School Committee candidate Cyrus Vagar is asking is fellow candidates to join him in calling for an independent study of drug use in Newton Public Schools.
Copy of Red Ribbon Week pledge sent out to all Newton School Committee candidates. Hoping many sign!! @newtonwatch @newtontab @14thVillage pic.twitter.com/dl9LRoOxIQ
— Cyrus Vaghar (@CyrusVaghar) October 22, 2017
Cryus is a lot closer to high school age than I am so I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt that this is something worth studying. Any other school committee candidates have any thoughts about this? And current or other recent high schoolers have anything to offer?
I respect that Cyrus is being direct and persistent about this. Ms. Albright said in a debate in the last SC election that drugs in the schools “may” be a problem. We are only as strong as our weakness link and many SC candidates don’t make any public reference to drugs in the schools, let alone begin to offer ideas. I could offer up some ideas why I think this is, but this isn’t the time. Just bc a parent (who is also running for SC) has kids in the HSs doesn’t mean he or she knows what’s going on or the extent or the problem. Cyrus is right and Newton is lucky he’s shining a light on this issue, uncomfortable as some parents might be. And for this and other reasons Newton is lucky he’s running for SC.
Here is some detailed information that is regularly collected, analyzed and discussed. Our high school students are regularly screened for depression and this year will also go through screening and brief intervention and referral to treatment (SBIRT).
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B54ooqYkxofCN0QwUXRreGp0NjQ
Thank you for covering this very important issue. I am confident every SC candidate supports ample research into the prevalence of drugs in the schools. I hope we are honest and transparent with our parents & faculty about what is actually happening, and if any member feels that the data may not be telling the whole story, they speak up.
.. And as much as we love my NNHS graduation pic, I have Tweeted over a more current photo (there are also a few on my website); please feel free to substitute it.
I would be interested in the specific rationale of why a third party assessment should be chosen, rather than self assessment, at least initially.
We are already doing student assessments that require high degrees of confidentiality. We should have in place internal safeguards for anonymous public health screenings and surveys as well. And finally, we should make the explicit decision about what level of expertise we should have internally (at the school and city level, since this isn’t just a school problem) to address this issue.
If we can’t execute internally, we should address that issue.
The core idea may be good, but the decision to use internal resources or a third party to help understand this issue should be made on public health grounds, not political ones.
On a side note, I am not a fan of the “take a pledge” idea in general. Maybe I am idealist, but good ideas should stand on their own and get better with discussion, debate, and consensus building. Pledges short-circuit that process and go right to “agree with me!” We don’t do it in our families or businesses. It might be a tempting political tool, but it is a poor governance tool. There are better ways.
Mike,
I agree. Every year the high school kids answer an anonymous set of questions. I don’t think a third party will show different evidence. We have the evidence the kids are drinking and using drugs. What is the community doing to change behaviors? That is the question I am interested in hearing the answer to in Newton. We have highly stressed students who partake in risky behaviors. We (the city officials, the parents, the teachers, everyone) needs to be engaged on how to reduce this behavior. Yes, we have sports teams and bands and chorus and clubs, but do kids know how to hang out without using alcohol?
Cyrus’ concern for the health and well being of students is commendable, whether the topic is high school start times or drug use. Let’s listen to what he says.
Mike questions whether the NPS should conduct their own survey/investigation. The NPS is in the business of education, not trying to understand drug use. Going outside allows us to rely on the expertise of people with experience in the area. Going outside avoids political pressure. Yep, I said “political pressure.” The NPS is a political institution. Here is an example of what I mean. Let’s pretend we discover that drug use is more rampant at Newton North, and an outside firm discovers that the Newton North’s “open campus” policy which allows to students to leave the campus when teachers call in sick or use personal days (which happens very often) enables Newton North drug use. An outside firm is able to make a recommendation such as, “Eliminate the open campus policy.” Does anyone think that the NPS is going to come to a conclusion that requires real effort on their part?
Newton Mom, can you point me to the results of the annual drug use survey? Does it compare NN and NS drug use? Does it ask any questions that allow us to infer whether or not NPS’ policies influence drug accessibility?
Jeff,
I am not sure. I got an email about the results last year since I have a Newton South student.
Jeffrey, I agree we should find a way to get the best answers. You raise interesting points. That’s why there are discussions not preordained solutions. could argue that Newton (not just NPS) should think of this as a broader public health issue that also includes the schools. Perhaps it is a cooperative solution between the city, NPS, and third parties. Those are just ideas, I am sure thoughtful people have their own. We gain a lot by talking about it and learning along the way. That’s not inaction, that’s working together.
In general, we need to have confidence that our schools can do a part in addressing important issues like drug use, depression, suicide, sex, and other physical and mental health issues. All those issues can be uncomfortable or “political” for some, but we can’t shy away from them.
And I would disagree with your suggestion that NPS doesn’t care or might balk at doing anything. We can’t let that become a default assumption. We should hold high standards and work towards them, not assume the worst. Many people care.
Thanks Mike. I agree. I am glad we are talking about this and I am glad that Cyrus is making this a campaign issue.
To be clear, I am not saying that the NPS does not care (although I am saying that they might balk). The NPS is a huge, slow-moving organization, with many stakeholders. In organizations like this, externally generated reports can be useful.
If I were on the School Committee (which will never happen), I would ask the NPS to survey parents every year and ask parents about where the NPS is doing well and where they need improvement. I would ask my fellow SC members to go through the survey results every year and report back to parents. Over the years, I have talked to prominent SC members about this. The reaction I received was “I don’t want to do that… I already know what parents think from their emails… Voters can express their opinion at the election day.”
Newton Mom. I will try to find the surveys and report back.
NPS is indeed slow moving and highly political. Look at how they’ve handled things like hate speech in the schools, the plagiarism thing, the lead in the water, etc. A lot of ass-covering and PR. I would rather see a third party conduct something like this.
As a researcher, I see having a 3rd party study as being very important. People don’t realize how hard it is to make a good survey and do a good study. No organization can have the expertise to do everything well. Bringing in an outside group with expertise in this area would provide a fresh look from a new point of view, and provide recommendations from experts in the field. Also, students may feel more comfortable being honest with outsiders.
What Meredith said.
As a recent NNHS graduate, I want to share how the student drug/alcohol surveys referenced by @NewtonMom and @Mike were conducted:
Once a year in our ten minute homeroom period, we were handed these official-looking yellow sheets with little explanation from our teachers. The questions went through every drug from pot to heroin, giving three or four slang terms for each one and asking us how often we used them. We were never told to work privately, so groups would form and the surveys quickly became jokes. For every one student who took the survey seriously, there were two or three who falsely claimed to be heroin junkies or acid heads, just for laughs.
Conducting this survey is easy, but not reliable or responsible. We need a better way of assessing and responding to drug use in our schools. I support Vaghar’s call for a third party study because from what I saw in four years, the problem is only getting worse.
@Mary Mary Quite Contrary SO glad you mentioned things like hate speech, plagerism, and so on. These are HUGE issues and which of the candidates is talking about them AT ALL? Generic speech like “make Newton the best” or special education seem to be the safe topics.
@Margaret Albright These surveys are suspect. Are you relying on these?? Whether it’s in-house or not. A survey by Wayne State Univ. showed that teens are likely to be untruthful about their drug use. No study will be able to convince a teen who uses opiates that the results won’t somehow end up in the hands of law enforcement, or elsewhere. Would you? (For that matter, how many adults are honest about their alcoholism and about the number of drinks they have each day or week?) Maybe the surveys should ask students about if they know OTHER students. Or maybe the surveys should ask the parents about their own kids’ alcohol and opiate use, and see how they match up.
And any rate, do you really want to be playing a numbers games with opioid use among our students? So ‘the survey reports it’s down a little. The survey Ms. Albright used showed percentages. Nice, but how about REAL NUMBERS? It’s one thing to say “One percent (1%) of Newton high school students reported using someone else’s prescription
medication to get high in the 12 months prior to the survey, 1% used over-the-counter medications to get high, and 3% used “study drugs” to stay awake.” But how many REAL PEOPLE, how many of our children, in REAL numbers, is this?
Another case of STUDIES that use up budgets and that simply do not work.
This type of survey and answer to me is being political. It doesn’t say what we really need to hear.
@Buf GREAT points!!! Thank you for inserting some reality into the conversation.
So while the Newton SC politicians are doing surveys, the students are using and laughing thinking at how they’re fooling the system. And the parents are looking the other way, saying “not my kids.” Meanwhile, where are the programs??? What are people waiting for? Oh, another study!!
Hey Buf, thanks for your comments.
Just to be clear, I didn’t reference any surveys, or specify a ultimate preference for any methods. The solution may be internal, external, or most likely a mixture of both. I just prefer to have a meaningful public discussion without something as blunt as a candidate’s pledge dictating methods.
As for your example about students fibbing on their survey responses, that is a challenge no matter what. NPS needs to be able to execute confidential surveys like this one regardless of this specific case. If there’s a problem, it should be learned from and fixed.
Surveys are helpful. But you can run all the surveys you want, and none of them will matter unless the School Committee reacts correctly to the information…
Take a look at the Youth Risk Behavior survey Margaret Albright linked above. First, the survey is based on a Center for Disease Control survey. The School Committee is well aware that the Center for Disease Control has recommended later start times for high schools. The School Committee uses the survey material, and ignores the CDC recommendation. They also consistently fail to respond correctly to the survey results, which clearly indicate epidemic levels of stress among our high school students…
For the health of our students here in Newton, we desperately need a change. Groupthink just aint cutting it anymore. Throw the bums out [at least those who have challengers]. Electing Cyrus would be a good start.
@Buf – thank you so much for sharing your experience. Handing out surveys in homeroom like that could be a case study on how not do do things. There are proven methodologies for increasing people’s willingness to be honest in surveys and increase their trust in the anonymity of the data – needless to say, handing things out in public and collecting them by identifiable group is not one of them.
For anything the schools want to get survey data about, it would be better and more cost effective to reduce the frequency of data collection and have knowledgeable professionals run the study.
Sharing some information – The YRBS survey is a joint endeavor of the Newton Public Schools and the Newton Health and Human Services Department. The survey is administered and analyzed by a third party, Social Science Research and Evaluation, Inc. (SSRE) and is administered every two years.
This is SSRE’s statement on validity and methodology:
There is a good deal of research about the ways in which students respond to surveys and
whether they tell the truth. This work indicates that student survey results are reasonably
accurate provided that student participation is voluntary and that the respondents cannot be identified. The Newton Youth Risk Behavior Survey met these conditions.
Two other steps were taken to increase validity. First, each questionnaire was reviewed to
identify any on which students obviously provided frivolous answers. Such questionnaires were omitted from all analyses. Second, analyses were conducted to test for the reasonableness of responses and for the consistency of responses across related items. When inconsistent responses were identified, the entire case or the suspect items for that case were treated as missing data in all subsequent analyses. These two procedures identified few problems.
The validity of the survey is also bolstered by using a questionnaire based largely upon the CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey. The YRBS is a standardized instrument developed by the CDC in collaboration with other national and local health and education agencies (see Brener, N., Kann, L., McManus, T., Kinchen, S.A., Sundberg E.C., and Ross, J.G. [2002]. “Reliability of the 1999 Youth Risk Behavior Survey Questionnaire.” Journal of Adolescent Health, 31, 336-342).
Margaret, thanks for adding facts to the current discussion. What you describe seems like a quite reasonable place to start.
It sounds rather than needing a pledge during campaign season, we might benefit more from possible improvements in the implementation of the survey to maximize the value of the next survey (or sooner as needed). Maybe a student group could help provide ideas.
It would be also useful to know what how both the School Committee and Newton HHS Department might engage the public and act on the information the next time the survey comes around. The opiod crisis is not the only substance-related issue facing our city, but its growing scope and deathly impact merits extra concern and attention.
We need to be attentive and agile to react to changing trends in a caring and compassionate way.
While certainly noble, I doubt this would produce an accurate result. There’s a pretty strong drug problem at least at South, but students don’t admit to it in the surveys, so the data says otherwise. For those doubting, feel free to visit one of the boys bathrooms at South during the school day.
I just looked at the NPS website, but I can’t find the survey results. Does anyone have a link?
Jeffrey, It’s on a Google drive, https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B54ooqYkxofCN0QwUXRreGp0NjQ , then the last document.
I support Cyrus for shining a light on this but I don’t think more studies are what we need, 3rd party or otherwise. The study Ms. Albright points to is just percentages. How about numbers?
Knowing that it’s voluntary should tell us right there that the results are not reliable. Anybody who knows drug and opioid addicts or abusers and addicts (any hands being raised?) knows that they’re not going to tell the truth EVEN with a PROMISE of anonymity. Even with a promise that they’re not going to be reported to police.
Are knowing the trends helpful? Yes, but then what? Is there a correlation between students reporting higher in having an adult to talk to and lower in suicidal thoughts? If there is, then what is this telling the SC??? What is the SC going to do next, knowing this?
Because the PERCENTAGES show fewer REPORTING taking heroin, or oxycontin, does that mean we don’t take programs such as PATH as seriously? We still have a problem.
I’m with NewtonMom: “What is the community doing to change behaviors?” What more CAN we do? I know RuthAnne Fuller had some ideas..
Thanks Jane H. That helps.
@Jim What’s up in the boys’ bathrooms as Newton South?
@Buf Getting worse – in what way(s)? More use by more people? Different stronger opioids?
@Jane H The bathrooms at south are full of students juuling and smoking weed.
Katy,
So where is the school administration? Teachers? Do they just turn a blind eye? Are there no smoke detectors in the bathrooms?