Educating the Whole Child: Improving School Climate to Support

Linda Darling-Hammond and Channa M. Cook-Harvey

Educating the Whole Child:

Improving School Climate to

Support Student Success

SEPTEMBER 2018

Educating the Whole Child:

Improving School Climate to

Support Student Success

Linda Darling-Hammond and Channa M. Cook-Harvey

ii LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Castle Redmond and Jennifer Chheang at the California Endowment for their

thoughtful guidance and input into this report. We also beneted from the feedback of a number of California

educators, researchers, community organization leaders, and advocates, including Teiahsha Bankhead,

Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth; Joseph Bishop, Center for the Transformation of Schools at UCLA;

Dwight Bonds, California Association of African-American Superintendents and Administrators; Susan Bonilla,

Council for a Strong America; Raymond Colmenar, The California Endowment; Sean Darling-Hammond,

University of California, Berkeley; Joyce Dorado, University of California, San Francisco; Laura Faer, Public

Counsel Law Center; Sophie Fanelli, Stuart Foundation; Liz Guillen, Public Advocates; Jessica Gunderson,

Partnership for Children & Youth; Thomas Hanson, WestEd; Heather Hough, Policy Analysis for California

Education; Taryn Ishida, Californians for Justice; Debbie Lee, Futures Without Violence; Sergio Luna, PICO

California; Brent Malicote, Sacramento County Ofce of Education; Kim Mecum, Fresno Unied School

District; Mary Perry, California State PTA; Glen Price, California Department of Education; Ryan Smith, The

Education Trust–West; Elisha Smith Arrillaga, The Education Trust–West; Brad Strong, Children Now; Sylvia

Torres-Guillén, ACLU of Southern California; and David Washburn, EdSource.

We appreciate LPI colleagues Lisa Flook, Roberta Furger, and Hanna Melnick for providing background research

and input to this report, and Charlie Thompson for her expert help with references and citations. In addition,

thanks are due to Aaron Reeves and Gretchen Wright for their design and editing contributions to this project,

and to Lisa Gonzales for overseeing the editorial and production processes.

This document draws upon the article “Implications for Practice of the Science of Learning and Development”

by Linda Darling-Hammond, Lisa Flook, Channa Cook-Harvey, Brigid Barron, and David Osher, and on two

articles, recently published in Applied Developmental Science, from the Science of Learning and Development

initiative on which it builds: Cantor, P., Osher, D., Berg, J., Steyer, L., & Rose, T. (2018). Malleability, plasticity,

and individuality: How children learn and develop in context and Osher, D., Cantor, P., Berg, J., Steyer, L., Rose, T.

(2018). Drivers of human development: How relationships and context shape learning and development.

We are grateful to The California Endowment for its funding of this report. Funding for this area of LPI’s work

is also provided by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, and the Stuart Foundation.

Core operating support for the Learning Policy Institute is provided by the Sandler Foundation, the William

and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Ford Foundation.

External Reviewers

This report beneted from the insights and expertise of two external reviewers: Mark Greenberg, Bennett Chair

of Prevention Research at Penn State University and Founding Director of the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention

Research Center; and Ming-Te Wang, Associate Professor of Psychology and Education and Research Scientist

at Learning Research and Development Center. We thank them for the care and attention they gave the report;

any shortcomings remain our own.

The suggested citation for this report is: Darling-Hammond, L., & Cook-Harvey, C. M. (2018). Educating the

whole child: Improving school climate to support student success. Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute.

This report can be found online at https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/educating-whole-child.

Cover photo © Drew Bird.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD iii

Table of Contents

Executive Summary.................................................................................................................................. v

Introduction

...............................................................................................................................................1

The Need for a Whole Child Approach to Education

......................................................................1

The Shifts That Are Needed

...........................................................................................................2

Key Lessons From the Sciences of Learning and Development

........................................................4

1. Development is malleable

.........................................................................................................4

2. Variability in human development is the norm, not the exception

............................................4

3. Human relationships are the essential ingredient that catalyzes

healthy development and learning

............................................................................................5

4. Adversity aﬀects learning—and the way schools respond matters

...........................................6

5. Learning is social, emotional, and academic

............................................................................7

6. Children actively construct knowledge based on their experiences,

relationships, and social contexts

.............................................................................................8

Implications for Schools: The Critical Importance of a Whole Child

Framework and a Positive School Climate

...........................................................................................9

Why a Whole Child Approach Is Essential

................................................................................... 10

School Climate and Culture: The Foundation for Development

.................................................. 11

Strategies for Developing Productive School Environments

........................................................... 14

Building Positive Classroom and School Environments

.............................................................. 15

Shaping Positive Student Behaviors

........................................................................................... 22

Providing Supports for Student Motivation and Learning

........................................................... 27

Creating Multi-Tiered Systems of Support to Address Student Needs

...................................... 32

Policy Strategies

.................................................................................................................................... 36

Developing and Assessing Positive Learning Environments

....................................................... 37

Using School Climate Data to Diagnose School Needs

.............................................................. 38

Helping Schools Improve Climate and Culture

............................................................................ 40

Reducing Rates of Exclusionary Discipline

................................................................................. 42

Providing a Multi-Tiered System of Student Support

.................................................................. 44

Investing in Educator Preparation and Development

................................................................. 45

iv LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD

Recommendations ................................................................................................................................ 50

Recommendation #1:

Focus the System on Developmental Supports for Young People .......................................... 50

Recommendation #2:

Design Schools to Provide Settings for Healthy Development ............................................... 51

Recommendation #3:

Ensure Educator Learning for Developmentally Supportive Education .................................. 52

Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................. 53

Endnotes ................................................................................................................................................. 54

About the Authors ................................................................................................................................. 68

List of Figures and Tables

Figure 1: The Whole Child Ecosystem ..........................................................................................2

Figure 2: A Framework for Whole Child Education .......................................................................... 14

Figure 3: Sample NYC Department of Education School Quality Snapshot Summary ................... 40

Figure 4: California Principals Report Wanting More Professional Development ........................... 48

Table 1: The National School Climate Council’s 13 Dimensions of School Climate ....................... 12

LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD v

Executive Summary

New knowledge about human development from neuroscience and the sciences of learning and

development demonstrates that effective learning depends on secure attachments; afrming

relationships; rich, hands-on learning experiences; and explicit integration of social, emotional,

and academic skills. A positive school environment supports students’ growth across all the

developmental pathways—physical, psychological, cognitive, social, and emotional—while it

reduces stress and anxiety that create biological impediments to learning. Such an environment

takes a “whole child” approach to education, seeking to address the distinctive strengths, needs,

and interests of students as they engage in learning.

Given that emotions and relationships strongly inuence learning—and that these are the

byproducts of how students are treated at school, as well as at home and in their communities—a

positive school climate is at the core of a successful educational experience. School climate

creates the physiological and psychological conditions for productive learning. Without secure

relationships and supports for development, student engagement and learning are undermined.

In this paper, we examine how schools can use effective, research-based practices to create settings

in which students’ healthy growth and development are central to the design of classrooms and

the school as a whole. We describe key ndings from the sciences of learning and development, the

school conditions and practices that should derive from this science, and the policy strategies that

could support these conditions and practices on a wide scale.

Key Lessons From the Science of Learning and Development

In recent years, a great deal has been learned about how biology and environment interact

to produce human learning and development. A summary of the research from neuroscience,

developmental science, and the learning sciences points to the following foundational principles:

1. Development is malleable. The brain never stops growing and changing in response to

experiences and relationships. The nature of these experiences and relationships matters

greatly to the growth of the brain and the development of skills.

Optimal brain architecture and effective learning are developed by the presence of warm, consistent

relationships; empathetic back-and-forth communications; and modeling of productive behaviors.

The brain’s capacity develops most fully when children and youth feel emotionally and physically

safe; when they feel connected, supported, engaged, and challenged; and when they have robust

opportunities to learn—with rich materials and experiences that allow them to inquire into the

world around them—and equally robust support for learning.

vi LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD

2. Variability in human development is the norm, not the exception. The pace and proﬁle of

each child’s development is unique.

Because each child’s experiences create a unique trajectory for growth, there are multiple

pathways—and no one best pathway—to healthy learning and development. Rather than assuming

all children will respond to the same teaching approaches equally well, effective teachers seek to

personalize supports for different children. Schools should avoid prescribing learning experiences

around a mythical average. When they try to force all children to t one sequence or pacing guide,

they miss the opportunity to nurture the individual potential of every child, and they can cause

children (as well as teachers) to adopt counterproductive views about themselves and their own

learning potential, which undermine progress.

3. Human relationships are the essential ingredient that catalyzes healthy development

and learning.

Supportive, responsive relationships with caring adults are foundational for healthy development

and learning. Positive, stable relationships can buffer the potentially negative effects of even

serious adversity. A child’s best performance, under conditions of high support and low threat,

differs from how he or she performs without such support or when he or she feels threatened. When

adults have the cultural competence to appreciate and understand children’s experiences, needs,

and communication, they can offset stereotypes, promote the development of positive attitudes and

behaviors, and build condence to support learning in all students.

4. Adversity affects learning—and the way schools respond matters.

Each year in the United States, 46 million children are exposed to violence, crime, abuse, or

psychological trauma, as well as homelessness and food insecurity. Experiencing these types of

adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) creates toxic stress that affects attention, learning, and

behavior. Poverty and racism, together and separately, make the experience of chronic stress and

adversity more likely. Furthermore, in schools where students encounter punitive discipline tactics

rather than supports for handling adversity, their stress is magnied. In addition to meeting basic

needs for food and health care, schools can buffer the effects of stress by facilitating supportive

adult-child relationships that extend over time; building a sense of self-efcacy and control by

teaching and reinforcing social and emotional skills that help children handle adversity, such as the

ability to calm emotions and manage responses; and creating dependable, supportive routines for

both managing classrooms and checking in on student needs.

5. Learning is social, emotional, and academic.

Emotions and social relationships affect learning. Positive relationships, including trust in the

teacher, and positive emotions—such as interest and excitement—open up the mind to learning.

Negative emotions—such as fear of failure, anxiety, and self-doubt—reduce the capacity of the

brain to process information and to learn. Students’ interpersonal skills, including their ability to

interact positively with peers and adults, to resolve conicts, and to work in teams, all contribute to

effective learning and lifelong behaviors. These skills, which build on the development of empathy,

awareness of one’s own and others’ feelings, and learned skills for communication and problem

solving, can be taught.

LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD vii

6. Children actively construct knowledge based on their experiences, relationships,

and social contexts.

Students dynamically shape their own learning. Learners compare new information to what they

already know in order to learn. This process works best when students engage in active, hands-on

learning, and when they can connect new knowledge to personally relevant topics and lived

experiences. Effective teachers act as mentors: setting tasks, watching and guiding children’s

efforts, and offering feedback. Providing opportunities for students to set goals and to assess their

own work and that of their peers can encourage them to become increasingly self-aware, condent,

and independent learners.

The Connection Between Whole Child Education and a Positive

School Climate

Because children learn when they feel safe and supported, and their learning is impaired when they

are fearful, traumatized, or overcome with emotion, they need both supportive environments and

well-developed abilities to manage stress. Therefore, it is important that schools provide a positive

learning environment—also known as school climate—that provides support for learning social and

emotional skills as well as academic content.

Two recent reviews of research, incorporating more than 400 studies, have found that a positive

school climate improves academic achievement overall and reduces the negative effects of

poverty on achievement, boosting grades, test scores, and student engagement. The elements of

school climate contributing most to increased achievement are associated with teacher-student

relationships, including warmth, acceptance, and teacher support. Other features include

• high expectations, organized classroom instruction, effective leadership, and teachers who

are efcacious and promote mastery learning goals;

• strong interpersonal relationships, communication, cohesiveness, and belongingness

between students and teachers; and

• structural features of the school, such as small school size, physical conditions, and

resources, which shape students’ daily experiences of personalization and caring.

Implications of the Science of Learning and Development for Schools

To support student achievement, attainment, and behavior, research suggests that schools should

attend to four major domains:

1. Supportive environmental conditions that create a positive school climate and foster

strong relationships and community. These include positive, sustained relationships that

foster attachment; physical, emotional, and identity safety; and a sense of belonging and

purpose. These can be accomplished through

• a caring, culturally responsive learning community, in which all students are well-known

and valued and are free from social identity or stereotype threats that exacerbate stress

and undermine performance;

viii LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD

• structures—such as looping with teachers for more than one year, advisory systems,

small schools or learning communities, and teaching teams—that allow for continuity in

relationships, consistency in practices, and predictability in routines that reduce anxiety

and support engaged learning; and

• relational trust and respect between and among staff, students, and families enabled

by collegial supports for staff and proactive outreach to parents through home visits,

exibly scheduled meetings, and frequent positive communications.

2. Social and emotional learning that fosters skills, habits, and mindsets which enable

academic progress and productive behavior. These include self-regulation, executive

function, intrapersonal awareness and interpersonal skills, a growth mindset, and a sense of

agency that supports resilience and perseverance. They can be developed through

• explicit instruction in social, emotional, and cognitive skills, such as intrapersonal

awareness, interpersonal skills, conict resolution, and good decision making;

• infusion of opportunities to learn and use social-emotional skills, habits, and mindsets

throughout all aspects of the school’s work in and outside of the classroom; and

• educative and restorative approaches to classroom management and discipline, so that

children learn responsibility for themselves and their community.

3. Productive instructional strategies that support motivation, competence, self-

efcacy, and self-directed learning. These curriculum, teaching, and assessment

strategies feature

• meaningful work that connects to students’ prior knowledge and experiences and

actively engages them in rich, engaging, motivating tasks;

• inquiry as a major learning strategy, thoughtfully interwoven with explicit instruction

and well-scaffolded opportunities to practice and apply learning;

• well-designed collaborative learning opportunities that encourage students to question,

explain, and elaborate their thoughts and co-construct solutions;

• a mastery approach to learning supported by performance assessments with

opportunities to receive helpful feedback, develop and exhibit competence, and revise

work to improve; and

• opportunities to develop metacognitive skills through planning and management of

complex tasks, self- and peer-assessment, and reection on learning.

4. Individualized supports that enable healthy development, respond to student needs,

and address learning barriers. These include

• access to integrated services (including physical and mental health and social service

supports) that enable children’s healthy development;

• extended learning opportunities that nurture positive relationships, support enrichment

and mastery learning, and close achievement gaps; and

• multi-tiered systems of academic, health, and social supports to address learning

barriers both in and out of the classroom to address and prevent developmental detours,

including conditions of trauma and adversity.

LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD ix

Accomplishing this work clearly requires an intensive focus on adult development and support, so that

educators can design for and enact the practices that enable them to put these features into place.

Recommendations

This growing knowledge and practice base suggests that, in order to create schools that support

healthy development for young people, our education system needs to:

1. Focus accountability, guidance, and investments on developmental supports for

young people, including a positive, culturally responsive school climate and supportive

instruction and services.

2. Design schools to provide settings for healthy development, including secure

relationships; coherent, well-designed teaching for 21st century skills; and services that

meet the needs of the whole child.

3. Enable educators to work effectively to offer successful instruction to diverse students

from a wide range of contexts.

Recommendation #1: Focus the System on Developmental Supports for Young People

States guide the focus of schools and professionals through the ways in which accountability

systems are established, guidance is offered, and funding is provided. To ensure developmentally

healthy school environments, states, districts, and schools can

• Include measures of school climate, social-emotional supports, and school exclusions in

accountability and improvement systems so that these are a focus of schools’ attention

and data are regularly available to guide continuous improvement.

• Adopt standards or other guidance for social, emotional, and cognitive learning that

claries the kinds of competencies students should be helped to develop and the kinds of

practices that can help them accomplish these goals.

• Replace zero tolerance policies regarding school discipline with discipline policies focused

on explicit teaching of social-emotional strategies and restorative discipline practices that

support young people in learning key skills and developing responsibility for themselves

and their community.

• Incorporate educator competencies regarding support for social, emotional, and

cognitive development, as well as restorative practices, into licensing and accreditation

requirements for teachers, administrators, and counseling staff.

• Provide funding for school climate surveys, social-emotional learning and restorative

justice programs, and revamped licensing practices (including appropriate assessments)

to support these reforms. As suggested below, additional investments are needed for

multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS), integrated student services, extended learning, and

professional learning for educators to enable progress within schools.

x LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD

Recommendation #2: Design Schools to Provide Settings for Healthy Development

Within a productive policy environment, schools can do more to provide the right kinds of supports

for students if they are also designed to foster strong relationships and provide a holistic approach

to student supports and family engagement. To provide settings for healthy development, educators

and policymakers can:

• Design schools for strong, personalized relationships so that students can be well-known

and supported by creating small schools or learning communities within schools, looping

teachers with students for more than 1 year, creating advisory systems, supporting teaching

teams, and organizing schools with longer grade spans—all of which have been found to

strengthen relationships and improve student attendance, achievement, and attainment.

• Develop schoolwide norms and supports for safe, culturally responsive classroom

communities that provide students with a sense of physical and psychological safety,

afrmation, and belonging, as well as opportunities to learn social, emotional, and

cognitive skills.

• Ensure integrated student supports (ISS) are available to support students’ health,

mental health, and social welfare through community school models or community

partnerships, coupled with parent engagement and restorative justice programs.

• Create multi-tiered systems of support, beginning with universal designs for learning

and personalized teaching, continuing through more intensive academic and non-academic

supports, to ensure that students can receive the right kind of assistance when needed,

without labeling or delays.

• Provide extended learning time to ensure that students do not fall behind, including

skillful tutoring and academic supports, such as Reading Recovery; summer programs to

avoid summer learning loss; and support for homework, mentoring, and enrichment.

• Design outreach to families as part of the core approach to education, including home

visits and exibly scheduled student-teacher-parent conferences to learn from parents

about their children; outreach to involve families in school activities; and regular

communication through positive phone calls home, emails, and text messages.

Recommendation #3: Ensure Educator Learning for Developmentally Supportive Education

Educators need opportunities to learn how to redesign schools and develop practices that support a

positive school climate and healthy, whole child development. To accomplish this critical task, the

state, counties, districts, schools, and educator preparation programs can:

• Invest in educator wellness through strong preparation and mentoring that improve

efcacy and reduce stress, mindfulness and stress management training, social-emotional

learning programs that benet both adults and children, and supportive administration.

• Design pre-service preparation programs for both teachers and administrators that

provide a strong foundation in child and adolescent development and learning; knowledge

of how to create engaging, effective instruction that is culturally responsive; skills

for implementing social-emotional learning and restorative justice programs; and an

LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD xi

understanding of how to work with families and community organizations to create a

shared developmentally supportive approach. These should provide supervised clinical

experiences in schools that are good models of developmentally supportive practices that

create a positive school climate for all students. Administrator preparation programs should

help leaders learn how to design and foster such school environments.

• Offer widely available in-service development that helps educators continually build on

and rene student-centered practices, learn to use data about school climate and a wide

range of student outcomes to undertake continuous improvement, problem solve around

the needs of individual children and engage in schoolwide initiatives in collegial teams and

professional learning communities, and learn from other schools through networks, site

visits, and documentation of successes.

• Invest in educator recruitment and retention, including forgivable loans and service

scholarships that support strong preparation, high-retention pathways into the

profession—such as residencies—that diversify the educator workforce, high-quality

mentoring for beginners, and collegial environments for practice. A strong, stable, diverse,

well-prepared teaching and leadership workforce is perhaps the most important ingredient

for a positive school climate that supports effective whole child education.

The emerging science of learning and development makes it clear that a whole child approach

to education, which begins with a positive school climate that afrms and supports all students,

is essential to support academic achievement as well as healthy development. Research and the

wisdom of practice offer signicant insights for policymakers and educators about how to develop

such environments. The challenge ahead is to assemble the whole village—schools, health care

organizations, youth- and family-serving agencies, state and local governments, philanthropists,

and families—to work together to ensure that every young person receives the benet of what is

known about how to support his or her healthy path to a productive future.

LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD 1

Introduction

New knowledge about human development from neuroscience and the sciences of learning and

development demonstrates that effective learning depends on secure attachments; afrming

relationships; rich, hands-on learning experiences; and explicit integration of social, emotional,

and academic skills. A positive school environment supports students’ growth across all the

developmental pathways—physical, psychological, cognitive, social, and emotional—while it

reduces the stress and anxiety that can create biological impediments to learning. Such an

environment enables a “whole child” approach to education that addresses the distinctive

strengths, needs, and interests of students as they engage in learning.

The Need for a Whole Child Approach to Education

A whole child approach to education is one that recognizes the interrelationships among all areas

of development and designs school policies and practices to support them. These include access to

nutritious food, health care, and social supports; secure relationships; educative and restorative

disciplinary practices; and learning opportunities that are designed to challenge and engage

students while supporting their motivation and self-condence to persevere and succeed. All

aspects of children’s well-being are supported to ensure that learning happens in deep, meaningful,

and lasting ways.

Given that emotions and relationships strongly inuence learning—and that these are byproducts

of how students are treated at school, as well as at home and in their communities—a positive

school climate is at the core of a successful educational experience. School climate—“the quality

and character of school life … [shaped by its] interpersonal relationships, teaching and learning

practices, and organizational structures”

—creates the physiological and psychological conditions

for productive learning. When these features of school life are not supportive, student engagement

and learning are undermined.

A productive educational system grounded in

an understanding of the science of learning

and development keeps students in school

and promotes academic results by way of

meaningful and deep learning, and helps

students acquire the social and emotional skills,

habits, and mindsets necessary to be successful

in school and in life beyond. The greater

exibility that has accompanied the Every

Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) allows schools to

craft policies aimed at strengthening students’

sense of purpose and connection to school,

which in turn supports stronger achievement

and attainment.

Given that emotions and

relationships strongly inﬂuence

learning—and that these are

byproducts of how students are

treated at school, as well as at

home and in their communities—a

positive school climate is at the

core of a successful educational

experience.

2 LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD

In this report, we examine how schools can use effective, research-based practices to create settings

in which students’ healthy growth and development are central to the design of classrooms and

the school as a whole. We describe key ndings from the sciences of learning and development; the

school conditions and practices that should derive from this science, including connections to the

home and community; and the policy strategies that could support these conditions and practices

on a wide scale (see Figure 1).

Figure 1

The Whole Child Ecosystem

Students

The Shifts That Are Needed

One reason for the renewed interest in a whole child approach to learning is that this perspective

on education was largely pushed aside during the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) era. For over

a decade, U.S. education policies focused on how to raise academic achievement as reected

primarily in student test scores often to the exclusion of other goals, such as student health and

welfare; physical, social, emotional, and psychological development; critical and creative thinking;

and communication and collaboration abilities. The result was too often a “drill and kill,” “test

and punish,” and “no excuses” agenda through which many of our nation’s most vulnerable

children experienced a narrowly dened, scripted curriculum and a hostile, compliance-oriented

climate that pushed many out of school.

Ironically, the students who would benet most from

the engagement and brain development that comes from a rich education are the least likely to

experience such schooling.

This narrow approach to education was ultimately unsuccessful in supporting meaningful gains

in academic achievement: While state test scores went up in the NCLB era, as schools taught to

multiple-choice tests measuring low-level skills under the threat of sanctions, national scores were

largely at, and U.S. performance on international tests measuring higher order skills declined in

mathematics, reading, science, and problem solving.

Furthermore, racial and economic gaps in

achievement and graduation rates are greater in the U.S. than in most industrialized countries.

LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD 3

Meanwhile, during the era of exclusively test-based accountability, many U.S. schools were not

focused on enabling students to acquire the broader life skills they need or the sense of self to

achieve their full potential. For example, a 2006 study of more than 148,000 6th to 12th graders

found that

• only 29% felt their school provided a caring, encouraging environment;

• less than half reported they had social competencies such as empathy, decision making,

and conict resolution skills (from 29% to 45%, depending on the competency); and

• 30% of high school students engaged in multiple high-risk behaviors such as substance

abuse, sex, violence, and attempted suicide.

These conditions contribute to school failure and high dropout rates. Research shows that

punitive approaches to instruction and student treatment undermine student motivation and

learning, and facilitate student disengagement from school. Almost three quarters of a million

students—disproportionately students of color, those with disabilities, and those from low-income

families—do not complete high school each year.

Graduation rates for Latinx and African American

students are 15 percentage points lower than those of White and Asian American students.

The failure to ensure that these students

graduate from high school negatively impacts

both students and society. High school

graduates have better economic and health

outcomes, are more likely to participate in a

democracy and their community, and are less

likely to engage in criminal activity or require

social services.

Graduation rates reect more

than how many students receive a diploma

each year; they are an indication of which

students are more likely to earn a living wage

and escape from poverty. Further, according to research by UCLA’s Civil Rights Project, “every

dropout costs society hundreds of thousands of dollars over the student’s lifetime in lost income.”

The consequences of marginalization and the subsequent exclusion of students from educational

opportunity are devastating and lasting for individuals and for society as a whole.

The prospect of signicantly better outcomes is raised by efforts to incorporate into schools what

we have learned from the sciences of learning and development, which conrms the central salience

of a whole child approach.

Research shows that punitive

approaches to instruction and

student treatment undermine

student motivation and

learning, and facilitate student

disengagement from school.

4 LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD

Key Lessons From the Sciences of Learning and Development

In recent years, a great deal has been learned about how biology and environment interact to

produce human learning and development. A summary of the research

from neuroscience,

developmental science, epigenetics, psychology, sociology, adversity science, resilience science, and

the learning sciences points to the following foundational principles:

1. Development is malleable. People can always learn new skills from birth

through adulthood because the brain never stops growing and changing in

response to experiences and relationships. The nature of these experiences

and relationships matters greatly to the growth of the brain and the

development of skills.

Development is a lifelong process informed by experiences that begins before birth. The brain

develops rapidly during the early years, with nearly 1,000 new neural connections forming every

second, wiring important neural circuits. These connections are enhanced by good nutrition;

positive, afrming interactions and responses; experiences that support a sense of safety and trust

that enables healthy attachment; and experiences that allow for exploration of language and the

physical world. This wiring of the brain establishes a foundation for building more complex skills

and abilities in later years that are important for academics and life more generally.

Another particularly sensitive and intense period of brain construction takes place during

adolescence. During puberty, rapid changes occur in brain development, hormone levels, and

physical development. The parts of the brain associated with social and emotional functioning

mature at a fast pace, while the capacity for decision making and critical thinking emerges over time.

These abilities are most likely to develop fully when children and youth feel emotionally and

physically safe, connected, supported, engaged, and challenged, and when they have robust

opportunities to learn—with rich materials and experiences that allow them to inquire into the

world around them—and equally robust support for learning. Development occurs within concentric

circles of inuence, beginning with the family and extending to the school, the community, and

larger economic and social forces that inuence children’s development directly and indirectly.

2. Variability in human development is the norm, not the exception. The pace

and proﬁle of each child’s development is unique.

The hallmark of development is its variability. Although development generally progresses in

somewhat predictable stages, children begin at different starting points and learn and acquire

skills at different rates and in different ways. Children of precisely the same age are at different

developmental levels in different domains. The shape of each child’s growth is unique, as a function

of biology interacting with experiences and relationships. Furthermore, a child’s best performance,

under conditions of high support and low threat, differs from how he or she performs without such

support or when he or she feels threatened.

LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD 5

Because each child’s developmental path is unique, there are multiple possible pathways to healthy

learning and development. Rather than assuming all children will respond to the same teaching

approaches equally well, effective teachers personalize supports and intervention for different

children. Supportive schools avoid attaching labels to children or designing learning experiences

around a mythical average. When educators try to force all children to t one sequence or pacing

guide, they miss the opportunity to nurture the individual potential of each child, and they can

cause children (as well as teachers) to adopt counterproductive views about themselves and their

own learning potential that undermine progress. Today, new advances in science hold promise of

better understanding the patterns in children’s variation and for creating learning environments

that more intentionally nurture each child’s potential.

3. Human relationships are the essential ingredient that catalyzes healthy

development and learning.

Supportive, responsive relationships with caring adults from birth into adulthood provide the

foundation for healthy development and learning. Secure relationships have biological as well as

affective signicance. Optimal brain architecture is developed by the presence of warm, consistent

relationships; positive experiences; and positive perceptions of these experiences.

Children’s interactions with other people and their environments are the primary process for

development. For example, when an infant reaches out for interaction through eye contact, babble,

or gesture, his mother’s ability to accurately interpret and respond to her baby’s cues affects the

wiring of brain circuits that support later skills. The same process can occur when teachers and

peers respond in supportive ways.

Cognitive scientists at MIT and Harvard have found that conversation between an adult and a child

appears to change the child’s brain, and that this back-and-forth conversation is actually more

critical to language development than merely hearing a greater number of words.

The researchers

found that the number of “conversational turns” was more important than the quantity of words

in accounting for differences in brain physiology and language skills among children. This nding

applied to children regardless of parental income or education.

This means that parents and teachers, as well as peers, can support children’s language and brain

development by engaging them in conversation. It also suggests that when classroom environments

allow children to engage in instructional conversations, they can actually grow more cognitively

capable and linguistically adept than when instruction is one-way, with just the teacher talking to

the class. Furthermore, teachers can enhance their students’ development and learning by being

responsive and afrming to the ideas students express.

Supportive, responsive relationships in childhood and adolescence also have an important

protective effect. Research has found that a stable relationship with at least one committed adult

can buffer the potentially negative effects of even serious adversity. These relationships, which

provide emotional security, are characterized by consistency, empathetic communications, modeling

of productive social behaviors, and the ability to accurately perceive and respond to a child’s needs.

6 LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD

Because sensitivity to children’s cues is so important, culture is a critical component of the learning

environment. Adults who have the cultural competence to appreciate and understand children’s

verbal and nonverbal communication are better able to get in sync with the child and respond

appropriately. When adults do not respond unconsciously to the negative dominant narratives

about the learning capabilities of students from low-income families, students of color, and

English learners, they are more able to create classrooms in which all students can feel seen and

heard. In this way, cultural competence can help address the impacts of institutionalized racism,

discrimination, and inequality; offset stereotypes; promote the development of positive attitudes

and behaviors; and build condence to support learning in all students.

4. Adversity aﬀects learning—and the way schools respond matters.

Stress is a normal part of healthy development and learning, but excessive stress can throw learning

and development off track and exert profound effects on children’s well-being. School practices can

either exacerbate or buffer the effects of childhood adversity. When threatened, our bodies protect

us via a stress response system. We experience a surge in hormones (cortisol and adrenaline)

that set off a range of physical responses, causing us to be more focused, vigilant, and alert.

When capable assistance arrives to help cope with the threat, the body releases another hormone

(oxytocin), which helps the body quickly return to baseline.

The stress response system functions well when threats are occasional and short-lived, and when

supportive relationships are consistently available to help the system return to a calmer state. But

when adversity is severe or prolonged, or when the counteracting effects of stable relationships are

missing, the body adapts to the continual activation of the stress response system by going on “high

alert” and staying there. This produces excessive levels of cortisol that ood the brain and other vital

organs, disrupting their normal functioning. The stress response system increases heart rate, blood

pressure, inammation, and blood sugar levels—explaining why serious adversity in childhood is

associated with so many poor health outcomes in adults, such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and

shortened life spans. It also helps to explain how unbuffered stress can affect educational outcomes:

Traumatic or strongly emotional events can simultaneously inuence the regulation of affect (for

example, feelings of depression or anxiety), physical phenomena (such as heart rate or adrenaline

production), attention, and cognition (for example, executive functioning and memory).

Each year in the United States, 46 million

children are exposed to violence, crime, abuse,

or psychological trauma.

Experiencing

these types of adverse childhood experiences

(ACEs)

—which also include the impact of

growing up in poverty, such as food and home

insecurity, family illness, or the detention

or incarceration of a family member—

demonstrates a connection to poor health

and educational outcomes, such as increased

absenteeism in school and changes in school

performance.

These types of experiences “can

affect sustained and focused attention, making

When adversity is severe

or prolonged, or when the

counteracting effects of stable

relationships are missing, the

body adapts to the continual

activation of the stress response

system by going on “high alert”

and staying there.

LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD 7

it difcult for a student to remain engaged in school.”

Further, “chronic stress can have a negative

effect on the chemical and physical structures of a child’s brain, causing trouble with attention,

concentration, memory, and creativity.”

Adversity happens in all communities, and healthy development does as well. However, inequality

creates increased risks. Poverty and racism, together and separately, make the experience of

chronic stress and adversity more likely. In schools where students encounter implicit bias and

stereotyping or punitive discipline tactics rather than supports for handling adversity, their stress

is magnied. Considerable research shows that exclusionary responses, such as suspensions and

expulsions, disproportionately affect students of color from low-income families and students

with disabilities, who receive harsher penalties than those received by other students who engage

in similar behaviors.

The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University has identied a common set of actions

schools, families, and communities can take to make it more likely that children will experience

positive outcomes in the face of signicant adversity.

These include

• facilitating supportive adult-child relationships that extend over time;

• building a sense of self-efcacy and control by teaching and reinforcing social and

emotional skills that help children handle adversity, such as the ability to calm emotions

and manage responses; and

• creating strong, dependable, supportive routines for both managing classrooms and

checking in on student needs.

5. Learning is social, emotional, and academic.

Emotions and social relationships affect learning. Positive relationships, including trust in the

teacher, and positive emotions, such as interest and excitement, open up the mind to learning.

Negative emotions, such as fear of failure, anxiety, and self-doubt, reduce the capacity of the brain

to process information and to learn.

In addition, children’s abilities to manage their emotions inuence learning. For example, learning

to calm oneself, regulate one’s own behaviors, and focus attention provide the foundation for

learning and the ability to persist with hard tasks and to pursue interests over a longer period

of time. Just as an air trafc control system at a busy airport safely manages the arrivals and

departures of many planes simultaneously, the brain needs this set of skills to resist distractions,

prioritize tasks, set and achieve goals, and control impulses.

Students’ interpersonal skills, including their ability to interact positively with peers and adults, to

resolve conicts, and to work in teams, all contribute to effective learning and lifelong behaviors.

These skills, which build on the development of empathy, awareness of one’s own and others’

feelings, and learned skills for communication and problem solving, can be taught.

Students’ motivation and their “metacognitive skills”—the ability to track and assess their own

learning and understanding—are also important for effective learning. These enable and encourage

students to start and persist at tasks, recognize patterns, evaluate their own learning strategies,

evaluate what works, and invest adequate effort to succeed and to transfer knowledge and skills to

8 LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD

increasingly complex problems. Studies have found that adults are more satised with their jobs,

happier with their lives as a whole, and perform better at work when what they do interests them

and matters to people other than themselves. The same is true of students.

Students who have a growth mindset—that is, they believe they can improve through effort, trying

new strategies, and seeking help—are less likely to become discouraged and more likely to try

harder after encountering difculties. They are more likely to tackle tasks at the edge of their

current skills than students who believe their intelligence is xed. This can translate into stronger

performance in school and in other tasks in life as well.

Engagement and effort are supported in classrooms in which children feel they are not typecast or

stereotyped, where they see that they can improve with effort (for example, by revising their work),

where they are respected and valued by their teachers and peers, and where they are working on

things that matter to themselves and others.

6. Children actively construct knowledge based on their experiences,

relationships, and social contexts.

Students dynamically shape their own learning. Learners compare new information to what they

already know in order to create mental models. These mental models enable students to connect

facts to their past experiences and draw inferences about new situations. This process works

best when students actively engage with concepts and knowledge, and when they have multiple

opportunities to connect the knowledge to personally relevant topics and lived experiences. When

learning experiences invite students to be active participants, they gain skills in producing and

working with knowledge to create something useful. Effective teachers act as mentors: setting tasks,

watching and guiding children’s efforts, and offering feedback.

The model of teachers spoon-feeding

information to students is outdated.

Curriculum designs and instructional strategies

can optimize learning by building on each

student’s prior knowledge and experiences,

connecting those experiences to the big ideas

or schema of a discipline, and designing

tasks that are engaging and relevant so

that they spark each student’s interests and

build on what they already know. Providing

opportunities for students to set goals and to assess their own work and that of their peers can

encourage them to become increasingly self-aware, condent, and independent learners. Taken

together, such strategies can challenge and support students to perform at the edge of their

current abilities; help them transfer knowledge and skills to new content areas; and, ultimately,

improve achievement.

When learning experiences invite

students to be active participants,

they gain skills in producing and

working with knowledge to create

something useful.

LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD 9

Implications for Schools: The Critical Importance of a

Whole Child Framework and a Positive School Climate

While there are many contexts that matter for child development—including families,

neighborhood, and peers—schools play a central role, both directly and indirectly. They create a

developmental context that can be either supportive or nonsupportive for children, and they can

inuence how parents and peers engage with children as well. As American schools are becoming

more diverse—children of color now comprise the majority of public k–12 students—differences

in educational attainment and achievement continue to persist between Black, Latinx, and Native

American youth and their White peers. These young people are also more likely to receive punitive

discipline for similar infractions in schools than their White counterparts, and to be excluded from

schools through suspensions and expulsions, which further widens the achievement gap.

Given

these demographic trends and racial gaps in performance and discipline, serving these students’

educational needs is a matter of public policy importance.

The primary goal of k–12 education should be to empower individual students to reach their

full potential. Environments that are relationship-rich and attuned to students’ learning and

developmental needs can buffer students’ stress, foster engagement, and support learning.

Clearly, schools and educators, especially those in high-poverty communities, need the resources

and training to address the many challenges to school attachment and engagement by creating

responsive, supportive, and inclusive learning environments consistent with what we know from

the science of learning and development. As described in this report, the features of such an

environment include

• a caring, culturally responsive community where students are well-known and appreciated,

and can learn in physical and emotional safety;

• positive school conditions and climate, featuring relational trust and respect between and

among staff, students, and parents;

• continuity in relationships, consistency in practices, and predictability in routines that

reduce cognitive load and anxiety and support engaged learning;

• educative and restorative disciplinary practices that support students’ development of

personal and social responsibility;

• meaningful and challenging work for students that engages them in active learning

experiences that are both individualized and social, as needed;

• opportunities to exercise choice and develop intrinsic motivation for learning;

• clear expectations for achievement for students and teachers that convey ideas of worth and

potential, and information about how to meet standards;

• instruction that strategically uses a range of teaching strategies, tools, and technologies to

engage students and meet their individual needs;

• schoolwide practices and instruction that systematically develop students’ social,

emotional, and academic skills, habits, and mindsets;

10 LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD

• inquiry and discovery as major learning strategies, thoughtfully interwoven with explicit

instruction and opportunities to practice and apply learning;

• opportunities to receive timely and helpful feedback, develop and exhibit competence, and

revise work to improve;

• ongoing diagnostic assessments that are developmentally guided and informed; and

• a capable and stable staff, supported by effective professional development and connected

to parents and community health and welfare resources, who work together to support

children’s healthy development and learning.

In almost every domain, research nds that the presence of these features produces stronger gains

in outcomes for those students who typically experience the greatest environmental challenges.

This is consistent with developmental science ndings that children who experience adversity

“may be more malleable—and stand to benet most—in the context of supportive, enriched

environmental supports and interventions.”

Why a Whole Child Approach Is Essential

A whole child approach to education is premised on the fact that children’s learning depends on

the combination of instructional, relational, and environmental factors the child experiences, along

with the cognitive, social, and emotional processes that inuence one another as they shape the

child’s growth and development.

Although our society and our schools often compartmentalize

these processes and treat them as distinct from one another—and treat the child as distinct from

the many contexts she or he experiences—the science of learning and development demonstrates

how tightly interrelated they are and how they jointly produce the outcomes for which educators

are responsible. According to the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD),

a whole child approach means that each student

• enters school healthy and learns about and practices a healthy lifestyle;

• learns in an environment that is physically and emotionally safe for students and adults;

• is actively engaged in learning and is connected to the school and broader community;

• has access to personalized learning and is supported by qualied, caring adults; and

• is challenged academically and prepared for success in college or further study and for

employment and participation in a global environment.

To achieve these goals, educators must understand how developmental processes interact and

unfold over time if they are to design supportive environments for development and learning.

Although there are general trends in development, each child develops differently as a function of

his unique qualities and his family, community, and classroom contexts. As a result, schools must be

designed to attend to the unique needs and trajectories of individual children as well as to support

patterns of development, and educators must know how to differentiate instruction and supports to

enable optimal growth in competence, condence, and motivation.

LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD 11

As we examine strategies schools can use, we emphasize the whole child within a whole-school

and a whole-community context. A blueprint for healthy development must address the many

components needed to enable healthy functioning. From an ecological systems framework

perspective, the school serves as an immediate context shaping children’s learning and

development through instruction, relationships with teachers and peers, and the school culture.

The connection between schools, the home, and community settings is an important additional link

for providing aligned supports for children.

School Climate and Culture: The Foundation for Development

Children learn when they feel safe and supported, and their learning is impaired when they are

fearful, traumatized, or overcome with emotion.

Thus, they need both supportive environments

and well-developed abilities to manage stress and cope with the inevitable conicts and frustrations

of school and life beyond school. Therefore, it is important that schools provide a positive learning

environment that provides a measure of security and support that maximizes students’ ability to

learn social and emotional skills as well as academic content.

A positive school environment, also referred to as “school climate,” greatly affects students’ ability

to learn social, emotional, and academic skills. The climate sets the tone at a school and can be seen

in the physical environment, experienced during the learning process, and felt in how people within

the school interact with one another.

According to the National School Climate Center,

School climate is based on patterns of students’, parents’ and school personnel’s experience

of school life and reects norms, goals, values, interpersonal relationships, teaching and

learning practices, and organizational structures.

The National School Climate Center outlines 13 dimensions (see Table 1) that cover all aspects of

the school environment, ranging from physical and emotional safety and the physical maintenance

of the school building and grounds to relationships, engagement, and a sense of belonging. Many of

these constructs can also be considered “conditions for learning” which enable the development of

students’ social-emotional skills. For example, students need social supports from adults and peers

that help them feel connected to the school before they are able to develop optimism or a growth

mindset. Similarly, students need to feel safe from verbal abuse and bullying in order to develop

strong social awareness and relationship skills. As students and school personnel rene their social

and emotional competence, school climate improves; likewise, a positive school climate creates the

atmosphere within which social and emotional learning can take place.

While a school may have a generally positive

climate, it is worth noting that studies have

consistently identied differences among

White students and students of color in their

perceptions of school climate, with youth of

color perceiving less positive school climate

experiences—for example, less favorable

experiences of safety, connectedness,

relationships with adults, and opportunities for

participation—in comparison to their White

peers.

As schools become increasingly racially

It is important that schools

provide a positive learning

environment that provides a

measure of security and support

that maximizes students’ ability to

learn social and emotional skills

as well as academic content.

12 LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD

Table 1

The National School Climate Center’s 13 Dimensions of School Climate

Dimensions Major Indicators

Safety

1. Rules and Norms Clearly communicated rules about physical violence; clearly

communicated rules about verbal abuse, harassment, and teasing;

clear and consistent enforcement and norms for adult intervention.

2. Sense of Physical Security Sense that students and adults feel safe from physical harm in

the school.

3. Sense of Social-Emotional Security Sense that students feel safe from verbal abuse, teasing,

and exclusion.

Teaching and Learning

4. Support for Learning Use of supportive teaching practices, such as: encouragement

and constructive feedback; varied opportunities to demonstrate

knowledge and skills; support for risk-taking and independent

thinking; atmosphere conducive to dialog and questioning;

academic challenges; and individual attention.

5. Social and Civil Learning Support for the development of social and civic knowledge, skills,

and dispositions including: effective listening, conﬂict resolution,

self-reﬂection and emotional regulation, empathy, personal

responsibility, and ethical decision making.

Interpersonal Relationships

6. Respect for Diversity Mutual respect for individual differences (e.g., gender, race, culture,

etc.) at all levels of the school—student-student, adult-student, and

adult-adult—and overall norms for tolerance.

7. Social Support—Adults Pattern of supportive and caring adult relationships for students,

including high expectations for students’ success, willingness to

listen to students and to get to know them as individuals, and

personal concern for students’ problems.

8. Social Support—Students Pattern of supportive peer relationships for students, including:

friendships for socializing, for problems, for academic help,

and for new students.

Institutional Environment

9. School Connectedness/Engagement Positive identiﬁcation with the school and norms for broad

participation in school life for students, staff, and families.

10. Physical Surroundings Cleanliness, order, and appeal of facilities and adequate

resources and materials.

Social Media

11. Social Media Sense that students feel safe from physical harm, verbal abuse,

teasing, gossip, and exclusion when online or on electronic devices

(for example, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms;

by an email, text messaging, posting photo/video, etc.).

Staff Only

12. Leadership Administration that creates and communicates a clear vision, and is

accessible to and supportive of school staff and staff development.

13. Professional Relationships Positive attitudes and relationships among school staff that support

effectively working and learning together.

Source: National School Climate Center. https://www.schoolclimate.org/.

LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD 13

diverse, it is vital that we understand what constitutes positive school climate for youth of color—

one of the most vulnerable groups in terms of the academic and discipline gaps—as well as how to

facilitate improvements in their experiences of school climate.

Schools that effectively support their students create a learning culture and climate that are “both

responsive to the changing needs of the individual and offer the kinds of stimulation that will

propel continued positive growth.”

A recent report reviewed 78 school climate studies published since 2000 and found that a positive

school climate can reduce the negative effects of poverty on academic achievement. The authors

conclude that “a more positive school climate is related to improved academic achievement,

beyond the expected level of achievement based on student and school socioeconomic status

backgrounds.”

The most important elements of school climate contributing to increased

achievement were associated with teacher-student relationships, including aspects such as warmth,

acceptance, and teacher support.

Another extensive literature review of 327 school climate studies examined research that sought

to connect each of the climate domains to three student outcomes: academic, behavioral, and

psychological and social.

With regard to academic outcomes:

• A strong academic climate enabling student learning and achievement is promoted by

high expectations, organized classroom instruction, effective leadership, and teachers who

believe in themselves and promote mastery learning goals.

• Support for student psychological needs and academic accomplishment is reected in

higher grades, test scores, and increased motivation to learn and is associated with strong

interpersonal relationships, communication, cohesiveness, and belongingness between

students and teachers.

• The structural features of the school, such as school size, physical conditions, and

resources, can also impact student achievement by shaping students’ daily experiences of

personalization, a sense of caring, and the curriculum and instruction they experience.

The most successful schools are intentionally

organized, with policies and structures in

place to facilitate all areas of student learning,

thereby empowering educators with the

exibility, support, and opportunities to

implement practices and strategies that are

tailored to the unique needs of students. In

what follows, we discuss in more detail these

policies and structures, as well as the practices

educators can employ to build positive school

climates that will facilitate deep and meaningful

learning for students.

The most important elements

of school climate contributing

to increased achievement were

associated with teacher-student

relationships, including aspects

such as warmth, acceptance, and

teacher support.

14 LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD

Strategies for Developing Productive School Environments

To support student achievement, attainment, and behavior, research suggests that schools should

attend to four major domains, shown in Figure 2 and described below:

1. Building a positive school climate in both classrooms and the school as a whole

2. Shaping positive student behaviors through social and emotional learning

3. Developing productive instructional strategies that support motivation, competence, and

self-directed learning

4. Creating individualized supports that address student needs, including the effects of

trauma and adversity

Figure 2

A Framework for Whole Child Education

Whole Child

academic, cognitive, ethical,

physical, psychological,

social-emotional development

Multi-tiered systems

of support (MTSS)

Coordinated access to

integrated services

Extended learning

opportunities

Educative and restorative

behavioral supports

Development of

positive mindsets

Integration of

social-emotional skills

Learning-to-learn

strategies

Conceptual

understanding

and motivation

Student-centered

instruction

Structures for

effective caring

Identity-safe classroom

learning communities

Trust and connections

among staff and families

A Framework for Whole Child Education

LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD 15

Building Positive Classroom and School Environments

Warm, caring, supportive student-teacher relationships, as well as other child-adult relationships,

are linked to better school performance and engagement, greater social competence, and

willingness to take on challenges.

Students who are at higher levels of risk for poor outcomes can

benet from nurturing relationships with teachers and other adults, which can increase student

learning and support their development and wellness,

especially when these relationships

are culturally sensitive and responsive.

Such relationships help develop the emotional, social,

behavioral, and cognitive competencies foundational to learning.

In addition, students need a sense of physical and psychological safety for learning to occur because

fear and anxiety undermine cognitive capacity and short-circuit the learning process. Students learn

best when they can connect what happens in school to their cultural contexts and experiences,

when their teachers are responsive to their strengths and needs, and when their environment

is “identity safe,”

reinforcing their value and belonging. This is especially important given

the societal and school-based aggressions many children, especially those living under adverse

conditions, experience. For all these reasons, and because children develop through individual

trajectories shaped by their unique traits and experiences, teachers need to know them well to

create productive learning opportunities.

Creating schools that support strong attachments and relationships

Personalizing the educational setting so that it responds to individual students’ interests and

needs, as well as their home and community contexts, is one of the most powerful levers to change

the trajectories for children’s lives. Often, it is because of close adult-student relationships that

students who are placed at risk are able to attach to school, problem solve, and gain the academic

and other kinds of help they need to succeed, thereby decreasing risk for dropping out. Research

suggests that students are more likely to attend and graduate from school, attach to learning,

and succeed academically when they have strong, trusting, and supportive connections to adults,

including at least one committed relationship with a close advisor or mentor.

Developing these relationships can be difcult in schools where organizational structures

minimize opportunities for personalized relationships that extend over time, as is often the case

in “factory-model” schools designed a century ago for efcient batch processing of masses of

students.

Unlike schools in many countries where teachers often stay with their students for 2

or 3 years in primary school (what in the U.S. is referred to as “looping”) and have more extended

relationships in secondary school, U.S. schools adopted the Prussian age grading model that

typically moves students to another teacher each year and to as many as seven or eight teachers

daily in secondary schools. Secondary teachers may see 150 to 200 students per day in short

45-minute blocks, and, despite their best efforts, are unable to know all of their students or their

families well. This reduces the extent to which teachers can build on personal knowledge in

meeting students’ needs. Counselors are assigned to attend to the personal needs of hundreds of

students, also an unmanageable task, and students who experience adversity may have no one to

turn to for support.

16 LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD

The design of most U.S. secondary schools is particularly at odds with the needs of adolescents

because it de-emphasizes personal connections with adults and focuses on competitive ranking

of students (e.g., in academic tracking and ranking, in tryouts for clubs and activities) just

as young people most need to develop a strong sense of belonging, connection, and personal

identity.

Depersonalized contexts are most damaging when students are also experiencing the

effects of poverty, trauma, discrimination, and bias without supports to enable them to cope and

become resilient. Unless mediated by strong relationships and support systems, these conditions

interfere with learning, undermine connections, and impede opportunities for youth to develop

skills to succeed.

Ecological changes that create personalized environments with opportunities for stronger

relationships between adults and students can create more productive contexts for learning.

For example, small schools or small learning communities with personalizing structures—such

as advisory systems in which advisors work with a small group of students over multiple years,

teaching teams that share students, or looping with the same teachers over 2 years or more—have

been found to improve student achievement, attachment, attendance, attitudes toward school,

behavior, motivation, and graduation rates.

These strategies allow educators to create a community within the school where caring is a

product of individuals knowing each other in multiple ways. Teachers in such personalized

settings report a heightened sense of efcacy, while parents report feeling more comfortable

reaching out to the school for assistance. In particular, secondary schools that seek to strengthen

relationships—by creating advisory systems, using teams of teachers who work with shared

groups of students over time, and reducing the total number of teachers students see through

interdisciplinary coursework and block scheduling—mitigate the negative effects of the

secondary-school transition and have better

outcomes than those that leave students in a

maelstrom of pressures and expectations with

few opportunities to build relationships.

Structures are important to set the stage for

the kinds of coherent, consistent, continuous

relationships children need to support

their development, but the nature of those

relationships and the resulting educational

experiences are not a given. They depend on

the attitudes, beliefs, skills, and capacity of

staff; the school climate, including norms for

interactions; and the practices and procedures

that are adopted for instruction, classroom

management, school discipline, and more.

We turn to these important elements next.

The design of most U.S. secondary

schools is particularly at odds with

the needs of adolescents because

it de-emphasizes personal

connections with adults and

focuses on competitive ranking

of students just as young people

most need to develop a strong

sense of belonging, connection,

and personal identity.

LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD 17

Creating strong classroom communities

Learning is a transactional process in which both students and teachers must learn how to

understand and communicate with each other, and in which trust creates conditions for reduced

anxiety and greater motivation.

Research suggests that “children continue to benet from readily

available relationships with peers and other adults (teachers) to the degree that the relationships

continue to be sensitive and attuned to their emotional needs, consistent, trustworthy, and

cognitively stimulating.”

This can be accomplished when schools develop an intentional community that ensures a sense of

belonging and safety, with shared norms represented in all of the school’s activities. In addition,

a culture of participation encourages student agency and leadership in the context of a culturally

responsive curriculum that values diverse experiences and involvement in the community.

In developmentally grounded schools, classroom management is approached as something that

is done with students and not to them. Contrary to conventional wisdom, classroom management

is not simply the process of arranging desks, rewarding good behavior, and administering

consequences for misconduct. Productive classrooms are organized not around a compliance

regimen that emphasizes the recognition and punishment of misbehavior, but on the promotion

of student responsibility through the development of common norms and routines with the

participation of students.

Students may help develop the classroom rules and norms—often in a

classroom constitution that is posted—and take on specic tasks, ranging from acting as materials

manager or librarian to leading activities in the classroom to organizing special events, that allow

them to be responsible and contributing members of the community.

An effective classroom learning community develops respectful relationships not only between

teachers and students, but also among the students themselves, as students are taught to develop

social competencies, such as making friends, managing conict, and caring for others. Teachers take

time to socialize students to their roles as community members.

Teachers and students together

create common norms for behavior in various situations, so that students can learn how to interact

respectfully, take turns, voice their needs and concerns appropriately, and solve problems that

may occur. The teacher’s active role in co-regulating children’s behavior helps scaffold the child’s

development toward self-regulation by providing the child a repertoire of words and strategies to

use to manage different situations.

The development of a learning community helps teachers to manage the classroom, not only

because children feel more connected, but because it allows for greater assistance through

collaboration among peers, who gain in competence and agency. Developing community practices

that strengthen relationships is critical. These practices may include classroom meetings, “check-

ins” at the beginning of class about how students are doing, and routines for how to work in groups

productively, engage in respectful discussions, or resolve conicts. They may also include regular

student-teacher conferences. In collaborative communities, members feel personally connected to

one another and committed to each other’s growth and learning.

18 LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD

Building relational trust and family engagement

Relational trust among teachers, parents, and school leaders is another key resource that predicts

the likelihood of gains in achievement and other student outcomes in which instructional expertise

is also present. Trust derives from an understanding of one another’s efforts and goals, along with

a sense of obligation toward each other, grounded in a common mission. As Bryk & Schneider

put it: “Trust is the connective tissue that holds improving schools together.”

Relational trust is

fostered in stable school communities by skillful school leaders who actively listen to concerns of

all parties and avoid arbitrary actions, and who nurture authentic parent engagement, grounded in

partnerships with families, to promote student growth.

Schools can nurture strong staff-parent relationships by building in time and supports for teachers

and advisors to engage parents as partners with valued expertise. They can do this by planning

teacher time for home visits, positive phone calls and text or email messages home, school meetings

and student-teacher-parent conferences scheduled exibly around parents’ availability, and regular

exchanges between home and school.

Building strong relationships between the school and the family improves academic outcomes

for students. The Consortium on Chicago School Research found parent involvement to be a

key component of 100 Chicago elementary schools with steep improvements in achievement:

Controlling for other variables, students were 10 times more likely to achieve substantial gains

in mathematics and have increased student motivation and participation in schools with strong

parental involvement.

In a series of meta-analyses designed to determine the impact of parental involvement on the

academic outcomes of minority children, researchers consistently found signicant positive effects

of parental involvement on academic achievement for children in all grades, pre-k through 12th

grade.

The largest effect sizes were for programs that

• encouraged parents to engage in shared reading with their children, including strategies in

which teachers offered questions that parents could ask about the readings;

• involved parents and teachers working together as partners to develop common strategies,

rules, guidelines, and expectations for children;

• increased communication between parents and teachers; and

• involved parents in checking students’ homework.

Schools that succeed in engaging families from diverse backgrounds embrace a philosophy of

partnership in which power and responsibility are shared. It is important to recognize that in some

communities in which trust has been violated, it must be rebuilt through a proactive, authentic

process that includes extensive listening, relationship-building, and demonstrations that educators

are trustworthy.

The efforts are worthwhile. Lasting effects on achievement occur when students feel supported

both at home and in school. Students with involved parents have more self-condence, feel school

is more important, earn higher grades, and are more likely to attend college.

Higher achievement

can be stimulated by teacher outreach to parents through face-to-face meetings, sending materials

home, and phone calls home on a routine basis.

LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD 19

Enabling culturally competent classrooms

Lack of relational trust within schools and

between schools and families can inhibit

learning, especially if it adds to children’s

stress and anxiety. When children or adults

are distracted by concerns that ow from their

lives outside the classroom or social dynamics

within the classroom, their capacity to focus

on learning can suffer.

When children feel a lack of safety or belonging, or when they experience

inconsistencies, their cognitive load is increased, which negatively affects cognition and working

memory and can impede learning.

If students are to feel safe and have a sense of belonging, they must be understood and respected

by their teachers. One aspect of this understanding derives from an appreciation of culture; that

is, the shared cultural practices, norms, and belief systems that humans construct in a range of

communities dened by family, religion, region, activities or interests, ethnic group membership,

or other bonds. Each person belongs to multiple cultural communities that enact “repertoires of

practice.”

At its root, culturally sensitive teaching must appreciate the complexity of individuals’

multiple contexts for development, as these provide grist for instruction and insights for how to

help students make connections among ideas.

Social identity and stereotype threat

Teachers’ perceptions about their students shape expectations that often predict student achievement

apart from prior ability. Teachers play a key role in shaping student learning through their own beliefs

and the feedback they provide to their students.

Unfortunately, there is evidence that some teachers

attribute inaccurate characterizations of academic ability and behavior to students based on race and

ethnicity,

and may have lower expectations of Black and Latinx students and interact with them

less positively than with White students.

Schools foster or impede these beliefs to the extent that

they group or track students in ways that convey messages about perceived ability, deliver stereotypic

messages associated with group status, and emphasize ability rather than effort (e.g., “smartness” vs.

“hard work”) in their judgments about students and their attributions of causes of success.

The way students are treated in school can trigger or ameliorate social identity threat, which can

affect students who are members of groups that have been evaluated negatively in society—for

example, racial, ethnic, or linguistic minorities; students with disabilities; those from low-income

families; or others.

Social identity threat can be triggered when people feel they are at risk of

being stigmatized in a given situation by cultural representations that associate a social identity

with undesirable characteristics. Social identity threat leads to signicant stress, release of cortisol

and adrenaline, symptoms of anxiety and depression, and, sometimes, challenging behavior that

results from an attempt to protect one’s identity from perceived attack.

Students who have received societal or school-delivered messages that they are less capable as a

function of race, ethnicity, language background, gender, economic status, or other status will often

translate those views into self-perceptions of ability affecting their performance on school tasks or

tests.

Stereotype threat, the “social identity threat that occurs when one fears being judged in

terms of a group-based stereotype,”

induces stress and reduction in working memory and focus,

leading to impaired performance.

If students are to feel safe and

have a sense of belonging,

they must be understood and

respected by their teachers.

20 LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD

Stereotype threat is just one form of social identity threat. Because all people have myriad

identities—race, gender identity, sexual preference, ethnicity, job role, and more—there are many

different identities that can be under threat at any given time, in any given context. As Claude

Steele and colleagues explain:

The threat posed by this group stereotype becomes a formidable predicament, one that could

make it difcult for [a person] to trust that he would be seen objectively and treated with

good will in the setting. Such, then is the hypothesized nature of stereotype threat—not an

abstract threat, not necessarily a belief or expectation about one’s self, but the concrete,

real-time threat of being judged and treated poorly in settings where a negative stereotype

about one’s group applies. … The resulting ruminative conict, coupled with the threat

of devaluation in the setting … can cause enough distraction to undermine a person’s

performance in the setting.

For many students, because social identity or stereotype threat has been triggered—either within

the school or, from other experiences they or their family members may have had, before even

entering the school—schools are viewed as inherently unsafe spaces. For students who feel that

their identities are threatened, there is often a heightened assumption that they are not cared

for or that they are not welcome. These feelings can be exacerbated if they don’t see themselves

or their identities represented in the curriculum, faculty, staff, policies, practices, or school

climate in general. Among the “psychic costs” of social identity threat in school are feelings of

marginalization, causing students to “disengage or disidentify with the setting.”

If students subjected to social identity threats do not know whether a school is safe and

welcoming for them, many will assume it is unsafe. This can result in a state of hypervigilance and

defensiveness. The fear of being negatively judged is itself a traumatizing factor that can cause toxic

stress. In fact, many of the reactions are the same: elevated cortisol levels, anxiety, low academic

performance, or adopting a “ght, ight, or freeze” stance. When a student’s sense of being

threatened is activated, he or she is more likely to respond to a seemingly innocuous correction or

interaction with a disproportionately negative response.

It is important to recognize that many students

of color, LGBTQ students, and others who

experience intense societal discrimination are

keenly aware of the ways they are marginalized

by society, with schools often being ground

zero for legal battles about their status, such

as disputes around segregation and bathroom

access. Because society creates conditions that

make these populations feel unsafe, schools

have an obligation to act afrmatively to make

it clear that they will be safe, protected, and

valued in this environment.

When a student’s sense of being

threatened is activated, he or she is

more likely to respond to a

seemingly innocuous correction or

interaction with a disproportionately

negative response.

LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD 21

Creating identity safety

A growing body of research suggests that cultural pluralism in schools may mitigate many of

the educational issues faced by students of color by helping improve their overall school climate

perceptions. Cultural pluralism is based on an appreciation for and encouragement of cultural

diversity through simultaneously acknowledging cultural differences, promoting cross-cultural

relationships, and encouraging the maintenance of the unique cultural identities of groups of

students. Rather than being a mere part of a larger assessment of school climate, support for

cultural pluralism may be a necessary prerequisite for overall positive school climate, particularly

for students of color.

Stereotype threat can also be mitigated in the classroom through teachers’ use of afrmations

that the student is seen as competent and valued. Many dozens of studies have shown that when

students receive such afrmations, performance on tests, grades, and other academic measures

improve signicantly in ways that are frequently maintained over time.

Afrming attitudes, for

example, have been shown to support students’ achievement.

Teachers who respect cultural

differences are more apt to believe that students from nondominant groups are capable learners

and to offset stereotype threat by conveying their faith in students’ abilities.

Finally, stereotype threat can be reduced by the way teachers frame the purpose of assignments and

assessments—as diagnosing current skills that can be improved, rather than measuring ability

—

and by how they give constructive feedback to students about their work, noting that the feedback

reects the teacher’s high standards and a conviction that the student can reach them, along with

an opportunity to revise the work.

When teachers view students’ experiences as an asset and

intentionally bring students’ voices into the classroom, they create an “identity-safe” and engaging

atmosphere for learning to take place.

Identity-Safe Classrooms

Identity-safe classrooms promote student achievement and attachments to school.

The elements of

such classrooms, found to support strong academic performance for all students, include:

• Teaching that promotes understanding, student voice, student responsibility for and belonging to

the classroom community, and cooperation in learning and classroom tasks.

• Cultivating diversity as a resource for teaching through regular use of diverse materials, ideas,

and teaching activities along with high expectations for all students.

• Classroom relationships based on trusting, encouraging interactions between the teacher and

each student, and the creation of positive relationships among the students.

• Caring, orderly, purposeful classroom environments in which social skills are proactively taught

and practiced to help students respect and care for one another in an emotionally and physically

safe classroom, so each student feels attached to the others.

22 LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD

Teachers need to understand how their attitudes toward their students can signicantly shape

the expectations they hold for student learning, their treatment of students, and what students

ultimately learn. In the classroom, teachers should avoid labeling students and provide positive

afrmations about individual and group competence, emphasize the importance of effort, and

encourage students to understand that through effort they will indeed improve. These fundamental

commitments to students not only undergird a positive, culturally responsive school climate, but

also productive academic supports in the classroom, and educative and restorative practices with

respect to student behavior and discipline systems.

Culturally responsive teaching

All teachers can convey afrming attitudes by exposing students to an intellectually demanding

curriculum and supporting them in mastering it, conveying their condence that students can

learn; teaching students strategies they can use to monitor and manage their own learning;

encouraging students to excel; and building on the individual and cultural resources they bring to

the school. Research suggests that culturally responsive teaching uses “the cultural knowledge,

prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles of ethnically diverse students to

make learning encounters more relevant to and effective for them. It teaches to and through the

strengths of these students.”

Strategies that convey respect and concern for students become the basis for meaningful

relationships and favorable academic results.

These include recognizing students’ culturally

grounded experiences as a foundation on which to build knowledge, exhibiting cultural competency

in interacting with students and families, demonstrating an ethic of deep care, and possessing a

sense of efcacy that is consciously transmitted to students.

Furthermore, culturally responsive

teachers recognize that there are multiple ways of perceiving reality, hold afrming views of

students from diverse backgrounds, believe they should and can bring about change to make schools

more equitable, know about the lives of their students and incorporate sociocultural experience

into the classroom, know how children construct knowledge, and provide situations for promoting

knowledge construction.

Teachers can learn about the strengths and needs of students as well as their families’ funds

of knowledge through regular check-ins and class meetings, conferencing, journaling, close

observation of students and their work, and connections to parents. These practices can foster

developmentally informed relationships among students, parents, and staff.

Shaping Positive Student Behaviors

Crafting school and classroom environments that support and encourage positive student

behavior as well as learning requires recognizing that academic, social, and emotional learning

are interconnected—and that they can be explicitly taught. University of Chicago researchers

explain that because social and emotional skills are malleable, a “key task for educators becomes

the intentional development of these skills, traits, strategies, and attitudes in conjunction with the

development of content knowledge and academic skills.”

This requires both explicit teaching of social and emotional skills and competencies, and the use of

educative and restorative approaches to discipline.

LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD 23

Development of social, emotional, and academic competencies

Educators have long known that students’ academic learning and social-emotional learning go

hand in hand and that the development of prosocial mindsets, skills, and habits gives students the

capacity to persist through challenging work, collaborate with others, take risks while learning,

think critically, and communicate effectively. Social, emotional, and other conditions of cognitive

engagement inuence the affective salience of instruction, how safe students feel, and how students

focus their attention and make decisions.

Furthermore, these factors affect how the nervous

system responds and the degree to which students tap their cognitive and psychological resources.

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is a process that occurs in many contexts—home, community,

and school. The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) identies ve

main areas of competence:

1. Self-awareness involves identifying emotions and accurate self-perceptions.

2. Self-management includes managing stress and controlling impulses, which includes

aspects of executive function and draws on mindsets.

3. Social awareness entails perspective taking, empathy, and appreciation for diversity.

4. Relationship skills involve communication and cooperation to establish and maintain

healthy relationships.

5. Responsible decision making focuses on skills such as identifying problems, evaluating,

reecting, and acting with consideration for the well-being of oneself and others.

Researchers at the University of Chicago have developed a comprehensive framework that describes

how these and related “co-cognitive” factors are interconnected and jointly provide the foundation

for academic learning. The social-emotional competencies are reected in

• academic behaviors, such as going to class, completing homework, studying, staying

organized, and participating in class;

• academic perseverance, which refers to how well a student completes school assignments

to the best of his or her ability despite challenges or obstacles;

• academic mindsets, or a student’s attitudes or beliefs about himself or herself in relation

to academic work;

• learning strategies, the processes and tactics one employs to aid in the work of thinking,

remembering, or learning; and

• social skills, those acceptable behaviors that improve social interactions, such as

cooperation, assertion, responsibility, and empathy.

Various approaches to fostering students’ academic, social, and emotional learning have been

developed. Some approaches are delivered through stand-alone instruction, while others focus on

integration of skills within standard academic curricula.

24 LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD

Formal programs teaching SEL have shown considerable success. A meta-analysis of 213

controlled studies of SEL programs representing more than 270,000 students from urban,

suburban, and rural elementary and secondary schools found that these students showed greater

improvements than comparison students in their social and emotional skills; attitudes about

themselves, others, and school; social and classroom behavior; and test scores and school grades,

including an average 11 percentile point gain in achievement. They also experienced reductions

in misbehavior and aggression, as well as in stress and depression.

Benets of SEL interventions

on skills, attitudes, behavior, and academic performance have been found to endure and to serve

as a protective factor (e.g., preventing conduct problems and drug use) on follow-up measures

collected 6 months to 18 years later.

Effective SEL programs provide instruction that is sequential, active, focused, and explicit.

Studies have found that SEL programming is stronger when conducted by school personnel who

have opportunities to support and deepen their own skills,

which highlights the critical need for

ongoing professional development around educators’ social-emotional skills as a vital element for

promoting these capacities in students. Outcomes can also be enhanced when SEL is embedded

throughout the school day and integrated into other subject matter.

Greater integration allows

for transfer of learning by capitalizing on teachable moments and opportunities to reinforce and

practice skills throughout the school day.

The use of mindfulness strategies and other techniques for calming oneself, as well as

monitoring and redirecting attention, are also beginning to show benets for learning.

Mindfulness practice—which cultivates greater awareness of one’s experience infused with

kindness

—and related contemplative practices have also been linked to more prosocial behavior

and reductions in implicit bias.

The practice of mindfulness promotes neural integration and

may be particularly helpful during the period of adolescent brain remodeling, which contributes

to higher capacities for regulation.

In studies of high schools that specically organize their efforts to develop socially and emotionally

aware and skilled students, infusion of SEL opportunities in every aspect of the schools produced

positive outcomes for student engagement, achievement, and behavior (being collaborative and

supportive of their peers, resilience, employing a growth mindset, and valuing opportunities to

help others). SEL infusion ranged from curricula focused on perspective-taking and empathy in

history and English language arts and on community and social problem solving in social studies,

mathematics, and science to community service projects to the teaching of specic conict

resolution strategies and the use of restorative practices.

A whole-school approach imbued with an equity-focused lens and a social justice orientation

enables students to act as agents of change, gaining a sense of efcacy. In such schools, the vision

is infused into daily activities by underscoring themes of interdependence and social engagement.

By integrating whole child development strategies with instructional practice, such schools increase

achievement and attainment, and reduce educational inequality.

LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD 25

Educative and Restorative Approaches to Discipline

A developmentally appropriate approach to schoolwide discipline recognizes students’ behaviors as

demonstrations of a developmental need and as a set of skills that need to be taught and developed,

not demanded. Explicit teaching of self-regulation, conict resolution, and other skills creates a

virtuous circle of responsible behavior. Studies have found, for example, that even in elementary

school, when students learn and practice skills of conict resolution, they become more inclined to

work out problems among themselves before the problems escalate.

Students who have been aggressive benet especially from learning specic skills for managing

conicts peacefully that differ from what they have previously learned at home or from peers.

The results of such teaching are increased social support, improved relations, higher self-esteem,

increases in personal control, and higher academic performance.

Comprehensive programs for

children with high levels of aggression and disruption in the early grades can also signicantly reduce

juvenile delinquency, decrease adult crime and mental health problems, and increase well-being.

Research also nds that coercive discipline, in which teachers manage student behavior largely

through punishments, inhibits the students’ development of responsibility,

ultimately increasing

misbehavior, as students increasingly abandon their own self-responsibility for their learning and

behavior and develop resistance and opposition to school,

while exacerbating discriminatory

treatment of students.

A punitive environment undermines learning by heightening anxiety and stress, placing extra

demands on working memory and cognitive resources, which drains energy available to address

classroom tasks.

By contrast, an educative approach supports learning, as teachers’ proactive

and positive responses create a safe and empowering classroom environment through reinforcing

and reminding language (including verbal and nonverbal cues); approaching students in a

nonthreatening manner; presenting students with problem-solving options as a means of

de-escalating potentially explosive situations; and using nonpunitive, restorative consequences.

100

Students who learn in such supportive

communities have higher levels of self-

understanding, commitment, performance,

and belongingness, and fewer discipline

problems.

101

These settings reduce the

likelihood of disruptive behavior occurring

in the rst place. Authoritative approaches

that strengthen interpersonal supports and

connections, establish structures for fair

processes, and encourage student voice are

especially responsive to the developmental

needs of adolescents and in line with a style

that is known to be benecial for parenting as

well as teaching.

102

A punitive environment

undermines learning by

heightening anxiety and stress,

placing extra demands on working

memory and cognitive resources,

which drains energy available to

address classroom tasks.

26 LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD

One example of such a developmentally grounded approach is Consistency Management

and Cooperative Discipline, which builds shared responsibility for learning and classroom

organization between teachers and students. The teacher creates a consistent learning environment

by working with students in establishing a cooperative plan for classroom rules, procedures, use

of time, and academic learning that governs the classroom. Students shift from being “tourists”

to being “citizens” as they create a classroom constitution and take responsibility for dozens of

activities in the classroom that teachers might otherwise take on themselves. As they are taught

citizenship skills and given multiple chances for leadership in small and large ways, students

gain the experiences necessary to become self-disciplined. All adults in the school learn to

work with children in consistent ways, and home/community involvement is encouraged. In a

set of evaluations of this Cooperative Discipline approach in urban public schools, researchers

found improvements in student and teacher attendance; reductions in discipline referrals; and

improvements in classroom climate, time to learn, and long-term student achievement.

103

Educative approaches such as this one are important for addressing the excessive reliance on

exclusionary discipline in many schools, which persists in spite of evidence that punishment and

exclusion do not work and often have harmful effects.

104

This is particularly the case for many

students of color, who are not only disproportionately removed from class and school, but also

are removed for longer terms. The disproportionalities are largest in subjective offenses that are

more likely to be affected by implicit as well as explicit bias. Exclusionary discipline does not teach

students new strategies they can use to interact and solve problems, nor does it enable teachers to

understand how they may unintentionally trigger or escalate problem behavior.

105

School discipline policies that exclude students through suspension and expulsion create a range

of dysfunctional consequences: The more time students spend out of the classroom, the more their

sense of connection to the school wanes, both socially and academically. This distance promotes

disengaged behaviors, such as truancy, chronic absenteeism, and antisocial behavior,

106

which in

turn exacerbate a widening achievement gap. The frequency of student suspensions is linked to

academic declines and an increased likelihood of dropping out.

107

Extensive use of exclusionary discipline also undermines school climate overall, beyond the effects

on individual students who are suspended or expelled. It degrades the sense of community in a

school and makes everyone feel more threatened. It also exacerbates misbehavior, which affects

everyone in the school community, as students who are suspended often return frustrated and

angry, further behind academically, and more likely to disrupt others.

Schools have started to turn around their suspension and expulsion rates by adopting social-

emotional learning and restorative practices that focus on reection, communication, community

building, relational-based discipline, and making amends instead of relying on punishment.

108

Restorative justice is an approach to dealing with conict by identifying or naming the wrongdoing,

repairing the harm, and restoring relationships. Restorative discipline is built on strong

relationships and relational trust, with systems for students to reect on any mistakes, repair

damage to the community, and get counseling when needed. Relationships and trust are supported

through restorative practices, including universal interventions such as daily classroom meetings,

community-building circles, or conict resolution strategies, which are also part of many social and

emotional learning programs.

LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD 27

Effective strategies include various combinations of restorative or peace circles, restorative

conferences, peer mediation, and whole-school approaches. These bring together the parties

involved in conict, with the support of a facilitator, to talk about what happened, the impact, and

how to repair the harm. Syntheses of research suggest that restorative practices result in fewer and

less racially disparate suspensions and expulsions, fewer disciplinary referrals, improved school

climate, higher quality teacher-student relationships, and improved academic achievement across

elementary and secondary classrooms.

109

The more comprehensive and well-infused the approach, the stronger the outcomes. For example,

a continuum model including proactive restorative exchanges, afrmative statements, informal

conferences, large-group circles, and restorative conferences substantially changed school culture

and outcomes rapidly in one major district, as disparities in school discipline were reduced every

year for each racial group and gains were made in academic achievement across all subjects in

nearly every grade level.

110

Creating an environment in which students learn to be responsible

and are given the opportunity for agency and contribution can transform social, emotional, and

academic behavior and outcomes.

Providing Supports for Student Motivation and Learning

Learning is a function both of teaching—what is taught and how it is taught—and student

perceptions about the material being taught and about themselves as learners. Students’ beliefs and

attitudes have a powerful effect on their learning and achievement.

Four key mindsets have been identied as important for perseverance and academic success for

students. They include:

1. Belief that one belongs at school

2. Belief in the value of the work

3. Belief that effort will lead to increased competence

4. A sense of self-efcacy and the ability to succeed

111

Shaping productive mindsets can set into motion a cascade of effects that accumulate over time

to result in more positive school outcomes, such as increasing school afliation and self-concept,

resulting in higher levels of academic engagement that becomes self-reinforcing.

112

For example, a

growth mindset—the belief that effort will lead to increased competence—contributes to learning

and well-being in terms of student intelligence, emotion, and personality traits.

113

The core

principle that skills can always be developed is consistent with evidence that the brain is constantly

growing and changing in response to experience. In practical terms, providing feedback focused on

effort and process encourages students to adopt a growth mindset, whereas feedback that focuses

on traits (e.g., “smarts”) has negative consequences for student motivation and achievement.

114

Providing constructive feedback and opportunities for revision are instructional practices that

encourage learners to grow.

115

28 LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD

Closely related to these developmental and cognitive processes is the issue of motivation for

learning. Students will work harder to achieve understanding and will make greater progress when

they are motivated to learn something. However, motivation is not just inherent in the individual; it

can be developed by skillful teaching.

First and foremost, motivation is about the learner’s perceptions of the task. As Carol Lee notes, the

learner implicitly asks: “What am I being asked to do?” “Am I capable of tackling these tasks?” “Is

this task meaningful to me?” “What supports are available to me to wrestle with this task?” “Do I feel

safe in attempting to wrestle with this task?” and “How do I weigh any risks or competing goals?”

116

Researchers have found that student motivation in the classroom is fostered by three major

considerations: (1) the nature of the task and its value to the student; (2) the nature of the learner

and his or her expectations of success; and (3) the nature of the learning environment and the

extent to which it emphasizes learning goals and provides support.

117

A learning task will have more value to students if it is relevant to their lives, can be connected

to events they have experienced or care about, or focuses on problems that are interesting

and realistic. It is helpful if the task offers choices of topics, research strategies, or modes of

presentation that allow students to make a connection to their interests. The task should also be

approachable (i.e., within the zone of proximal development), and it should be structured to provide

evidence of progress along the way, so that it offers ongoing incentives to continue. Students are

more likely to value learning when intrinsic reasons for learning are emphasized, such as when the

task potentially benets others and/or results in products or performances that have an audience

beyond the teacher.

118

In order to be motivated to try, students need to believe they can be successful. Their expectations

for success inuence their willingness to engage in learning. These expectations depend on

students’ perceptions of the task and their likelihood of success, as well as on their inclinations

to undertake new learning, tackle difcult tasks, and take risks. These inclinations, in turn, are

related to self-perceptions of ability and mindsets. Students with condence in their abilities

to succeed on a task work harder, persist longer, and perform better than their less efcacious

peers.

119

Those who believe that success in a given domain is incremental and can be cultivated

through effort tend to be willing to try new things and to work harder when they encounter an

obstacle, rather than giving up.

120

To make challenging tasks motivating and

enhance expectancies of success, teachers

must actively “structure information, guide

student efforts, scaffold instruction, and

provide multiple opportunities for students

to grapple with the information and represent

their understanding a variety of ways.”

121

Other

strategies for enhancing students’ expectations

of success include introducing various pathways

to learning, recognizing each student’s assets

and strengths, and treating students equitably.

Students with conﬁdence in their

abilities to succeed on a task

work harder, persist longer, and

perform better than their less

efﬁcacious peers.

LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD 29

The learning environment supports motivation when learning and mastery goals are emphasized,

rather than grades or performance goals. Learning goals are encouraged when scaffolding and

support are provided; effort and improvement are recognized; mistakes are treated as learning

opportunities; students have the opportunity to revise their work; evaluation emphasizes learning;

individual competition and comparison is minimized; and students are grouped by topic, interest,

or choice rather than by their performance.

122

These classroom features enhance intrinsic motivation, which more often results in high-quality

learning and creativity. In contrast, extrinsic motivation based on external rewards that are used

to control students’ behavior can reduce students’ intrinsic motivation for the task as well as the

quality of performance on the task.

123

Although extrinsic rewards are sometimes useful to create

incentives for a new behavior or practice, their use should be minimal and reduced over time as the

desired behavior becomes commonplace.

Student-centered teaching

The expectations that graduates have the problem-solving and interpersonal skills needed for 21st

century success require a focus on instruction designed to foster outcomes such as communication,

collaborative problem solving, high-level reasoning, and the development of a growth mindset.

These abilities cannot be developed through passive, rote-oriented learning focused on the

memorization of disconnected facts. They require paths to deeper understanding supporting the

transfer of skills and use of knowledge in new situations.

124

These goals point us to some important insights from the learning sciences. For example, the

development of neural pathways is associated with exposure to and generation of language,

125

which implies that students must be active generators of content in a classroom and not just

receivers. Furthermore, emotion triggers learning as it affects excitement and attention

126

and

thus must be a consideration in designing instruction that is mentally engaging. At the same time,

consistent structures that allow the student to know what to expect and how to be successful reduce

cognitive load and free up the mind for learning other challenging material.

127

With these goals and insights in mind, specic pedagogical moves that support this developmental

learning process and increase intrinsic motivation include

• choice of tasks that have the right amount of challenge, such as demanding analysis to

answer a question or develop a product, with supportive guidance and feedback;

• well-designed questions to stimulate inquiry and engagement as well as to support

students putting information together to nd answers and consolidate understanding;

• use of multiple and varied representations of concepts that allow students to “hook into”

understanding in different ways;

• design of instructional conversations and “joint productive activity”

128

that allow students

to discuss their emerging thinking and hear other ideas, developing concepts, language, and

further questions in the process;

• encouragement for students to elaborate, question, and self-explain; and

• instruction and curriculum that use apprentice-style relationships in which knowledgeable

practitioners or older peers facilitate students’ ever-deeper participation in a particular

eld or domain.

129

30 LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD

Using these principles, modes of teaching can be adapted to each student’s unique background,

talents, interests, and needs, supported by clear standards and models, constant feedback, and an

emphasis on metacognition and reection.

The success of these principles has been documented in schools serving large numbers of students

of color and students from low-income families by researchers examining schools and teachers with

unusually successful outcomes.

130

In these student-centered schools focused on the development

of the whole child, the teacher takes on the role of guide or facilitator of learning, helping students

develop an understanding of their own learning and how to continually improve, rather than acting

as a gatekeeper and judge who allocates rewards and punishments in a competitive context focused

on ranking and sorting.

Part of student-centered teaching is learning what students already know and how they can bring

that knowledge into the classroom context. As Nailah Nasir and colleagues point out, “Often, people

can competently perform complex cognitive tasks outside of school, but may not display these skills

on school-type tasks.”

131

Or their displays might not be recognized as demonstrating competence

according to normative standards based on assumptions that those who differ from middle-class

norms operate at a decit. For example, complex statistical calculations used on the basketball

court may not initially carry into the mathematics classroom unless teachers are alert to supporting

the transfer by building on this kind of real-world knowledge.

As Carol Lee demonstrated, the bridge between students’ experiences and school content can

be built using a cultural modeling approach that draws on the familiar to make the structure of

a domain visible and explicit to students.

132

Lee illustrated symbolic meanings in literature by

beginning with rap songs and texts the students knew and carried their insights into study of more

formal canonic texts.

Similarly, Jo Boaler’s study of the outcomes of inquiry-based instructional practices in mathematics

classrooms serving students from low-income families found that linguistic, ethnic, and class

inequalities were reduced when teachers contextualized problems and made them relevant to

students’ lives, introducing new concepts through discussion and asking students to explain and

discuss their thinking.

133

These teachers achieved stronger outcomes by addressing students’

difculties by seeking to understand and support students’ thinking and inquiry in the context of

rich learning experiences, rather than narrowing the curriculum and reducing it to rote learning

experiences, as often happens for students who have had less experience with the content and with

inquiry approaches.

Such inquiry-based learning typically takes place in collaborative groups. A developmentally rich

context for learning provides opportunities to collaborate with peers in ways that support the

development of self-regulation, executive function, and social skills.

134

Collaborative learning can

provide students with learning assistance from peers within their zone of proximal development,

opportunities to articulate their ideas—which can strengthen their learning—and opportunities to

strengthen metacognitive skills.

Extensive research identies developmental benets of social learning in well-managed groups.

135

Hundreds of studies and several meta-analyses nd signicant achievement benets for students

when they work together on learning activities compared to when they work on their own.

136

LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD 31

Researchers have identied a number of social processes that help to explain why small-group

work supports individual learning. These include opportunities to share original insights, resolve

differing perspectives through argument, explain one’s thinking about a phenomenon, provide

critique, observe the strategies of others, and listen to explanations.

137

There is evidence that

collaborators can generate strategies and abstract problem representations that are extremely

unlikely to be observed when individuals work alone, suggesting that there are unique benets

of joint thinking.

138

In addition to cognitive gains, studies nd positive outcomes of collaborative

learning on measures such as student self-concept, social interaction, time on task, and

interpersonal attraction or liking of one’s peers, as well as academic outcomes.

139

While well-managed group work can enhance student learning, teachers must know how to

structure this work. In successful use of cooperative approaches, teachers often help students

structure roles within the group and provide questions and tasks that guide the group’s

discussion.

140

Teachers create group-worthy tasks in which all must engage for the work to be

successfully accomplished, support for students to learn to work together, and scaffolding of the

material to be learned. They play an active role in constructing the tasks and questions that help

students learn to coordinate their work and frame their ideas in terms that reect the modes of

inquiry in the discipline. These efforts produce strong learning gains and reduce achievement gaps

among student groups.

141

They also support the development of social, cognitive, and academic

skills while developing student agency and the ability to reect on and evaluate ideas.

Mastery-oriented assessment

Finally, a mastery-focused approach to

assessment that emphasizes learning goals

has been found to help sustain achievement-

directed behavior over time and to orient

learners toward a focus on improving

competence and deeply understanding the work

they produce.

142

In addition, assessments that

place value on growth rather than on scores

earned at one discrete moment have been

found to create higher motivation and higher

levels of cognitive engagement.

143

In contrast,

researchers have found that evaluative, comparison-oriented testing focused on judgments about

students leads to students’ decreased interest in school, distancing from the learning environment,

and a lowered sense of self-condence and personal efcacy.

144

Schools that have been particularly successful in reducing opportunity and achievement gaps for

traditionally marginalized students have adopted mastery-oriented performance-based assessments

that build higher order thinking and performance skills; collaboration and communication skills;

motivation and engagement; and a host of co-cognitive skills such as self-regulation, executive

function, resilience, perseverance, and growth mindset.

145

Studies ﬁnd positive outcomes

of collaborative learning on

measures such as student

self-concept, social interaction,

time on task, and interpersonal

attraction or liking of one’s peers,

as well as academic outcomes.

32 LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD

In these schools, projects, papers, portfolios, and other products are evaluated through rubrics that

clearly describe dimensions of quality. When these are coupled with opportunities for feedback

and revision, the assessments promote learning and mastery rather than seeking to separate

students from one another and rank them against each other. These practices are consistent with

research indicating it is important that expectations and belief in students are explicitly expressed

and enacted through meaningful challenges that each student experiences, with opportunities to

develop competence, so that students know they are capable of a high level of achievement.

146

Performance assessments encourage higher order thinking, evaluation, synthesis, and deductive and

inductive reasoning while requiring students to demonstrate understanding.

147

The assessments

themselves are learning tools that also build students’ co-cognitive skills such as planning,

organizing, and other aspects of executive functioning; resilience and perseverance in the face of

challenges; and a growth mindset. Furthermore, performance assessments can provide multiple

entry points for diverse learners, including English language learners and students with special

needs, to access content and display learning.

148

Creating Multi-Tiered Systems of Support to Address Student Needs

Effective school environments take a systematic approach to promoting children’s development

in all facets of the school and its connections to the community. Adversity and trauma occur in

all communities, as does healthy development. Science has found that stress is a normal part of

healthy development, but excessive stress in any of these contexts—at home, at school, or in other

aspects of the community—can undermine learning and development and have profound effects on

children’s well-being. Well-designed supports, including specic programs and interventions that

buffer children against excessive stress, can enable resilience and success even for children who

have faced serious adversity and trauma.

Environments that are trauma-sensitive

provide children with structure, psychological

safety, adult alertness and responsiveness, and

opportunities for young people to demonstrate

agency with guidance. They also incorporate

a personalized approach to identifying and

addressing each child’s developmental needs,

including their physical and mental health

needs, as well as their social-emotional and

academic needs. Adults working in education

need to be specically trained for this

experience and supported in the development

of their skills and the management of their own

stress so that their actions can be experienced by students as being helpful and compassionate.

149

A key aspect of creating a supportive environment is a shared developmental framework among all

of the adults in the school, coupled with procedures for ensuring that students receive additional

help for social, emotional, or academic needs when they need them, without costly and elaborate

labeling procedures standing in the way. Multi-tiered systems of support include multidisciplinary

Well-designed supports,

including speciﬁc programs and

interventions that buffer children

against excessive stress, can

enable resilience and success

even for children who have faced

serious adversity and trauma.

LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD 33

student support teams—on-site pupil services personnel (e.g., social workers, school psychologists,

counselors, and nurses) who are skilled in culturally competent academic and behavioral

assessment, care coordination, and family engagement with support teams.

While there can be many tiers of support, most systems include three tiers.

150

The rst tier is

universal—everyone experiences it. Ideally, it uses teaching strategies grounded in universal designs

for learning that are broadly successful with children who learn in different ways, and explicit

social-emotional learning models and positive behavioral support strategies that are culturally and

linguistically competent.

151

Tier 2 services and supports address the needs of students who are at

some elevated level of risk or who need some additional support in particular areas. The risk may

be demonstrated by behavior (e.g., number of absences) or may be due to having experienced a

known risk factor (e.g., the loss of a parent). These services may include academic supports (e.g.,

Reading Recovery, mathematics tutoring, extended learning time) or family outreach, counseling,

and behavioral supports. Schools may operate counseling groups to support students who have

experienced loss or violence, who are managing traumatic events, and who need mental health

supports. They may use social workers to help students—and sometimes their families—access

supports and services. Tier 3 services involve intensive interventions for students who are at

particularly high levels of risk or whose needs are not sufciently met by tier 2 interventions. Tier

3 services might include wraparound services, one-on-one mental health supports, and effective

special education.

152

Interventions, not students, are tiered, and supports can and should be provided in normative

environments. Students are not “tier 2 or 3 students”; they receive services as needed for as

long as needed, but no longer. Providers should recognize that students have strengths in many

areas, building upon student assets and not just focusing on decits. Because tier 2 and 3 services

demand more of students and families, it is particularly important that they be implemented in a

child- and family-driven manner that is culturally competent. This can maximize engagement and

minimize errors that occur when students, families, or teachers are not asked about their context

and needs. Interventions should minimize removal from the normative classroom or extracurricular

environments and learning. These supports often benet from collaboration with local service

agencies and community-based organizations with communication feedback loops to school-based

staff. Key is that a whole child approach is taken: Students are dealt with in connected rather than

fragmented ways, and care is personalized to the needs of individuals.

Helping staff and parents better understand child development is critical so that they can use

information about children in productive ways to foster their deeper attachment and growth.

153

When staff and parents work together from a developmentally informed framework, substantial

improvements occur for children. The School Development Program (SDP) is an example of this

approach. Building upon relationships and school culture to address six developmental pathways—

social-interactive, psycho-emotional, ethical, cognitive, linguistic, and physical—the program

establishes collaborative working relationships among principals, parents, teachers, community

leaders, superintendents, and health care workers, teaching them about child development and

grounding collective action in a shared developmental framework for multi-tiered supports.

154

Research on the SDP shows that it helps reduce absenteeism and suspension, improves school

climate and relationships among students and teachers, increases student self-competence and

self-concept, and strengthens achievement.

155

34 LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD

Integrated student services

Awareness of the pervasiveness of student toxic stress across the income spectrum and the growth

of child poverty in economically traumatized communities have created additional demands

for health, mental health, and social service supports that are needed for children’s healthy

development and to address barriers to learning.

A number of approaches have emerged to creating integrated student services, also called

wraparound services, which link schools to a range of academic, health, and social services.

Integrated student support (ISS) programs address the reality that children whose families are

struggling with poverty—and the housing, health, and safety concerns that often go with it—cannot

learn most effectively unless their nonacademic needs are also met. The goal is to remove barriers

to school success by connecting students and families to service providers in the community, or

bringing those services into the school.

Successful examples include Schools of the 21st Century in New Haven, CT; the Children’s Aid

Society in New York City; the West Philadelphia Improvement Corps; and Communities in Schools

programs in 25 states, all of which have brought social services to schools through community

partnerships for over 30 years. These and newer models are similar in their provision of on-site

child care and early childhood development; job training, transportation, and housing assistance for

parents; health care and mental health services; and child nutrition and food assistance programs.

A social worker or community school coordinator conducts needs assessments, partners with

agencies outside the school, and tracks program data.

156

A research synthesis that examined 11 experimental and quasi-experimental studies of ISS models

found signicant positive effects on student progress in school, attendance, mathematics and

reading achievement, and overall grade point averages. These studies also found measurable

decreases in grade retention, dropout rates, and absenteeism.

157

A study of the Massachusetts

Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Wraparound Zones program, which set up

partnerships with community groups to improve school climate and address students’ nonacademic

needs, found that student outcomes on state English language arts and mathematics assessments in

wraparound schools were signicantly better than those in matched schools.

158

Many of these features come together in

community school models. Community schools

represent a place-based school improvement

strategy in which “schools partner with

community agencies and resources to provide

an integrated focus on academics, health

and social services, youth and community

development, and community engagement.”

159

Many operate year-round, from morning to

evening, serving both children and adults. A

recent review of 125 studies of community

schools and their components found signicant

evidence for the benets of these approaches

for a wide range of student outcomes, ranging

from attendance and behavior to learning and

educational attainment.

160

Integrated student support

programs address the reality

that children whose families

are struggling with poverty—and

the housing, health, and safety

concerns that often go with

it—cannot learn most effectively

unless their nonacademic needs

are also met.

LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD 35

In these models, schools often draw on a wide range of community and cultural resources, including

partnerships with families, to strengthen trust and build resilience as children have more support

systems and people work collaboratively to help address the stresses of poverty and associated

adversities they may face.

Extended learning time

Given the plasticity of the brain and its experience dependency, the amount and consistency of

cognitive stimulation matters. According to one set of studies, by high school, as much as two thirds

of the difference in achievement between students from afuent and low-income families may

be the cumulative result of summer learning loss for those who lack year-round enrichment and

learning opportunities.

161

September to June progress is similar across socioeconomic groups, but

many children from low-income families lose achievement during the summer.

Extending learning time is one way to address these gaps. Before- and after-school and summer

programs can provide expanded learning opportunities for students. Examples of the array of

out-of-school time (OST) enrichment activities include additional academic instruction; mentoring;

and hands-on, engaging learning experiences in music, art, and athletics. Research consistently

documents the benets of OST enrichment. Students attending OST programs show greater

academic gains when they attend more frequently and over a longer duration in programs with

high-quality instruction.

162

In a meta-analysis of 93 summer programs, researchers found positive impacts on knowledge and

skills for students from middle-income and low-income families from programs focused on both

remediation and enrichment.

163

The strongest effects were found for smaller programs and those

that provided more individualized and small-group instruction. However, even the largest programs

showed positive effects. Other reviews show similar effects,

164

and a review of effects for at-risk

students found stronger outcomes for programs of longer duration and those with both social

and academic foci than for those that were academic alone.

165

Furthermore, as in other contexts,

programs featuring tutoring in a content eld such as reading had very substantial effects.

36 LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD

Policy Strategies

The knowledge provided by the sciences of learning and development, coupled with insights from

educational research, provides a framework for supporting children’s health and welfare across the

wide range of contexts they experience. This knowledge base indicates the importance of rethinking

schools and social institutions designed a century ago based on factory-model conceptions of

organizations that privileged standardization and minimized relationships. Research indicates that

schools and child-caring services must be organized around strong, developmentally supportive

relationships; coherent and well-integrated approaches to supports, including home and school

connections; well-scaffolded instruction that intentionally supports the development of social,

emotional, and academic skills, habits, and mindsets; and culturally competent, personalized

responses to the assets and needs that each individual child presents.

To achieve these goals at scale, a holistic

vision for youth development is needed in

which all the elements that impact students

are designed in ways that make sense and are

science-based. Also needed are policies that

enable and encourage schools to personalize

instruction within supportive school

environments that help students grow along

all of the developmental pathways, thereby

ensuring their success.

As states are in the process of revising and

implementing new accountability plans under

ESSA, there are new opportunities for them to

both focus attention on these imperatives and

support schools and districts in achieving them.

Four key levers have the potential to leverage

change and create the momentum needed to

redesign school experiences for students:

1. Assessing school climate in order to develop positive learning environments that enable

students to be well-supported in all aspects of their development.

2. Providing educative and restorative approaches to discipline that keep students in

school and integrate social, emotional, and academic learning.

3. Creating multi-tiered systems of support, including health and mental health services

and extended learning time focused on students’ needs.

4. Strengthening educator preparation and development to enact these programs and

practices grounded in the principles of learning and development.

Knowledge provided by the

sciences of learning and

development, coupled with

insights from educational

research, indicates the importance

of rethinking schools and social

institutions designed a century

ago based on factory-model

conceptions of organizations that

privileged standardization and

minimized relationships.

LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD 37

Developing and Assessing Positive Learning Environments

Under ESSA, Title I local educational agency plans must be designed to “strengthen academic

programs and improve school conditions for student learning.”

166

ESSA’s requirement that states

adopt an accountability indicator of “school quality or student success”

167

is important for school

improvement: It opens the door to measures of school quality that reveal students’ experiences and

opportunities to learn.

Assessing school climate

To encourage a focus on supportive learning environments, states can establish a measure of

school climate in the accountability system. Measuring school climate through student, parent, and

teacher surveys can shine a light on important school practices that are often overlooked and signal

that school climate is a priority. This attention may encourage teaching strategies and schoolwide

initiatives that create an environment in which students are supported socially, emotionally,

and academically and families are welcomed and involved in the education process. Analysis of

disaggregated results may help identify gaps in opportunities to learn and belong that can be

addressed by educators.

Surveys typically measure students’ sense of safety and belonging, supports for teaching and

learning, interpersonal relationships, and physical environment. They can also measure levels

of staff collaboration, working conditions, and leadership, which are key predictors of teacher

turnover and, thus, student success.

168

School climate surveys have long been used in districtwide

accountability systems, such as those in Chicago, New York City, and California’s CORE district. For

years, many states have administered student health surveys that address aspects of school climate,

since surveys were required under the federal Title IV Safe and Drug-Free Communities Program.

169

Most ask respondents how strongly they agree or disagree with statements on a 5-point scale. The

California Healthy Kids School Climate Module, for example, asks students and staff their level of

agreement with statements regarding:

1. Academic expectations: This school is a supportive and inviting place for students

to learn.

2. Relationships: At my school, there is a teacher or some other adult who really cares

about me.

3. Opportunities for meaningful participation: Teachers give students a chance to

take part in classroom discussions or activities.

4. Connectedness: I feel like I am part of this school.

5. School supports for SEL: This school helps students solve conicts with one another.

These kinds of items measure how students feel about the environment and provide information

about school practices that may enable SEL. For example, the questions above reveal whether the

school proactively teaches conict resolution and whether teachers support class participation that

provides an opportunity to learn communication and collaboration skills.

38 LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD

Under ESSA, 10 states have committed to incorporating measures of school climate into their

accountability systems for purposes of school identication, and another six states are using the

measures for diagnostic purposes. Diagnostic uses of the survey are typically intended to help

identify school improvement needs for all schools and to guide interventions for schools identied

for comprehensive or targeted intervention. Thirteen additional states and the District of Columbia

have indicated that they plan to incorporate such measures in the near future.

There are compelling reasons to survey teachers, too, about school climate. Research shows that

the way teachers perceive a school’s climate—the working conditions and supports put in place for

them, their trust in leadership, and their collaboration with one another—matters tremendously for

teacher retention, especially in schools with low-income, diverse student bodies.

170

These factors,

in turn, affect student achievement. Teacher-specic constructs may be measured by items that

examine whether

• teachers have time available to collaborate with their colleagues;

• teachers have been given learning opportunities to strengthen their practice, including

teaching of social-emotional skills, habits, and mindsets; and

• the faculty has an effective process for making group decisions to solve problems.

California is among the states using school climate assessments for diagnostic purposes: It requires

districts to use a student survey of their choice at least once every 2 years to inform their planning

and decision making. It does not, however, currently require the results to be reported as part of

the state accountability system or used in any particular way in the process of supporting schools

identied for intervention and support. The development of this part of the accountability and

improvement system is still under consideration.

Using School Climate Data to Diagnose School Needs

In addition to sponsoring surveys, states and districts can also support educators in using measures

of school climate to improve school environments by providing time and training to use data from

surveys and other sources to inform school improvement initiatives and the use of professional

development resources. Washoe County, NV, taught its leadership teams to debrief survey data with

students and staff in order to collect additional insights about how to address areas of concern.

This process developed useful recommendations for reform as well as buy-in for the survey process.

In addition to surveys, a promising tool for guiding local improvement is the school quality

review (SQR), a formal process for evaluating and supporting teaching and learning that can be

used to identify schools’ areas of strength and need. A review of school quality brings together

robust quantitative and qualitative data from observations and interviews.

171

Findings from the

SQR provide educators and administrators with actionable information to prioritize areas for

improvement, develop school improvement plans, and build local capacity.

LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD 39

Ensuring That Survey Data Do Not Just Sit on a Shelf:

Spotlight on Washoe County School District

With the help of a federal grant, Washoe County School District has developed a robust survey of

school climate, including students’ social and emotional skills, habits, and mindsets such as self-

awareness and responsible decision making. It analyzes this survey data along with its Early Warning

Indicator, which identiﬁes students as at-risk based on their grades, attendance, and suspensions.

The district uses these data to connect the dots between students’ social-emotional competencies

and school climate, as measured by surveys and outcomes such as attendance, as well as to inform

staff practices in the school and classroom.

Despite focused efforts on SEL at the district level, some students and teachers did not know what

was being done with the results and thus were unsure whether the surveys were worth their time.

Laura Davidson, director of research and evaluation, explained, “We started doing focus groups with

students about the school climate survey and these SEL measures we were developing, and a lot of

them were saying, ‘It’s the 4th year I’ve taken the survey, I’ve never seen the results, why should I put

any more time or effort into it if I don’t see anything change at my school?’ … That was a real ‘aha’

moment for us that we need to do a better job.”

Washoe decided to focus on training its SEL lead teams, composed of school staff, on how to debrief

survey data with teachers, staff, and, most importantly, students. These debriefs dig into what

might be causing trends in the data, as well as what to do about them. For example, recent survey

data showed that students scored themselves poorly on managing and expressing their emotions

(self-management and relationship skills), which some thought might be connected to behaviors

that led to suspensions. In a student data summit, students noted that teachers don’t actually teach

them how to express themselves in the way that they teach students how to get along with others. In

their strategic plans, many schools in the district began addressing this aspect of SEL, focusing on

investments in SEL curriculum and professional development.

Student data summits have been a success in the district, and district leaders believe they have

led to greater student engagement and empowerment. The district’s student voice coordinator is

currently working with WestEd on a toolkit for student engagement strategies such as this one.

Source: Interview with Ben Hayes, Chief Accountability Ofﬁcer, and Laura Davidson, Director of Research and Evaluation,

Washoe County School District, on October 18, 2017.

Several states, including Connecticut and Massachusetts, have been using this approach for schools

identied as in need of improvement.

172

Vermont uses a statewide SQR, which consists of an annual

snapshot review and an in-depth integrated eld review, which occurs once every 3 years. During

the integrated eld review, educators observe classrooms, review student work, and conduct panel

discussions and interviews with parents, students, and staff to assess a school’s quality.

173

Such

vehicles can examine how schools are supporting students, as well as whether they provide a safe

school climate that is socially and emotionally supportive.

40 LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD

Both the CORE districts and New York City include SQR data in their assessment of schools. Data

from the New York City SQR on rigor of instruction, collaborative teachers, and a supportive

environment are aggregated with survey data to form an overall measure of school climate and

quality. The rst construct on the rubric, for example, is that the school “maintains a culture of

mutual trust and positive attitudes that supports the academic and personal growth of students and

adults.”

174

As the report card for P.S. 15 shows, this attention to school climate and practices can

demonstrate areas of strength and areas for development, thereby guiding ongoing improvement

efforts (see Figure 3).

Figure 3

Sample NYC Department of Education School Quality Snapshot Summary

Student Achievement

Trust

Strong Family-Community Ties

Effective School Leadership

Supportive Environment

Collaborative Teachers

Rigorous Instruction

PoorFairGoodExcellent

KEY:

Research shows that schools strong in the six areas are far more likely to improve student learning.

Framework for Great Schools

Source: NYC Department of Education. (2018). School Quality Reports.

https://www.nycenet.edu/PublicApps/SchoolQualityReports.aspx.

Helping Schools Improve Climate and Culture

States and districts can also play a role in helping schools improve school climate. Under ESSA,

eight states are using school surveys to measure school climate as one of their indicators of school

quality, and 12 more states will make school climate data available so that schools can evaluate

how they are doing and work to strengthen their supports for students. Sixteen additional states

are working to improve school climate in schools identied for support and improvement or as part

of a broader statewide effort. Eleven states explicitly mention providing resources and support to

schools to improve students’ social and emotional learning.

175

In one example, Maryland is using school climate surveys of students and educators as an

accountability indicator in all grades. The state is currently collaborating with REL-Mid Atlantic

and Mathematica to develop survey instruments that include items in the same domains for student

LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD 41

and educator surveys, including safety, engagement, and environment, from the Maryland Safe and

Supportive Schools Survey and Climate Prole.

176

To respond to the data provided by school climate

and other indicators, the Maryland Department of Education will develop and implement a multi-

tiered system of support that will include partnerships between schools and community members

to further sustainable conict resolution programs, reduce and eliminate disproportionality in

discipline, provide a Youth Mental Health First Aid curriculum for staff, and implement wraparound

services for students dealing with substance abuse and other issues.

Resources for helping schools create inclusive and positive climates include the U.S. Department of

Education and American Institutes for Research’s Safe and Supportive Learning,

177

CASEL, Engaging

Schools, and the National School Climate Center. Seven strategies commonly pursued are:

1. Creating a site-based climate team composed of students, teachers, administrators, other

staff, and parents that meets regularly to identify and address school climate issues.

2. Working with students and teachers to create consensual norms for respectful behaviors

that are known and supported by all members, along with conict resolution training and

restorative justice practices that strengthen individual success and a sense of a community.

3. Improving the physical environment to make it comfortable and student-friendly, clean,

and well-lit; displaying student art, projects, and papers that convey that students are at

the center of the school’s mission; and including multicultural images and texts.

4. Increasing student voice and participation in all aspects of the school, ranging from

academic input and engagement in projects to leadership of clubs and social events to

training for conict resolution and peer mediation in disputes.

5. Implementing ongoing activities that support diversity and promote tolerance, deepen

understanding, and increase respect for differences. These activities have greater impact

when they do not stand alone but rather reinforce themes woven into the curriculum.

6. Creating opportunities for the least engaged youth beyond traditional athletics and

academics, which are often competitive and include few students. Reach out to invite

students to join clubs and extracurricular activities, support students in starting their own

clubs or groups, and initiate dialogue opportunities and surveys that ask students what they

want to become involved in and how they want to become involved.

7. Supporting social skills curriculum and instruction that actively teach the social-emotional

skills that equip students to communicate effectively, establish solid friendships, and

resolve their differences nonviolently. This can be accomplished directly through lessons

that teach these skills, and it can also happen more indirectly through class meetings

or strategies such as cooperative learning that teachers use in their classrooms. Success

requires that students experience consistent messages in all social-emotional curricula and

in all classes.

178

42 LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD

Reducing Rates of Exclusionary Discipline

A second area for policy leverage is reducing rates of student suspension and expulsion, which

typically begin a process of successive failures for students. When students are regularly

removed from the classroom, they fall behind in their classwork and they experience a social and

emotional distancing and disengagement from school.

179

The more time students spend out of

the classroom, the more their sense of connection to the school wanes,

180

along with their ability

to succeed academically. This distance promotes disengaged behaviors, such as truancy, chronic

absenteeism, and antisocial behavior,

181

which in turn contributes to the widening achievement

and opportunity gap.

Research shows that the frequency of student suspensions also increases the likelihood of dropping

out,

182

and the overuse of suspensions and expulsions, particularly for students of color, contributes

to the “school-to-prison pipeline.”

183

Research also shows that students of color and those with

disabilities are disproportionately suspended for the same behaviors their White and nondisabled

peers engage in.

184

Using indicators of suspension and expulsion under ESSA

Recognizing the need to reduce the use of exclusionary disciplinary practices and to improve

student engagement, 29 states are including a measure of suspension and/or expulsion in

their statewide accountability and improvement systems for either identication or diagnostic

purposes.

185

The intention is to incentivize interventions such as replacing zero-tolerance strategies

with effective strategies, including restorative justice, to address student misbehavior.

186

Under ESSA, school quality and student support (SQSS) indicators used for accountability

purposes must be disaggregated by race and other student characteristics. Research indicates that

tracking suspension and expulsion data by student groups can help highlight racially disparate

practices and promote positive behavioral interventions that can improve student engagement

and academic success.

187

Some states have designed approaches that both provide data to local districts and help them

use the data productively. For example, Rhode Island is using student suspension rates as part of

its SQSS indicator under ESSA, in combination with chronic absenteeism rates. The suspension

rate will measure the number of out-of-school suspensions per 100 students, pre-k through

12th grade.

188

Rhode Island will report student suspensions annually for all subgroups at the

state and school level. The Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) also uses a statewide

data repository called InfoWorks to track

improvements in school climate by collecting

school survey data on academic engagement,

bullying, personalization, resources, and student

well-being, as well as data on suspension rates.

InfoWorks allows users to compare schools on

multiple related measures, including the types

of infractions that resulted in suspensions, the

types of disciplinary responses, the relationship

between the number of students enrolled

and the number of suspensions, and rates of

suspensions per 100 students by race.

189

Tracking suspension and expulsion

data by student groups can

help highlight racially disparate

practices and promote positive

behavioral interventions that can

improve student engagement and

academic success.

LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD 43

RIDE will support the use of the student suspension indicator with state-developed resources

for schools to reduce the need for disciplinary actions that exclude students from school. These

resources will be funded through competitive state grants using ESSA Title IV(A) funds and include

school-based mental health services, mentoring, and school counseling; schoolwide positive

behavioral interventions and supports; and programs to reduce exclusionary discipline practices. In

addition, RIDE will identify models of best practices to improve school climate by convening three

meetings a year with an open SEL Community of Practice that hosts presentations and discussions

among educators.

Helping schools and districts learn to implement effective alternatives

There is still a steep learning curve for many schools and districts to learn how to create stronger

learning environments and social-emotional supports for students, yet many have shown it can be

done. The U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Justice have issued joint guidance

on rethinking school discipline through evidence-based district- and school-level action steps to

create safe and supportive school climate and discipline systems.

190

Proven options for replacing

zero-tolerance policies, such as targeted behavioral supports for at-risk students and promoting

student-school bonds, character education, and social and emotional learning programs, are included

in the National Education Association’s report Multiple Responses, Promising Results: Evidence-Based,

Nonpunitive Alternatives to Zero Tolerance.

191

States, districts, and schools can also provide training on

implicit bias

192

for teachers and administrators, school resource ofcers, police, juvenile judges, and

others dealing with juveniles, which has been shown to reduce disproportionalities.

Restorative justice is one widely used approach that emphasizes repairing the harm caused

by problematic behavior and teaching new behavioral strategies to young people. It is

generally accomplished through cooperative processes that include all stakeholders, leading to

transformation of people, relationships, and communities. In schools, restorative justice programs

bring the affected parties together to evaluate the situation, determine how to make amends, and

reintegrate students into the classroom and school community.

193

Resources include:

• Implementing Restorative Justice: A Guide for Schools: Produced by the Illinois Criminal

Justice Authority, this comprehensive guide focuses on ways that schools can integrate

restorative justice practices. The guide looks at challenges to implementation, denes the

subject, and provides three approaches to using restorative justice in school.

• Restorative Justice—A Working Guide for Our Schools: This guide from California’s

Alameda County Schools Health Coalition covers a range of topics, including an in-depth

introduction, examples of restorative practices, and the impact these programs can have.

• Restorative Practices—Fostering Healthy Relationships & Promoting Positive Discipline in

Schools: This guide from the National Opportunity to Learn Campaign provides examples

of restorative practices, along with implementation tips and strategies, as well as examples

from school districts.

• Restorative Practices Whole-School Implementation Guide: The San Francisco Unied

School District uses restorative practices throughout the district. This guide provides a

framework for planning, implementing, and using restorative practices across a school or

district. There are many useful insights into the unique considerations associated with

implementing a program. The district also offers useful curriculum-planning resources.

44 LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD

In addition, states and districts can support the development and implementation of model

school discipline policies and agreements that clarify the distinction between educator discipline

and law enforcement discipline, eliminating referrals to law enforcement for all nonviolent,

noncriminal offenses.

The Dignity in Schools Campaign provides several resources for policies that remove police from

schools and replace them with effective staff-led strategies for classroom management, conict

resolution, and mediation.

194

When staff lack strategies for managing behavior, focused supports

may be needed. Using classroom-level data to provide targeted professional development for

teachers may also be effective.

Providing a Multi-Tiered System of Student Support

In order to provide a multi-tiered system of student support, states need to ensure that there is

an adequate supply of qualied teachers for all districts, including learning specialists, who are

well-prepared to teach diverse students. They must also ensure an adequate supply of counselors

and social workers to provide intensive supports where they are needed. States and districts must

provide high-quality training for all staff in diagnostic and responsive approaches if multi-tiered

strategies are to work.

In addition, states and local communities need to make it possible for schools and community-

based health, mental health, and social service organizations to work productively together.

In addition to adequately funding these services, particularly in high-poverty communities,

this can be accomplished by coordinating and aligning services and funding streams, as well as

streamlining eligibility for children and families, so that schools can help ensure that students are

served as needed.

This integration of education and supports can also be accomplished by creating community schools,

which integrate health and social services into the school itself. Community schools represent a

place-based strategy in which “schools partner with community agencies and resources to provide

an integrated focus on academics, health and social services, youth and community development,

and community engagement.”

195

Many operate year-round, from morning to evening, and serve both

children and adults. They typically offer integrated student supports, expanded learning time and

opportunities, family and community engagement, and collaborative leadership and practices.

A recent review of research on such initiatives concluded that well-implemented community

schools improve student and school outcomes ranging from tested achievement and grades to

behavior and graduation rates.

196

The research meets the ESSA standard that qualies community

schools as an “evidence-based” intervention, so that federal Title I funds can be spent to enact this

approach in low-performing schools.

In California, the Learning Communities for School Success Program provides grant funding to

support evidence-based, nonpunitive programs and practices to keep the state’s most vulnerable

pupils in school. The establishment of a community school is one of several options available to

local education agencies that receive grant funding to meet that goal.

In New York, the expectation for this kind of investment is much more extensive and direct. A

community schools set-aside in the Foundation Aid portion of the enacted state budget provides

formula funding to high-need school districts for creating and operating community schools. In

LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD 45

2017–18, the state set aside $150 million for 233 school districts that were identied as high-need,

with an additional allocation for schools with extraordinarily high levels of student need, as dened

by the Commissioner of Education. These kinds of policies are fundamental to ensuring that all

students can come to school ready and able to learn each day.

Investing in Educator Preparation and Development

All of these shifts require investments in educator development. It is critically important that

educators receive comprehensive preparation that enables them to understand students well,

develop productive relationships and curriculum in their classrooms, and feel competent and

condent so that they communicate a sense of efcacy to their students. Teachers and principals

who are better prepared feel more efcacious, experience less stress in their jobs, and are more

likely to stay in the profession, providing students with the stability they need.

197

In addition to providing training for a wide range of knowledge and skills, it is important to attend

to educators’ stress and well-being, as well as students’. Teachers’ and principals’ well-being and

management of stress affect their relationships with children and families, as well as rates of

attrition from the profession. According to a national survey, 46% of teachers report high daily

stress during the school year, the highest rate of daily stress among all occupational groups.

198

Teacher stress is linked to poor teacher performance and poor student outcomes: Teachers who

have greater stress and show more symptoms of depression create classroom environments that are

less conducive to learning, leading to poor academic performance among students.

199

Teachers who

report greater burnout early in the school year have classrooms with more behavior problems. When

teachers are highly stressed, children show lower levels of both social adjustment and academic

performance,

200

whereas when teachers are more engaged in their jobs, student engagement and

achievement are higher.

201

Educator well-being

In addition to an administration that supports site-based educators and structures a collegial

workplace, research has found that educator well-being can be enhanced by

• supportive administration, particularly in creating a collegial, supportive school

environment, which can reduce teacher stress and support teacher engagement and

effectiveness;

• mentoring and induction programs, which can improve satisfaction and retention, as

well as student academic achievement;

• workplace wellness programs, which can result in reduced health risk, health care costs,

and absenteeism among staff;

• social-emotional learning programs, which can improve behavior and promote social

and emotional skills among students, which helps reduce teacher stress and creates more

positive engagement with students; and

• mindfulness and stress management programs, which can help educators develop

coping and awareness skills to reduce anxiety and depression, and improved health.

202

46 LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD

Educator training

To accomplish the shifts described in this report, educator preparation programs for both teachers

and leaders should offer a thoughtful, science-based, and developmentally sound course sequence

that centers on understanding child and adolescent development, addressing implicit bias, creating

culturally responsive classroom communities, and advancing equity as well as crafting engaging

instructional units that connect to students’ experiences and move them toward deeper learning

outcomes. This training must include a strong clinical component interwoven with this coursework,

in which candidates can apply what they are learning with the guidance of experienced and effective

educators in schools that model the practices supportive of student development.

Training should include how to support children’s social and emotional development as well

as their academic success, how to develop classroom communities that enable productive adult

and peer relationships, how to use educative and restorative behavior supports, and how to work

effectively with families in a diverse community.

Pre-service learning. A starting point for placing this knowledge base at the center of education

reform is adopting standards for educator preparation programs that reect that knowledge. In

California, the Commission on Teacher Credentialing has recently adopted standards reected in

the competencies for both teacher and administrator licensing, as well as program accreditation,

that reect an understanding of student social, emotional, and academic development; the skills for

creating a positive classroom and school environment; and the use of restorative practices.

Programs are still learning how to put these new standards into effect and developing opportunities

to share courses, syllabi, and strategies that will be helpful in propelling the quality of preparation

forward. In addition, programs need to create strong relationships with schools that instantiate

these ways of working with students. In some states, these necessary professional partner school

relationships have been supported with funding from the state, or through teacher or leader

residency programs that provide opportunities for carefully guided clinical practice.

It is also essential to solve the problem of

teacher shortages, which currently result

in a large number of untrained teachers in

classrooms, many of whom stay only a short

time because they lack the supports to learn

to teach. Research indicates that there is a

relationship between high suspension rates

and a higher than average number of novice

teachers or those without preparation.

203

Investments in teacher residencies and

forgivable loan programs that expand the pool

of well-prepared teachers will help provide

schools with a more stable workforce that

can transform school climate and culture and

support whole child learning and care.

To accomplish the shifts

described in this report, educator

training must include a strong

clinical component in which

candidates can apply what they

are learning with the guidance

of experienced and effective

educators in schools that model

the practices supportive of

student development.

LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD 47

In-service professional development. Once educators are teaching in classrooms or leading schools,

strong professional development (PD) is needed to sustain and adapt training received in pre-service

programs. Clearly, changing teaching and schooling practices require investments in educators’

professional learning, and some schools have shown signicant achievement gains by making such

investments strategically. However, not all PD is designed in ways that produce these effects.

A key feature of effective PD is having teachers work together on a particular set of practices over a

sustained period of time. The greatest improvements in student achievement have been found to be

associated with PD approaches that

• focus on deepening teachers’ content knowledge and instructional practices;

• function as a coherent part of a school’s improvement efforts, aligned with curriculum,

assessments, and standards, so that teachers can implement the knowledge and practices

they learn in their classrooms;

• occur in collaborative and collegial learning environments in which teachers participate

in professional learning and together grapple with issues related to new content and

instructional practices;

• provide authentic activities rooted in teachers’ inquiry and reection about practice within

the context of the curriculum and students they teach;

• link to analysis of teaching and student learning, including the formative use of

assessment data;

• are supported by coaching, modeling, observations, and feedback; and

• are of sufcient duration that the skills can be learned, practiced with support, and rened

over time, so that they become part of a teacher’s repertoire and a school’s routines.

204

States and districts can organize and fund PD that reects these features that enable marked

improvement in teachers’ skills and students’ outcomes.

That educators want to be able to create the environments described in this paper is demonstrated

by a recent LPI survey of California principals

205

that found that 9 in 10 of them would like to receive

more professional development in how to create a supportive whole child environment for students.

These desires topped their list, and included learning how to

• create a school environment that develops personally and socially responsible young people

and uses discipline for restorative purposes (91%);

• redesign a school’s organization and structure to support deeper learning for teachers and

students (90%);

• lead schools that support students’ social and emotional development (89%); and

• develop systems that meet children’s needs and support their physical and mental health

(88%) (see Figure 4).

48 LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD

Figure 4

California Principals Report Wanting More Professional Development

By topic

Source: Sutcher, L., Podolsky, A., Kini, T., & Shields, P. M. (2018). Learning to lead: Understanding California’s learning system

for school and district leaders. Stanford, CA: Center for Education Policy Analysis. (Forthcoming)

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Create a school environment that develops personally and socially

responsible young people and uses discipline for restorative purposes.

Redesign the school’s organization and structure to support

deeper learning for teachers and students

Lead schools that support students’ social and emotional development

Develop systems that meet children’s needs and support their

development in terms of physical and mental health

Lead a schoolwide change process to improve student achievement

Use student and school data to inform continuous school improvement

Lead instruction that focuses on how to develop students’

higher order thinking skills

Design professional learning opportunities for teachers and other staff

Equitably serve all children

Support students with disabilities

Help teachers improve through a cycle of observation and feedback

91%

90%

89%

88%

87%

86%

84%

Educator diversity

Finally, proactive strategies for recruiting underrepresented students to prospective careers in

teaching and school leadership can help build the kinds of school environments that feature

cultural pluralism and communicate safety and belonging to all students. Growing evidence

documents the benets to students of color of having at least one teacher of the same race,

including higher achievement and graduation rates, as well as a greater likelihood of aspiring to

higher education.

206

Analysts hypothesize that the afrming messages that these teachers give their

students have long-term effects on students’ experience of school. A diverse educator workforce

also brings more experiences and perspectives to the table, enabling greater mutual exchange

among professionals about how to understand and meet the needs of their students.

LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD 49

Although many school districts are beginning to

recognize the desirability of having a teaching

staff that is more representative of the student

body, the lack of teacher diversity is a growing

concern in the United States. As of 2012, 51%

of public school students in the U.S. were

White, while 82% of public school teachers were

White.

207

Although California is doing better

in diversifying its teaching force, with 30%

of teachers and 50% of new entrants identifying as racial/ethnic minorities, there is still a major

challenge in retaining teachers of color once they have entered the profession. This is often because

they have had less access to high-quality preparation and mentoring, and because they typically

teach in the most challenging school environments.

208

Efforts to recruit and retain racially and socioeconomically underrepresented individuals to become

teachers and school leaders can pay great dividends for other educators as well as for students. The

most successful strategies offer forgivable loans and scholarships to offset the costs of preparation;

high-quality, affordable entry pathways such as teacher and leader residencies that offer excellent

preparation for high-need urban and rural schools at little cost to candidates; and supportive

mentoring in collegial environments.

209

Recruiting candidates of color into teaching is one small but

crucial step toward a more equitable educational landscape.

Recruiting candidates of color into

teaching is one small but crucial

step toward a more equitable

educational landscape.

50 LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD

Recommendations

This growing knowledge and practice base suggests that, in order to create schools that support

healthy development for young people, our education system should:

1. Focus accountability, guidance, and investments on developmental supports for young

people, including a positive, culturally responsive school climate and supportive instruction

and services.

2. Design schools to provide settings for healthy development, including secure relationships;

coherent, well-designed teaching for 21st century skills; and services that meet the needs of

the whole child.

3. Enable educators to work effectively to offer successful instruction to diverse students from

a wide range of contexts.

Recommendation #1:

Focus the System on Developmental Supports for Young People

States guide the focus of schools and professionals through the ways in which accountability

systems are established, guidance is offered, and funding is provided. To ensure developmentally

healthy school environments, states, districts, and schools can:

• Include measures of school climate, social-emotional supports, and school exclusions in

accountability and improvement systems so that these are a focus of schools’ attention

and data are regularly available to guide continuous improvement.

• Adopt standards or other guidance for social, emotional, and cognitive learning that

claries the kinds of competencies students should be helped to develop and the kinds of

practices that can help them accomplish these goals.

• Replace zero-tolerance policies regarding school discipline with discipline policies focused

on explicit teaching of social-emotional strategies and restorative discipline practices that

support young people in learning key skills and developing responsibility for themselves

and their community.

• Incorporate educator competencies regarding support for social, emotional, and

cognitive development, as well as restorative practices, into licensing and accreditation

requirements for teachers, administrators, and counseling staff.

• Provide funding for school climate surveys, social-emotional learning and restorative

justice programs, and revamped licensing practices (including appropriate assessments) to

support these reforms. As suggested below, additional investments are needed for multi-

tiered systems of support, integrated student services, extended learning, and professional

learning for educators to enable progress within schools.

LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD 51

Recommendation #2:

Design Schools to Provide Settings for Healthy Development

Within a productive policy environment, schools can do more to provide the right kinds of supports

for students if they are also designed to foster strong relationships and provide a holistic approach

to student supports and family engagement. To provide settings for healthy development, educators

and policymakers can:

• Design schools for strong, personalized relationships so that students can be well-

known and supported, by creating small schools or learning communities within schools,

looping teachers with students for more than one year, creating advisory systems,

supporting teaching teams, and organizing schools with longer grade spans—all of

which have been found to strengthen relationships and improve student attendance,

achievement, and attainment.

• Develop schoolwide norms and supports for safe, culturally responsive classroom

communities that provide students with a sense of physical and psychological safety,

afrmation, and belonging, as well as opportunities to learn social, emotional, and

cognitive skills.

• Ensure integrated student supports are available to promote students’ health, mental

health, and social welfare through community school models or community partnerships,

coupled with parent engagement and restorative justice programs.

• Create multi-tiered systems of support, beginning with universal designs for learning and

personalized teaching and continuing through more intensive academic and nonacademic

supports, to ensure that students can receive the right kind of assistance when needed,

without labeling or delays.

• Provide extended learning time to ensure that students do not fall behind, including

skillful tutoring and academic supports, such as Reading Recovery, and additional support

for homework, mentoring, and enrichment.

• Design outreach to families as part of the core approach to education, including home

visits and exibly scheduled student-teacher-parent conferences to learn from parents

about their children; outreach to involve families in school activities; and regular

communication through positive phone calls home, emails, and text messages.

52 LEARNING POLICY INSTITUTE | EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD

Recommendation #3:

Ensure Educator Learning for Developmentally Supportive Education