TY - JOUR
T1 - Collaborative Design of an Inclusive Education Model for Students with Emotional Disabilities
T2 - A Research-Practice-Policy Partnership
AU - The Path Program Team
AU - May, Natalie
AU - Cox, Blair
AU - Cappella, Elise
AU - Nadeem, Erum
AU - Chacko, Anil
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2024.
PY - 2024/9
Y1 - 2024/9
N2 - Despite the benefits of inclusive education, students with emotional disabilities (EDs), who are disproportionately Black, male, and economically marginalized, continue to be placed in segregated education settings more than students with many other classifications (OSEP Fast Facts: Children Identified With Emotional Disturbance, 2020. Retrieved from https://sites.ed.gov/idea/osep-fast-facts-children-IDed-Emotional-Disturbance-20). In this paper, we describe the functioning of a multiyear university-district research-practice partnership (RPP) and the structures that support the partnership’s ability to engage in boundary spanning between researchers, practitioners, and district leaders, toward the ultimate goal of implementing a comprehensive inclusive education model for students with or at risk for EDs. First, we examine survey data from partnership members reflecting on elements of the partnership that we hypothesize to be important for supporting strong communication. Next, we present network data from meetings, one of our partnerships’ boundary spanning practices, to illustrate the formal connections between RPP members. We found that the partnership had frequent meetings (N = 389), with high levels of co-attendance between university and district members (33%), although there was some variation based on district members’ roles. Overall, members were satisfied with the RPP and perceived the partnership positively in terms of its resources, leadership and members, and effectiveness. This paper contributes to an understanding of both boundary spanning practices in RPPs and some of the key partnership conditions and structures that support the implementation and adaptation of a challenging initiative in school-based mental health.
AB - Despite the benefits of inclusive education, students with emotional disabilities (EDs), who are disproportionately Black, male, and economically marginalized, continue to be placed in segregated education settings more than students with many other classifications (OSEP Fast Facts: Children Identified With Emotional Disturbance, 2020. Retrieved from https://sites.ed.gov/idea/osep-fast-facts-children-IDed-Emotional-Disturbance-20). In this paper, we describe the functioning of a multiyear university-district research-practice partnership (RPP) and the structures that support the partnership’s ability to engage in boundary spanning between researchers, practitioners, and district leaders, toward the ultimate goal of implementing a comprehensive inclusive education model for students with or at risk for EDs. First, we examine survey data from partnership members reflecting on elements of the partnership that we hypothesize to be important for supporting strong communication. Next, we present network data from meetings, one of our partnerships’ boundary spanning practices, to illustrate the formal connections between RPP members. We found that the partnership had frequent meetings (N = 389), with high levels of co-attendance between university and district members (33%), although there was some variation based on district members’ roles. Overall, members were satisfied with the RPP and perceived the partnership positively in terms of its resources, leadership and members, and effectiveness. This paper contributes to an understanding of both boundary spanning practices in RPPs and some of the key partnership conditions and structures that support the implementation and adaptation of a challenging initiative in school-based mental health.
KW - Boundary spanning
KW - Emotional disabilities
KW - Inclusive education
KW - Program development
KW - Research-practice partnerships
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85201963517&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85201963517&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s12310-024-09672-8
DO - 10.1007/s12310-024-09672-8
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85201963517
SN - 1866-2625
VL - 16
SP - 760
EP - 775
JO - School Mental Health
JF - School Mental Health
IS - 3
ER -