Club Fosters Bonds for Troubled Girls

By Julia Parmley

Every other Wednesday afternoon in a classroom in Chillum, Md., 16 female students from fourth through eighth grade gather together. They talk about self-esteem and relationships and bond over cookie decorating and arts and crafts. Though different ages, the girls have one thing in common: They all have emotional and behavioral issues. They are students at the Prince George’s County campus of the Children’s Guild, a school that helps troubled kids build on their strengths through transformative educational methods.

Under the guidance of Children’s Guild staff, including school counselor Sheryl Jefferson and instructional coach and GW alumna Desiree Davis, M.A. ’03, students have been holding meetings of the Girls’ Club since 2004. At first merely a safe place for the girls to talk, the club has expanded to include field trips and activities outside the school.

For GW Assistant Professor of Special Education Elisabeth Hess Rice, these meetings are helping to support an “underrepresented population.” She says some of the girls are the only females in their respective classes and did not interact with each other until the Girls’ Club brought them together. “A recent educational survey of special education teachers showed that girls in this kind of setting are often alone and do not have a lot of support from staff or other girls,” says Dr. Rice. “The Girls’ Club pulls these girls together to share experiences and give each other encouragement.”

Dr. Rice helps run a master’s degree program in GW’s Department of Teacher Preparation and Special Education that prepares future teachers of students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). The student teachers work for a year in the University’s partner schools, which include the Children’s Guild, Kingsbury Day School in Washington, D.C., and Marshall Road Elementary School in Vienna, Va. Dr. Rice says GW has placed interns at the Children’s Guild for the past 10 years. “We learn from the schools and they learn from us, so it’s a true partnership,” she says, adding that GW interns have helped jumpstart the Girls’ Club every year.

In 2008, Dr. Rice and her colleagues implemented the “Relationship Module” from the GOAL curriculum—proactive, girl-specific programming developed by a team of psychotherapists, psychoanalysts, and educators—in Girls’ Club meetings. The new curriculum includes activities that help the girls bond and communicate. In interviews with Children’s Guild staff, Dr. Rice says she learned that the girls have begun greeting and approaching each other in the hallways for the first time. “This is pretty significant—many were previously unable to get along with others because of their disabilities,” says Dr. Rice. The girls also learned about teamwork at SUMMIT, GW’s outdoor ropes course on the Mount Vernon Campus.

At a tea at the end of the 2007-08 academic year, Dr. Rice says the girls stood up and shared their favorite Girls’ Club memories. “They got up in front of an audience and talked about what they had learned and all the good times they had at the club,” she says.

Dr. Rice, along with University Research Scientist Esther Merves and University Research Associates Amy Srsic and Margaux Brown, has been examining the influence of the club meetings on the girls’ behavior. Dr. Rice says the girls reported a higher “academic self-awareness” after a year of club meetings. “Girls with EBD can internalize some of their issues, so their progress can be more complex to follow,” she says. “But with the support of their fellow club members, the girls were beginning to feel more confident and felt they could achieve more academically.”

Dr. Rice and her colleagues will expand the study in the 2009-10 school year to include data from girls clubs at schools in Rockville, Md., and Fairfax County, Va. Last November, they presented their findings at a Teacher Educators for Children with Behavior Disorders conference in Arizona and have been invited to present at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association in San Diego this April. Dr. Rice says they also hope to publish their findings in a journal article.

Dr. Rice says more educators around the country are expressing interest in the study and starting their own girls clubs, which Dr. Rice hopes leads to more awareness about the necessity of adolescent female programming. “Females with EBD usually have the worse outcomes; it can be difficult for them to live on their own, get a job, or go to college,” she says. “Just seeing the friendship that came out of the club was wonderful, and hopefully the experience will lead to more positive futures for these girls.”

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