from a caseload of 60-80 students to supervising 5-8 social work interns. Each intern, in turn, had a caseload of 5-10 students. Better math lead to better school social work.

Math Quiz for SSWs: At a school with 3,000 students, how many interns would you need to reach the recommended ratios of 800 or even 350 to 1?

Working with Parents vs. Working with Students Individually

In a recent review of the effectiveness of family therapy for child-focused problems, it was noted that "behavioral parent training is far more effective than individual therapy." In a review of 30 behavioral parent training studies and 41 studies of individual therapy, the effect size was .45 for parent training and .23 for individual therapy -nearly double the difference in effect size. Social workers can double their effectiveness moving from individual therapy to behavioral parent training. Do you want to use an intervention that is a bigger bang for your buck or do you want to work doubly hard?

Working with Families and Attendance Rates

I had lunch recently with a former SW intern who is now a PSA counselor. She told me about her experiences at a high school in the Valley where she systematically reviewed weekly computerized reports listing students with attendance problems and conducted outreach to their parents to offer concrete help, support, home visits, parenting training and mental health services including biopsychosocial assessments and family therapy. At one point, her Principal came back from a local district meeting thrilled to announce that their high school had been singled out as having the highest attendance rate - 98%.

Core Beliefs & Questions

If my core belief is, "I am incompetent," then it would makes sense that I not ask questions when I did not understand because this would invite attention to my so-called incompetence. I might also strive to be perfect (no typos) as a defense to my anxiety about my incompetence ever showing.

If my core belief is, "I am competent," then I am free to ask questions whenever I'd like because my questions merely symbolize my curiosity, or the learning process, or the lack of clarity of ideas presented, or how engaged I am in the conversation/presenter - any number of reasons, none of them pointing to any permanent incompetence on my part. Mistakes would also just be human - normal & natural - not further denigrating confirmation.

And isn't competence a dynamic concept on a continuum? How do we get stuck with a rigid and fixed idea that is clearly dependent on context and changes in time and space?

Notice, without judging

Reevah calls it the scientific approach, that is, looking objectively at your feelings. That in some ways your feelings are beyond your control - arising normally and naturally from our nature and experiences. Yet we feel ashamed or guilty about them and this causes us anxiety, so we try to cope using defense mechanisms. But what if we just noticed, without judging? It may not be thee feeling that concerns us but our feelings about thee feeling.

Noticing, without judging is also a precept of mindful awareness or Buddhist psychology. Thich Nhat Hanh talks about how we all have all the seeds (like jealousy, love, hatred, compassion, etc.) The real question is which will we allow to grow? So if we all agree that we all have all the feelings and that they are truly normal and natural, rather than judging the feelings that are deemed "socially unacceptable," what if we noticed them, without judging? What would happen then?

Back to School - Winter Quarter

SOC 210B - Statistics with Cameron Campbell (sociologist and demographer) and 10 weeks of linear regression. Weekly homework is 80% of grade and the take-home final is 20%. Woohoo!

Example of a regression coefficient statement:
"On average, an additional year of education increases income by $750/year."

Stats Support with Bridget Freisthler to review the technical aspects of the analytic techniques and discuss the findings from those analyses for write up in a paper, journal article or dissertation!


SW 245B - Intervention research with Todd Franke, focusing on research design and proposing randomized control trial and quasi-experimental designs.

"We will focus on design as separate from analysis because sophisticated statistics can't save what has been ruined by poor design or lack therof."


SW 225A - Policy course with Fernando Torres-Gil. Following universal health care policy as a class and I will probably choose to write about No Child Left Behind.

"Learning how to define a researchable question that is analytic, objective and non-ideological."
I finally checked out Powell Library - gorgeously old and refurbished. The study rooms are quiet and full of light. I will be studying there on Mondays. Feeling really good about the new quarter and being back.