Positive Impact of the UCLA Cares Calm Classrooms Initiative

UCLA CARES
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Dr. Nancy Coogan, an accomplished Washington State educational administrator, recently concluded a four-year tenure as superintendent of the Tukwila School District. Over the course of her career in education, Dr. Nancy Coogan has performed extensive research into the positive impact of mindfulness, not only on administrators and educators, but young students.

Studies have shown that mindfulness techniques can provide positive value to students as young as three years old. At Florence Griffith Joyner Elementary in Watts, California, students from transitional kindergarten through the fifth grade have been introduced to Calm Classrooms, which are three-minute periods during which students are encouraged to focus on deep breathing and relaxation while practicing body awareness. The Calm Classrooms initiative at Florence Griffith Joyner has been spearheaded by the UCLA Center for Child Anxiety Resilience Education and Support (CARES), a strong supporter of mindfulness and student resilience practices.

Early reports from the Calm Classrooms program demonstrated positive results, with Principal Akida Kissane-Long noting that discipline referrals dropped dramatically within just three weeks. UCLA CARES, in tandem with the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, has announced plans to train more teachers and faculties through the Calm Classrooms program. In 2016, Calm Classroom techniques were being used in more than 200 schools throughout the United States, reaching over 200,000 students and families. Today, the program has expanded to thousands of classrooms around the world.

Inquiry on Supporting High School Principals by Dr. Coogan, Dr. Gates

 

Dr. Nancy Coogan

Dr. Nancy Coogan is an experienced educational administrator in Washington State who recently spent more than four years as superintendent of the Tukwila School District. Dr. Nancy Coogan is highly knowledgeable in areas of mindfulness as an educational tool and has had her work published in numerous venues, including Mindfulness for Educational Practice: A Path to Resilience for Challenging Work.

Published in 2015, Mindfulness for Educational Practice is the eighth volume in Washington State University’s Research on Stress and Coping in Education series. Sections of the book highlighted a number of relevant subjects, including Gordon S. Gates and Nancy E. Coogan’s chapter, Inquiry on Supporting Urban High School Principals: Action Research for Mindfulness Practice.

Gates and Coogan’s study was conducted with the intention of detailing the mindfulness practices of two urban high school principals, then analyzing how these skills could be further developed by a district supervisor in the hopes of establishing greater reliability in student outcomes. Action research performed over the course of the study yielded a depth of data from school faculty, while additional information was gathered through observations and direct interviews with the two principals.

Ultimately, the study found that both principals played a critical role in supporting and achieving reliability in school outcomes. Meanwhile, action research on mindfulness equipped the principals with a valuable skill set that can be instrumental, not only as a problem solving tool, but as a method to facilitate improved organizational learning and communication.

Four Characteristics of Resilient Leaders

Resiliency
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Dr. Nancy Coogan is the former superintendent of Tukwila School District in Washington State. A scholar in leadership and professional development, Dr. Nancy Coogan wrote her dissertation on the resiliency and reliability of high school principals.

Resiliency plays a significant role in the success of an educational leader. Here are a few traits and characteristics of resilient leaders:

– Commitment. Resilient leaders commit to performing to the best of their ability and addressing challenges head-on, even when the leaders are faced with surprises or unusual situations. Resilient leaders work hard to bring their organization back to normal functioning after they deal with the occurrences that caused deviation from the standard operation.

– Introspection. Resilient leaders possess the self-awareness to understand their faults and biases and take the time to develop the skills necessary for improvement. In addition, resilient leaders do not take setbacks personally and recognize that growth requires time and patience.

– Positive thinking. Negativity and pessimism have no place in the mind of resilient leaders, who focus on the positive and use unfortunate events as learning experiences. While resilient leaders may not always present their optimistic side, they do turn their attention to what they can control and consider their choices in how they can respond.

– Coping skills. The ability to cope allows resilient leaders to overcome challenges and handle stress effectively. Moreover, the ability to cope enables resilient leaders to identify their emotions and prevent their personal opinions from interfering with their professional work.