Byron McClure, EdD, is a passionate advocate for school psychology. When expanding on the importance of social-emotional learning (SEL) for students, his thoughtful, measured cadence speeds up, and every word seems weighted for impact. “Can you hear me pounding on the table?” he joked.
McClure believes in a strengths-based, people-centered approach to supporting students. He’s worked in historically underserved schools, and he led the complete redesign of one high school in Southeast D.C. The company he founded, Lessons For SELopens in new window, was recently acquired by the Georgia-based social-emotional learning provider 7 Mindsets. McClure is now director of innovation for 7 Mindsets, working remotely from Houston, where he is devoted to spreading his approach to schools around the country.
McClure is also passionate about working with Black youth and Black families. Schools are an avenue to support Black kids who might not otherwise have access to a mental health professional, he said, and it was this promise that first drew him to school psychology. Today, schools and school psychology are increasingly central to national conversations around mental health. A recent example is the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Actopens in new window, which includes $500 million in grants for school-based mental health services and another $500 million in grants for training school counselors, school social workers, and school psychologists.
The Monitor talked to McClure about the power of school psychologists to change students’ lives.
How did you get involved in school psychology?
I don’t want to say I fell into school psychology because that’s clumsy. Instead, I believe it was divine. I went to graduate school at Abilene Christian University to become a clinical psychologist, and there was an introductory class I had to take looking at different types of psychology job prospects. One of the things I’ve always wanted to do was work with Black youth and people of color. During that class, I realized that Black people, at that point in time, rarely actively sought out therapy. I was devastated to learn that people I wanted to work with had so many barriers and limitations to accessing therapy.
I was having an existential crisis—I always joke I was dramatically flat-out on the floor—when this woman walks by. She had this nurturing, “I can fix everything” personality, so I just poured my soul out to her. And she said, “Well, you know, you can become a school psychologist.”
That’s why it was divine. Out of all the people I could have run into, it just happened to be the director of school psychology, Dr. Jennifer Shewmaker. She introduced me to school psychology and changed the trajectory of my life.
What is the importance of social-emotional learning in schools, and why have you devoted your career to spreading SEL?
I’ve dedicated my career to this work because I’ve seen that focusing on social-emotional development, especially of Black students, equips them with the skills they need to be successful. They can go to college, they can go into the workforce, they can navigate difficult situations and use these tools and skills to make sense of the world around them. They can build strong relationships and connections with other people.
I subscribe to the philosophy of Dr. James Comer [a Black MD/MPH at the Yale School of Medicine], one of the founders of SEL. He started this work in New Haven, Connecticut, by going to underserved schools back in the 1960s. He said the way we turn these schools around is to focus on the social-emotional learning of young people. He saw youth skills grow tremendously, and the schools went from being the last, statistically, to being some of the top elementary schools in New Haven. You give the students the skills they need, you help meet their unmet needs, and our young people will fly.
You helped lead the redesign of the high school where you worked in Southeast D.C. What did that project look like?
There were so many problems inside of the school—violence, unmet mental health needs, and poor staff and student morale. I came in as a school psychologist and focused on social-emotional learning and restorative practices. But the school was in a position where they had to make some drastic changes, so at the end of my second year there, the chancellor made the decision to radically transform the school. I went on to become the assistant director of redesign.
I traveled across the country looking at different innovative school models. My role was elevating student voices and listening to student concerns. We looked at every single aspect of the school, from school-entry procedures to discipline practices, to SEL, to instructional models, to overall culture and climate, to assessment and grading practices. We ran pilots to see what worked. We got feedback. Every single aspect of the school was examined through a process of human-centered design. One of our initiatives included pairing every ninth-grade student with an adult who could support them one-on-one. We called this the “Dream Team” program.
Often in schools, people get it wrong because they’re not inviting the community to the table. We ceded power; we elevated those who had been historically marginalized. We’re putting power in the hands of the people. I transitioned out of that role last July, but even now, the data continues to show that this redesign was impactful. For instance, the Dream Team program boosted student sense of belonging 11%, and we saw an 87% promotion rate of ninth graders to 10th grade, our highest rate ever.
Is the education system harnessing school psychologists for this work as much as it should be?
No, it isn’t. School psychologists are trained to use assessment and tools to place students for special education purposes. When we look at the statistics from professional surveys, that’s the biggest role and responsibility of school psychologists. We also see that the ratio is about one psychologist for every 1,200 students. The National Association of School Psychologists recommends one to 500. That’s an advocacy and funding issue. If you’re only testing and placing students, you don’t have time to tap into the full scope of your role, which includes things like mental health interventions, behavioral interventions, crisis preparedness, family-school-community collaboration, and program evaluation.
But now is an exciting time to enter the profession. Students are exhibiting significant behavioral concerns. We know there is a dire need for mental health supports. A major shift is happening in the field of school psychology, and that shift is people advocating for adequate funding for the needs of our young people. We can see those dollars translating to programs and initiatives, which means that young people are going to be impacted. It gives meaning to the work we’re doing.
