This resource comes from W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s work that includes recommended tools and resources for implementing racial equity strategies as part of a human resources function. This resource can be valuable to human resources and culture and equity professionals. It may also be useful to any leader doing internal organizational transformation work in school communities.
Research shows that students who feel known and valued are more prepared to meaningfully engage in learning. Students who experience a sense of belonging have better self-esteem, higher rates of classroom participation, and higher academic achievement (Korpershoek, 2018). As a result of creating a positive school climate for both students and educators, the elementary school featured in this report had the conditions in place to make rapid academic gains. When educators implemented the instructional improvements described in this case study, student proficiency improved dramatically because children were in the right mindset for learning.
The science of learning and development demonstrates the value of positive relationships for student success and well-being. This brief describes structures that secondary schools can integrate to cultivate conditions that enable healthy attachments to grow. Specifically, it highlights structures that can foster personal teacher–student relationships, including those that create small learning communities, promote safety and belonging, support culturally sustaining and relevant education, and foster student voice and agency. In addition, it describes structures that enable relationship-building between and among staff and families so that relationships can become more fully embedded into a school’s culture and fabric. School structures can create opportunities for relationships to develop, but those structures are only as powerful as the interactions within them.
This brief draws on a study of teacher working conditions and their relationship to teacher retention and school performance in North Carolina. It is part of a series of studies conducted by the Learning Policy Institute—
in collaboration with WestEd and the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation at North Carolina State University—as part of an action plan developed to inform ongoing efforts to ensure compliance with the North Carolina Supreme Court’s decision in Leandro v. the State of North Carolina. That case affirmed the state’s constitutional responsibility to provide
every student an equal opportunity for a sound basic education, including access to qualified teachers and administrators. Requested by the court in conjunction with both plaintiffs and defendants, the action plan aims to
identify root causes of current inequalities and evidence-based solutions to meet the constitutional standard.
This toolkit from Panorama outlines ways school districts can understand and address common barriers to engagement with families. It also provides information on the Panorama Family-School Relationships Survey, which uses questions to identify what family members perceive as obstacles to engaging with their child’s school, schools can set goals and improve family-school partnerships in targeted, data-driven ways.
Section 3 of Trauma-Informed, Resilience-Oriented Schools Toolkit. A trauma-informed, resilience-oriented school honors the need to prioritize the well-being of all staff. Compassion fatigue and burnout are increasingly prevalent when staff members work daily with students who are impacted by trauma and toxic stress. This reading aims to increase awareness and understanding of compassion fatigue, burnout, and compassion resilience. Learn about how to encourage wellness assessment and seek feedback from staff on resilient culture, implement individual and district-wide adaptations to promote resilience in staff.
The six key practices for school transformation are illustrated on this infographic from the Community Schools Forward Framework, informed by both research and practice. The framework shows the integrated nature of the key practices and emphasizes the enabling conditions (i.e., trusting relationships, inclusive decision-making, a shared vision, and actionable data) and supportive infrastructure that must be in place for effective implementation.
Key Practices for Community Schools Transformation Read More »
This brief from the Learning Policy Institute highlights lessons learned from New Mexico’s investment in community schools. Drawing on profiles of three sites that received state implementation grants, we find that community schools implementing the key practices at the center of New Mexico’s community schools framework are seeing improvement across a range of indicators, including growth in test scores, increased graduation rates, reduced chronic absence, increased student engagement and connectedness, improved school climate, greater access to mental and physical health care, and stronger family engagement. Key to achieving these outcomes were state investments to support hiring school coordinators and to provide professional development and technical assistance.
New Mexico Community Schools: Improving Student Opportunities and Outcomes Read More »
Baskerville Elementary is a public school located in North Carolina, in a small city setting that has seen many natural disasters in the past few years. Reada bout how their principal sought buy-in from the school community to create a trauma-informed school. A Resilience Team was built with leaders of the school to take the next step beyond training and awareness and begin to implement trauma-informed change and strategies school-wide. heck out additional learning and resources from the NC Center for Resilience and Learning
Building Resilience and a Trauma Informed School Read More »
In a culturally responsive school or district, students’, families’, and educators’ cultures are included in all aspects of supports and services that promote well-being and mental health. Anti-racist policies and practices promote equity and oppose racism and other forms of oppression. Equitable schools and districts provide the climate and resources that enable all students and educators to perform at their highest level. Culturally responsive, anti-racist and equitable (CARE) schools and districts embrace cultural differences and assets; use cultural knowledge to promote wellness and academic success; mediate power imbalances based on cultural identities; and work to dismantle systems of injustice.
The resources in this learning playlist focus on building a positive school climate and are recommended for schools or districts that have started to do some exploration in this area and wondering what to do next.
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