|
A positive school climate—where students feel a sense of safety and belonging and where trust prevails—improves academic achievement, test scores, grades, and engagement and helps reduce the negative effects of poverty on academic achievement. To bring about such environments, teachers, paraprofessionals, and school and district leaders must be prepared to create the school and classroom structures that encourage secure relationships.
|
A positive school climate can be an effective counter to harassment, bullying, and other forms of social identity threat that many students experience. This blog explores how strong, trust-based relationships and other “whole child” strategies can facilitate a student’s sense of belonging. This improves learning, development, and wellness among students, especially for those who are harassed or marginalized because of their race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, or sexual identity.
Jacqueline AncessBethany L. RogersDeAnna Duncan GrandLinda Darling-Hammond
|
Most students at New York’s Bronxdale High School enter 9th grade achieving well below proficiency levels on standardized tests, yet they end up outperforming their peers and city averages in credit accrual, graduation rates, and enrollment in postsecondary education. Educators at Bronxdale teach the way students learn best by tightly weaving social and emotional skills and academic mindsets with academic learning in a safe, caring and collaborative learning environment.
|
Both students' learning and their overall health and well-being are improved when schools adopt "whole child" supports and practices. Multi-disciplinary research identifies four main ingredients of school success that allow us to care for and nurture the potential in all children: a positive school climate, productive instructional strategies, social-emotional development, and individualized supports. In this post, LPI Senior Researcher Lisa Flook identifies the steps schools and school systems can take to foster students’ social and emotional well-being.
Linda Darling-HammondLisa FlookChanna Cook-HarveyBrigid BarronDavid Osher
|
Applied Developmental Science by Linda Darling-Hammond, Lisa Flook, Channa Cook-Harvey, Brigid Barron & David Osher | Our understanding of human development and learning has grown rapidly in recent years, providing insight into how to shape more effective educational practices. This article draws from several branches of educational research about well-vetted strategies to support the kinds of relationships and learning opportunities that promote children’s well-being, healthy development.
Linda Darling-HammondChanna Cook-HarveyLisa FlookMadelyn GardnerHanna Melnick
|
The School Development Program (SDP) established by child psychiatrist James P. Comer and the Yale Child Study Center, is grounded in the belief that successful schooling—particularly for children from disadvantaged backgrounds—must focus on the whole child. With the Whole Child in Mind describes SDP’s six developmental pathways and explains how the program's nine key components create a comprehensive approach to educating children for successful outcomes.
|
Each year in the United States, 46 million children are exposed to violence, crime, abuse, homelessness, or food insecurity—experiences that can affect attention, learning, and behavior. This report looks at neuroscience, science of learning, and child development research on whole child approaches to education that improve learning for all students, especially those living with trauma.
|
Students living with the toxic stress and trauma of poverty and crime can struggle to learn. Research on science of learning and development shows that these struggles can be addressed through whole child and positive school climate approaches that support academic, physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development—systems that put students’ healthy growth and development at the center of the classroom.
|
A new study identifies policy and practice strategies that foster strong academic, social, and emotional learning, based on the science of learning and development.
Teachers who receive thorough preparation and are supported with high-quality professional learning opportunities throughout their careers are better equipped to meet the needs of all their students.
