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Attending relationship-centered schools can enhance students’ academic outcomes, motivation, and positive social behavior. This study shares the emerging impacts of two relationship-centered efforts to foster student learning and well-being in schools and districts, including approaches that allow students and adults to build trust and shared knowledge.
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The Relationship Centered Schools (RCS) campaign seeks to transform schools by creating opportunities for relationship-building, valuing student voice, and investing in staff. The experiences of two RCS sites in California shed light on factors that enable or hinder relationship-centered practices as well as implications for practice and policy.
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UCLA Community School (UCLA-CS), a public school in central Los Angeles, serves a large immigrant population, almost all of whom use a language other than English to communicate with their families. Six key practices contribute to UCLA-CS’s positive school-level outcomes, including above average graduation rates and teacher retention.
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At Oakland International High School, all students are newcomers, meaning they have been in the United States for fewer than 3 years. Most students are English learners, and many have experienced interruptions in their schooling. Oakland International leverages community school structures and partnerships to support students’ success.
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The Office of the California Surgeon General has launched a free, self-paced training resource designed to help educators, school personnel, and child care providers understand and respond to trauma and stress in youth.
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Infrastructure at Oakland Unified School District helped to successfully implement a community schools approach by centralizing processes and systems and providing support for family engagement and professional learning and development.
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Oakland Unified School District's long-standing community schools initiative offers lessons for districts implementing a community schools strategy, illustrating an approach focused on integrating whole child educational practices and providing sustained support through centralized district infrastructure.
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Examining how Oakland Unified School District successfully implemented a community schools approach, researchers found structures that support effective partnerships, Coordination of Services Teams, community school managers, professional learning and development, and family engagement.
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High-quality civics education supports students to be informed, active, and engaged citizens throughout their lives. In the face of declining civics knowledge in America, a growing number of states are implementing policies that support a new approach to civics education that engages students in inquiry, reasoning, and action.
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Parents, teachers, and researchers agree: Students need social and emotional skills to reach their full potential. Students may face hardships that impede their ability to learn, such as discrimination, housing insecurity, and school safety. Schools can enact polices that support whole child development to help their students’ through difficult times.