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Faculty

Michael E. Woolley, Ph.D.

Michael Woolley

- Biography
- Publications

Biography

Michael E. Woolley is an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Service Administration. His research and teaching interests revolve around the provision of social work services in schools, the risk and protective social environmental factors impacting school success, interpersonal practice with children and families, and the construction and validation of self-report assessment instruments for children and adolescents.

Professor Woolley teaches courses in the practice of social work in school settings and the foundation knowledge and skills for direct social work practice with individuals, families, and groups. Dr. Woolley is both a member of the Academy of Certified Social Workers and a Diplomate in Clinical Social Work through the National Association of Social Workers.

Dr. Woolley has published numerous book chapters about school issues such as advancing the social climate in schools, reducing school violence, and the assessment of children in social work practice. He has also published numerous articles in journals such as Family Relations, Children & Schools, Educational Psychologist, Educational and Psychological Measurement, Community Psychology, and Research on Social Work Practice. He recently co-edited two special issues of the journal Children & Schools focused on social work assessment in schools.

Michael Woolley

Dr. Woolley is the principal investigator of an NIMH-funded research project applying cognitive methods to examine how adolescents interpret and respond to self-report assessment instruments and he has been the principal investigator of funded research on how neighborhood social factors impact school outcomes. He is on the editorial boards of the journals Family Relations and Social Work Research. Additionally, Dr. Woolley has made numerous presentations at national conferences such as those organized by the Society of Social Work and Research, the American Education Research Association, and the National Dropout Prevention Network.

Dr. Woolley completed his Ph.D. at the School of Social Work, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a Weiss Fellow in 2000-2001, Senior Weiss Fellow in 2001-2002, and Co-doctoral Student of the Year in 2002-2003. In 1989, he completed his M.S.W. at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he received the Leadership and Service Award at graduation. In the years following the completion of his M.S.W. degree, Dr. Woolley gained extensive experience working with children, youth, and families in both school and mental health settings.

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Publications
  • Woolley, M.E. In press. Adult relationships supporting school success among Latino youth: Educational expectations, social support, and academic press. The Prevention Researcher.
  • Woolley, M.E., Strutchens, M.E., Gilbert, M.C. & Martin, W.G. In press. Student motivation and the math success of African American middle school students: Direct and indirect effects of teacher beliefs and reform practices. The Negro Education Review.
  • Martin, G.W., Strutchens, M.E., Woolley, M.E. & Gilbert, M.C. In press. "Changing Teachers' Attitudes and Practices Through Professional Development." National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Yearbook.
  • Woolley, M.E., Kol, K. & Bowen, G.L. 2009. The social context of school success for Latino middle school students: Direct and indirect influences of teachers, family, and friends. Journal of Early Adolescence 29: 43-70.
  • Woolley, M.E. & Patton, D.U. 2009. "School violence." In Encyclopedia of the Life Course and Human Development, Childhood, eds. D. Carr, R. Crosnoe, M. E. Hughes & A. Pienta. Macmillan: Farmington Hills, MI.
  • Joe, S., Woolley, M.E., Brown, G.K., Ghahramanlou-Holloway, M., & Beck, A.T. 2008. Psychometric properties of the Beck Depression Inventory-II in low income African-American suicide attempters. Journal of Personality Assessment 90(5): 521- 523.
  • Woolley, M.E. 2008. "Assessment of children." In Comprehensive handbook of social work and social welfare, volume 3: Social work practice, eds. W. Rowe & L. Rapp- Paglicci, 215-245. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley and Sons.
  • Woolley, M. E., Grogan-Kaylor, A. Gilster, M. E., Karb, R. A., Gant, L. M. & Reischl, T. 2008. Neighborhood social support, poor physical conditions, and academic achievement. Children & Schools 30: 133-145.
  • Karabenick, S.A., Woolley, M.E., Friedel, J.M., Ammon, B.V., Blazevski, J., Bonney, C.R., De Groot, E., Gilbert, M.C., Kelley, K.L., Kempler, T.M. & Musu, L. 2007. Cognitive processing of self-report items in educational research: Do they think what we mean? Educational Psychologist 42(3): 139-151.
  • Mowbray, C.T., Woolley, M.E., Grogan-Kaylor, A., Gant, L.M., Gilster, M.E. & Williams-Shanks, T.R. 2007. Neighborhood research from a spatially oriented strengths perspective. Journal of Community Psychology.
  • Woolley, M.E. & Bowen, G.L. 2007. In the context of risk: Social capital and the school engagement of middle school students. Family Relations 56: 92-104.
  • Woolley, M.E. 2006. "Advancing a positive school climate for students, families, and staff." In School social work and mental health worker's training and resource manual, eds. C. Franklin, M.B. Harris & P. Allen-Meares. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Grogan-Kaylor, A., Woolley, M.E., Mowbray, C.T., Reischl, T., Gilster, M.E., Karb, R.A., MacFarlane, P., Gant, L. & Alaimo, K. 2006. Predictors of neighborhood satisfaction. Journal of Community Practice.
  • Woolley, M.E., Bowen, G.L. & Bowen, N.K. 2006. The development and evaluation of procedures to assess child self-report item validity. Educational and Psychological Measurement 66: 687-700.
  • Woolley, M.E. & Grogan-Kaylor, A. 2006. Protective family factors in the context of neighborhood: Promoting positive school outcomes. Family Relations 55: 95-106.
  • Woolley, M.E., Bowen, N.K. & Bowen, G.L. 2005. "Mixed methods": Meaning and validity in the development of self-report items for children. In Sourcebook of family theories and methods: An interactive approach, eds. A. Acock, K. Allen, V. Bengtson, D. Klein & P. Dilworth-Anderson. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
  • Woolley, M.E., Bowen, G.L. & Bowen, N.K. 2004. Cognitive pretesting and the developmental validity of child self-report instruments: Theory and applications. Research on Social Work Practice 14: 191-200.
  • Richman, J.M., Bowen, G.L. & Woolley, M.E. 2004. "School failure": An ecointeractional developmental perspective. In Risk and resilience in childhood, 2nd edition, ed. M.W. Fraser. Washington, DC: NASW Press.
  • Bowen, G.L., Powers, J., Woolley, M.E. & Bowen, N.K. 2003. "School violence." In Handbook of prevention interventions for children and adolescents, eds. L.A. Rapp- Paglicci, C.N. Dulmus & J.S.Wodarski. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

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