In this blog, KA’s summer intern, Julianna Collado, met with Michelle Woodbridge and Nancy Perez from SRI International to discuss their work identifying and implementing better mental health support for educators.

Collado: The example KA highlighted from SRI International in our Issue Brief was from the REL Reference Desk also known as “Ask a REL.” Can you explain what the REL Reference Desk is?

Woodbridge: While leading REL Appalachia from 2017–2021, we offered the “Ask a REL” service. “Ask a REL” was a collaborative reference desk service provided by the 10 Regional Educational Laboratories (RELs)¹. The “Ask a REL” service was for anyone seeking a research-based, quick-turnaround response on an education topic: this includes parents, practitioners, district-level leaders, and state agency staff. It was like a librarian’s reference desk from the olden days. For example, in October of 2020, when many educators were in the throughs of the COVID-19 crisis, a respondent asked REL Appalachia “What does research say about measuring teacher well-being, stress, and burnout after a crisis event?”

Collado: That’s a great resource to know about! In the fall of 2020, REL Appalachia at SRI responded to the question you shared above about teacher well-being and hosted a three-part webinar series for West Virginia K-12 educators and education leaders interested in learning about resources and strategies to support students and educators in the context of trauma. Can you share how SRI got involved with educator mental health research?

Woodbridge: One day, SRI’s Student Behavior Research team was presenting best practices to support students experiencing traumatic stress to a group of teachers. During that presentation the teachers raised an important question, “what about our trauma?” That was years ago, but I still point to that as a kind of light bulb moment where I realized we were so focused on supporting students that we forgot that we need to make sure educators feel supported so that they, in turn, can support their students. That conversation led to a blog post, called “When helping students hurts: Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS),” which outlines symptoms, prevention techniques, and other strategies to support teachers and their colleagues. SRI built on this work and now has a Student Behavior Blog with a widespread audience, including educators, administrators, school based mental health folks, school social workers, psychologists, counselors, parents and caregivers, and students themselves. Through the blog, we’re trying to spread the word about evidence-based practices that ultimately will support students’ positive behavior, well-being, and mental health.

Collado: How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted your work supporting educator mental health?

Perez: During the pandemic and in direct response to stakeholder feedback and our governing board’s priorities, REL Appalachia at SRI convened a 4-state collaborative in Appalachia, Trauma Support for Schools, to help educators, school leaders, district leaders, state leaders, and relevant community organizations support students and educators who are experiencing trauma.  Stakeholders had expressed that teachers needed more support in helping their students through the opioid epidemic and that they needed help coordinating efforts across states. In response, SRI began hosting quarterly meetings to discuss a variety of topics across Appalachia culminating with the Trauma Support for Schools Summit. The Summit was grounded in our evidence-based Action Agenda which REL Appalachia put together to set forth a vision and path forward for a broad coalition of partners to bring about inclusive equitable and evidence-based support for not only students but also educators experiencing trauma. The two-day summit had 15 guest speakers and over 20 sessions on a range of topics. We hosted 294 educators, researchers, policymakers, and staff of community-based organizations from 15 states across the country.

Collado: Can you discuss the role that Federal investments have played in SRI’s work on educator mental health?

Woodbridge: Most of our mental health and well-being work has been supported through Federal grants. Our initial work was funded by an Institute of Education Sciences (IES) grant. In addition, we’ve had grants from the National Institutes of Justice (NIJ) and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). I can’t even think of a private organization, whether a foundation or commercial venture, that has allowed us to go this deep with folks yet. The Federal government, and agencies like IES, are at the forefront of supporting research on the implementation of evidence-based practices to improve learner outcomes and applying the lessons learned through technical assistance.

About REL Appalachia at SRI

Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Appalachia at SRI serves Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia and is one of 10 federally funded regional centers across the nation. RELs help State education agencies (SEAs) implement, scale, and sustain evidence-based programs, practices, and interventions that support improved educator and student outcomes. REL Appalachia partners with stakeholders in these states on applied research and development; training, coaching and technical supports; and dissemination.

Related Work

Student Behavior Blog

When helping students hurts: Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS)

Trauma Support for Schools

Trauma Support for Schools Summit

About Julianna Collado. Ms. Collado is a recent graduate of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor where she majored in Public Policy and minored in Latina/o Studies. In college, she held executive positions in the student organization La Casa, participated in the UnidosUS Afro-Latinx Lideres Avanzando Fellowship, and worked multiple campus jobs in the Office of Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs and Office of Academic and Multicultural Initiatives. She is excited to be pursuing her Master’s in Education Policy at the University of Texas, Austin in the fall of 2022.

[1] IES sunset “Ask a REL” in 2021. IES now offers a new service through the RELs’ called “Ask an Expert.” The “Ask an Expert” service provides rapid-turnaround methodological expertise and evidence-based thought partnering to SEAs and LEAs. RELs’ “Ask an Expert” services help SEAs and LEAs succinctly answer research-related questions through their evidence-based subject matter expertise. SEAs and LEAs can also use “Ask an Expert” services to build their own capacity to design research to answer pressing questions of policy or practice. “Ask an Expert” supports can be written and/or be provided through meetings with requestors. “Ask an Expert” services are designed to provide answers to requestors in a matter of weeks, not months or years. The RELs stand ready to provide more intensive training, coaching, and technical supports in cases where an “Ask an Expert” request may not be feasible to complete within 4-5 weeks.