WSU Pullman Archives - ��سԹ�

WSU faculty receive $1.4 million grant for assessment addressing truancy in schools

Maegan Murray — Thu, 22 Jul 2021 18:49:50 +0000

By Maegan Murray, ��سԹ�

RICHLAND, Wash. – Several Washington State University faculty are the recipients of a $1.4 million grant from the to refine and expand an assessment that helps address truancy in K-12 schools.

Paul Strand, ��سԹ� professor of psychology

The program, also known as WARNS, uses evidence-driven procedures to track and improve interventions with students. The program was developed in 2008 to assess students on a scale of six needs that have been linked to truancy, delinquency and/or dropping out of school: aggression-defiance, depression-anxiety, substance abuse, peer deviance, family environment and school engagement. More than 100 schools in Washington state and across the nation are now using the tool.

Paul Strand, ��سԹ� professor of psychology, Brian French, Berry Family Distinguished professor and director of WSU’s and , Nick Lovrich, WSU Regents professor emeritus, and Bruce Austin, research associate in educational psychology and the LPRC, have worked since 2014 to evaluate and refine WARNS. With the grant, the group is also adding the following members to their team to help refine the tool: Chad Gotch and Marcus Poppen, both WSU assistant professors in education, and Mary Roduta Roberts, an associate professor of occupational therapy at the University of Alberta.

French said what makes the program so successful is its ability to hone-in on issues that lead to truancy early in a student’s educational path. Schools can develop a plan for how to address those issues and increase the student’s likelihood of being successful. He said what was made especially clear amid the COVID-19 pandemic is the need to get information to counselors regarding student issues at home and other external factors that prevent students’ current and future success.

“This grant will also allow us more space to examine its success,” French said. “We will also be looking into specific implications of the WARNS – how it is used and the success when it is in use. We want to look at the implications and gather data to know how those conversations are helping and specific instances of how that is happening. Then, we can continue to build from that information.”

Updating the assessment

Strand said the new grant will allow the team to update the instrument in a few ways. He said a variety of new issues have arisen that have impacted school attendance and performance in recent years. Examples, he said, include the prevalence of vaping and social media use.

Additionally, the team aims to improve the middle school version of the instrument to tailor it further for issues that pertain to that specific age demographic.

“The grant allows us to explore the context of student situations and how to refine WARNS to reflect that context,” Strand said.

Identifying issues early to reduce truancy, drop-out rates

Brian French, Berry Family Distinguished professor and director of WSU’s Learning and Performance Research Center and Psychometric Laboratory

French said more than 10,000 assessments have been given through the program.

“To me, that represents 10,000 productive conversations that have occurred with kids,” he said. “We can look at the large numbers to help us do that, but each of those individual conversations are helping make a difference in the lives of thousands of kids each year.”

Strand said schools use the data from the assessment to develop and implement a plan for at-risk students through school community truancy boards to help prevent and/or correct student behavior.

“With the pandemic, we have seen that many counselors are struggling to stay connected and invested in kids,” he said. “But what we have seen with WARNS is that it has helped schools stay connected and invested in kids. The pandemic wasn’t something we could have envisioned, but it is a tool that has helped.”

For more information about WARNS, including how to implement it for individual schools or school districts, visit

Media contacts:

Paul Strand, ��سԹ� professor of psychology, pstrand@wsu.edu
Brian French, WSU Pullman Berry Family Distinguished professor and director of WSU’s Learning and Performance Research Center and Psychometric Laboratory, frenchb@wsu.edu
Maegan Murray, ��سԹ� director of marketing and communication, 509-372-7333 (office), 619-403-3617 (cell), maegan_murray@wsu.edu
Brandon Chapman, WSU College of Education public relations/communications manager, 509-335-6850, b.chapman@wsu.edu

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��سԹ� team takes top honors at intercollegiate wine business competition

Maegan Murray — Wed, 20 Nov 2019 19:54:06 +0000

By Maegan Murray, ��سԹ�

RICHLAND, Wash. – Student business teams from and took home top honors at the this month that required them to research and create extensive business plans for a fictitious wine grown and created in Washington state.

��سԹ� wine and beverage business student Danae Williams

A ��سԹ� team, comprised of students Kyle Brunson and Danae Williams, earned the grand prize at the competition for their combined score for their business plan, financial plan and wine label for their wine “Gladiolus Red Mountain Rosé .”

A team from WSU Pullman, comprised of students Crisol Barajas, Sherlane Yuen, Brittany Jacobs, Becca Jainga, Eunjeong Kim, and Justin Walker earned top prize for their financial plan for their wine “Ribbon Pink Ladies Rosé .”

Another team from WSU Pullman also earned “honorable mention” for the overall award for their wine “Colossus Wine,” scoring just 1.5 points below the winning ��سԹ� team. Team members included Ashton Sidebottom, Joy Kam, Annika Roberts, Sam Levora, Ashley Molina, Megan O’Mera.

The competition welcomed student teams from several university campuses, which, in addition to ��سԹ� and WSU Pullman, included Michigan State University, Florida International University, Linfield College and Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.

Insights into business practices for wine

The teams were required to create detailed business and financial plans for their fictitious wine valued at $25-$40, as well as a wine label, all of which they submitted virtually to be judged. A panel of experts ranging from wine experts, to journalists and more, then evaluated each component of the competition and an award was presented to the student team with the best combined score, as well as individual awards for best scores for individual business plan, financial plan and wine label.

��سԹ� business student Kyle Brunson

The ��سԹ� team designed a rosé comprised of a blend of Syrah and Merlot, that, for their project, was hypothetically grown and created on Red Mountain in the Tri-Cities. The region is known for its great soil, and the wine presented excellent marketability and a great business infrastructure that is already established in the area.

Williams said she and Brunson did extensive research about the cost of the grapes, storage, sales, distribution, and other business and financial components required to successfully run and promote a wine estate. Brunson also sought the help of a friend who works at a local winery to gain information regarding the cost of wine grapes and other production components to get a realistic picture of costs in a working winery.

“The project provided a great introduction into what it really takes to run not only a business, but a wine business, in particular,” Williams said. “It was good to be able to see exactly what all goes into owning a winery. It was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be, but it was incredibly useful for what I will need in the future working for a wine business.”

Career connections

Williams is majoring in wine and beverage business management at ��سԹ�, so the project served as perfect experience and practice for her career trajectory. She is also the recipient of the Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits student scholarship at ��سԹ�.

“My ultimate goal is to own my own winery,” she said. “It was a fun project that provided a lot of great hands-on experience in the wine field.”

For other students pursuing a different area within the business field, the opportunity also provided a great outlet to dive into a real-world project.

Brunson, who is studying business management and administration at ��سԹ� and currently working as an intern out at the Hanford Site in facilities and operations, said the project provided a great opportunity for developing a comprehensive business plan and an ideal introduction for his capstone course he is taking this year.

“It was really rewarding,” he said. “I got to apply all that I have been learning from all my other classes. It provided a great opportunity to really explore what it takes to run a business and the practical aspects of making that business a success.”

For more information on the ��سԹ� wine and beverage business management and hospitality business management programs, visit tricities.wsu.edu/business/undergraduate/wbm and .

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From prison to WSU to Stanford

Maegan Murray — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 00:15:42 +0000

By Will Ferguson, WSU News

Noel Vest’s goal was to go to community college to earn a degree as a chemical dependency counselor when he walked out the doors of a Nevada prison on June 28, 2009.

Other than hard labor, it was the only career he thought was possible for a formerly incarcerated person.

Almost a decade later Vest is about to graduate from Washington State University with a PhD in psychology and start the next chapter of his life as a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University.

“Never in a million years would I have dreamed I’d be where I am today,” Vest said. “There’s a lot to be said about finding what drives you and for me that has been pursuing a career in higher education. It gave me the direction and motivation I needed to turn my life around.”

Road to recovery

As a young adult, Vest’s personal struggles with alcohol, drug and substance use left him isolated from his family and young daughter and eventually landed him in a Nevada prison cell. He served seven years for 21 different charges, ranging from drug convictions to identity theft.

Halfway through his sentence, he knew he needed a change.

In addition to attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, Vest started taking courses at the College of Southern Nevada and teaching in the prison school. He quickly discovered learning and teaching others gave him a sense of direction and purpose he had never felt before.

When he was released from prison, Vest moved to Richland, Wash., and became a certified chemical dependency counselor through the Columbia Basin College.

He later attended ��سԹ� and graduated with a bachelors in psychology and a 4.0 GPA, a marked improvement from his 2.02 GPA in high school. In 2014, Vest was accepted into the WSU experimental psychology doctorate program in Pullman.

Vest’s PhD advisor and mentor, Sarah Tragesser, associate professor of psychology at ��سԹ�, expressed to him early on the importance of publishing frequently and having at least one publication as the first author.

Vest leveraged his connections in the chemical dependency field in the Tri-Cities to orchestrate a series of projects examining how mental illness, chronic pain and other co-occurring conditions influence the likelihood of a person developing a substance use disorder. He used the results of his studies to publish four papers, three of which were first author publications.

“Noel’s research identified how physical pain, depression and other individual differences can impact treatment and how certain points of time in treatment can be critical points of intervention,” Tragesser said. “I will miss his great sense of humor and infectious passion for substance use research. He is always thinking about how his work can make an impact on the world.”

Lasting influence

While at WSU, Vest founded Cougs for Recovery, a support group for students struggling with any behavioral or chemical addiction. He also played an instrumental role campaigning for the passage of the 2018 Fair Chance in Higher Education Act, which prohibits Washington State institutes of higher education from inquiring about a student’s criminal history before that individual has been accepted for enrollment.

“When you take jobs or the ability to go to college away from someone, they aren’t going to be successful whether they have a criminal history or not,” Vest said. “My hope is that the work I’ve done at WSU will continue to play a role helping formerly incarcerated persons in Washington to turn their lives around.”

Next steps

This June, Vest will move to Palo Alto to begin working with Keith Humphries, professor of psychiatry at Stanford and one of the world’s foremost experts in the prevention and treatment of addictive disorders.

Vest said his hope is that his research will ultimately play a role in changing the U.S. justice system’s prevailing deficit-based approach to prison re-entry, where individuals are viewed as lacking appropriate skills or abilities, to a more strength or hope-based approach that focuses on reinforcing pre-existing qualities that can be nurtured to reinforce positive change.

“Eventually I would love to be able to recruit formerly incarcerated scholars to a research program,” Vest said. “There is a certain level of lived experience that really can never be learned in a book that enables you to see the picture more clearly and ask the right questions.”

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$2.2M to fund English learning development for teachers

Maegan Murray — Wed, 05 Oct 2016 20:59:13 +0000

By C. Brandon Chapman, College of Education

VANCOUVER, Wash. – Washington State University has won a five-year, $2.2 million grant to increase the number of certified K-8 teachers with bilingual and English learners (EL) endorsements and to provide professional development to improve EL instruction.

One of the main goals is to build on the strengths and talents of experienced paraprofessionals. The project will provide full scholarships to a minimum of 52 paraprofessionals to complete their bachelor’s degrees in education with EL endorsements. It is anticipated that at least 30 percent will be bilingual.

Other goals of the project, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, will be to improve parental, family and community engagement and build resources for local outreach and national replication.

EL teacher shortage

None of the 295 school districts in Washington had their ELs meet all reading or math standards during the 2013-14 school year, according to the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. ELs had much lower pass rates in reading than the student population at large, said EL professor Gisela Ernst-Slavit from the College of Education at WSU Vancouver.

Gisela Ernst-Slavit

“Washington schools are facing a crisis right now,” said Ernst-Slavit, who will work on the grant project with Judy Morrison, Yuliya Ardasheva and Sarah Newcomer at WSU Tri-cities and Kira Carbonneau at WSU Pullman.

The simple solution is to increase the quantity of EL teachers. But Washington – like most states – is experiencing an overall teacher shortage, especially in the central and southwestern parts of the state.

“As a result, what we see are schools using stop-gap measures to fill voids,” Ernst-Slavit said. “That includes emergency certifications and using substitute teachers instead of full-time teachers, which does a disservice to both teacher quality and student learning. Ultimately, student achievement suffers.”

Tri-Cities, Vancouver districts partner

Nowhere is this more apparent than around the Tri-Cities. While the state average of EL students per district is 10.5 percent, Pasco, for example, has 52 percent.

Pasco schools – along with those from Evergreen, Grandview, Kennewick, Prosser and Richland – are partner districts in the project, which is called Equity for Language Learners-Improving Practices and Acquisition of Culturally-Responsive Teaching (ELL-IMPACT).

“Collaboration between mentor teachers and our teacher education programs is at the core of this project,” said Ernst-Slavit, citing the WSU researchers’ specialized knowledge, expertise, cultural backgrounds and research perspective. “This is the kind of collaboration that places the college in a unique position to address the needs of our state by providing access and opportunity to our diverse communities.”

Contact:
Gisela Ernst-Slavit, WSU Vancouver College of Education, 360-546-9659, gernst@wsu.edu

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WSU Pullman Archives - ���سԹ�