In “End the phone-based childhood now,” Haidt carefully traces the decline of play and independence (and its relationship to increased risk aversion and anxiety), the rise of smartphones (and the harms of 24/7 access to an under-regulated digital world on brain development), and the dark side of techno-optimism (that laid the foundation for a whole generation to get swept up in new tools that had few guardrails in place). 

His piece masterfully weaves together a host of data points demonstrating how, in the course of a single decade, childhood and adolescence were “rewired” to be “more sedentary, solitary, virtual, and incompatible with healthy human development.” The shift was seismic. “Once young people began carrying the entire internet in their pockets, available to them day and night, it altered their daily experiences and developmental pathways across the board,” Haidt writes. “Friendship, dating, sexuality, exercise, sleep, academics, politics, family dynamics, identity—all were affected.”

Haidt concludes his manifesto with four simple (although not necessarily easy) steps to correcting course: (1) no smartphones before high school, (2) no social media before 16, (3) no phones in schools, and (4) more independence, free play, and responsibility in the real world. 

His recommendations are directed at society as a whole. But they belie an inconvenient truth that education systems must face head-on: schools are inextricably linked to the good, bad, and ugly of what’s happening in the consumer market. Schools may not be responsible for the dumpster fire that phones and social media have ignited, but they are also one of the few institutions–besides the highly decentralized institution of the “family”–with the power to protect and enrich young people’s social lives and healthy development. 

Banning phones in schools could help. But based on my own research, here are three things that education policymakers, systems leaders, and edtech providers will need to wrestle with if they want to take Haidt’s recommendations seriously:

Advocate for Business Models and Policies that Promote Prosocial Behavior

One of the ironies of the devastating disconnection that phones and social media have produced is that these tools, at their inception, were breakthroughs in scaling connection itself. 

Used properly, dreaded screen time can morph into precious face time, connecting us across time zones, expanding the reach of our networks, and affording us more frequent and low-cost conversations with loved ones and colleagues around the world. 

Those very affordances could make the four walls of schools radically more permeable: Imagine a classroom where, at the press of a button, middle schoolers could talk to an actual scientist about a project they’re working on, or high schoolers could hear about a wide range of college and career experiences from alumni of their school. These are not just possible, but incredibly affordable, with modern technology. 

But until we reckon with an acute lack of incentives and policies to build positive social connection, banning phones is likely the safest route. Because if the past twenty years of social media have taught us one thing, it’s that we have a startling dearth of business models and policies to support tech that promotes prosocial behavior. Social media platforms make money on engagement, and even more money on addiction. There are few business incentives to encourage young people to build positive connections online, much less to spend more of their time deepening and diversifying connections offline.

Edtech markets aren’t causing the ills that Haidt outlines, but they also aren’t immune to some of the same shortcomings. In fact, edtech tools rarely promote prosocial behavior or foster new connections. At the root of this is the fact that schools today aren’t demanding solutions that deepen connection–if anything, the edtech market has evolved around clear demand for efficiency innovations that require less cost-intensive human interaction, not more.

The answer? Education policies–both local and state and federal–must start to name and put dollars towards positive social connection as an outcome in its own right. That’s the only way that the incentives inside of school systems will start to better align to the broader need to reorient how technology gets used beyond school. More importantly, we could start to see technology get used in service of helping students develop more positive connections, both online and off.

Build Family Engagement to Buoy Collective Action

Schools and families are going to have to work together when it comes to a hard reset on tech use and social media. That won’t be easy.

As Haidt points out, part of what’s driven troubling rates of tech addiction and ensuing isolation has less to do with technology and more to do with a collective action problem: parents, schools, and policymakers struggle to define, agree upon, and deliver on what’s “good” for children.

New models of family engagement will need to emerge to make a dent in–and effectively enforce–more responsible tech policies. My colleague Mahnaz Charania’s research on family engagement spotlighted emerging innovations that could rewrite and deepen the family-school compact. Part of this has to do with building family engagement models anchored in two-way trust, rather than one-way communication from schools to parents. Perhaps even more powerful are models that connect families to one another, moving away from the typical hub-and-spoke paradigm of school-to-family to a networked model whereby schools and families support one another in more dynamic and responsive ways.

This, likewise, probably needs to start with policy change: if we have any hope of erecting tech guardrails that stick, I suspect that education systems will need to see family engagement as more of an essential and less of a nice-to-have. 

Build Real-World Experiences in the Age of AI

There’s another article that should lend urgency to getting this right. It’s a memo from the $35 billion dollar venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz called “It’s not a computer, it’s a companion!” It came out last summer and hasn’t made the rounds in my education or parenting circles. But it needs to.

It’s a road map to a dystopian future where AI companions “live among us”, where AI boyfriends and girlfriends are touted as ‘better than’ the real thing, and where Silicon Valley cashes out on the very same vulnerabilities that social media has exploited. 

Read alongside Haidt’s piece, the memo should make your blood boil. Nowhere does the word loneliness appear despite being the bedrock and fuel for this emerging market of AI companions. 

AI evangelists will rightfully argue that some of these so-called companions can dramatically improve our lives, offering a welcome alternative to cost-intensive supports like tutoring, coaching, and guidance that young people desperately need and too often don’t get.

While those use cases merit enthusiasm, we need to proceed with immense caution. In the coming years, we will be walking a tightrope between innovations that help make humans more productive and innovations that irreparably harm their social connectedness. Young people are especially vulnerable. As John Bailey has warned, “Kids will want the affirming relationships that they can have with their AI system. That sounds like science fiction until you experience the technology.” 

It would be one thing if we didn’t have two decades of data showing us all of the detrimental effects that “social” consumer technologies can have on development. But, as Haidt’s piece illustrates, we do. And still, we have glib investors about to make a ton of money selling simulated connections that promise to lure us, and our children, online. 

Remember how schools have to absorb the costs of consumer technologies? Without a commitment to safeguarding childhood in all the ways Haidt outlines, the rapid rise of AI companions stands to further erode young people’s access to and ability to be in real human relationships by peddling frictionless alternatives. 

This is where Haidt’s fourth recommendation, that young people must be drawn back into the real world, is something schools can and should take seriously. Regulation alone can’t and won’t stop investors from capitalizing on our loneliness and the particular vulnerabilities of young people’s still-developing brains. We also have to play offense. We have to find ways to outcompete AI companionship. “Real world learning”–a darling of some education reformers, but still a distant notion in many traditional schools–should be resourced and prioritized at new heights, not just as a powerful learning tool, but as one that centers human connection as a vital component of healthy youth development.  

The picture these two articles paint is not a pretty one: but it’s one where schools must play an even larger leadership role. By prioritizing prosocial behavior, investing in deeper family engagement, and leaning into the power of real-world learning, schools can help today’s young people reclaim their childhood–and lessen the likelihood that AI companions steal the next generation’s.

The post Beyond Bans: Schools’ Role in a Hard Reset on the ‘Phone-Based Childhood’ appeared first on Getting Smart.

According to the National Center for Homeless Education, Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, American Indian/Alaska Native, Black, and Hispanic students are overrepresented in homelessness compared with Asian and white students. Additional research has found that populations have a higher risk of homelessness compared with non-LGBT youth. Youth who have faced housing insecurity, severe family conflict, or abuse.

Homelessness and housing instability can contribute to poor health, especially for children and adolescents. Housing and school partnerships offer a promising approach to ending student homelessness. 

How Transitional Housing Builds Stable Futures

Transitional housing plays an essential role in providing safety and stability. Equipped with the following benefits, youths experiencing homelessness can break free from this cycle and discover their path.

1. Safe and Stable Housing

Transitional housing provides a vital safety net for homeless youth by ensuring stable and safe accommodations. This type of housing typically offers an independent living space within a supportive environment. This stability is foundational for addressing other areas of their lives, such as education, employment, and overall well-being. 

2. Supportive Services

Transitional housing programs are not just about providing a bed for the night. They offer comprehensive supportive services tailored to each youth’s unique needs. Social workers, counselors and mentors traditionally work closely with youth to set goals, create individualized plans, and connect them with the necessary resources for personal growth.

3. Skill Development

Transitional housing also goes beyond addressing immediate needs like food and shelter. These programs promote self-sufficiency and self-reliance via essential skills such as budgeting, cooking, communication and problem-solving. 

Life skills are vital for a safe and long-term transition to independence. The unique and supportive nature of transitional housing programs provides a structured environment where youth can practice and refine these skills under the guidance of caring professionals.

4. Education and Career Support

Education is often disrupted by youth experiencing homelessness. In America, about 87% of these young people will drop out of school before earning their high school degree – a critical asset for many employers. Transitional housing recognizes the importance of education in breaking the cycle of homelessness. 

These programs provide educational support, including tutoring, access to GED programs and help with college applications and scholarships. Additionally, these programs assist youth in exploring career options, building resumes, and preparing for job interviews, providing a path toward economic stability and self-sufficiency.

5. Emotional and Social Well-Being

The experience of homelessness can take a toll on a youth’s emotional and social well-being. Many youths in transitional housing have experienced trauma, abuse, or neglect. These programs offer a safe space for healing and personal growth. Through therapy, support groups and mentorship, youth can address their emotional needs, build resilience, and develop healthy coping mechanisms while connecting with peers who share similar experiences, fostering a sense of belonging and support.

I had the opportunity to meet and work with Jeff Armstrong, the Executive Director of Family Promise, an organization dedicated to helping homeless students get an education and sustainable housing for their families

What is the mission of Family Promise?

Our mission is to help families experiencing homelessness in their quest to achieve sustainable independence. I led the organization in the Midlands of South Carolina but the national Family Promise organization has 200 affiliates across the country.

How do the services Family Promise provide support youth in school? 

Our Tomorrow’s Promise program supports students who are part of families having housing stability issues with enrichment activities including athletics, music, and art.

Additionally, we hold community engagement events that include financial literacy, professional developments, and entertaining activities for the entire family.

I  had a vision in April 2020 to be able to provide experiences beyond what McKinney-Vento can do for a child in the school system experiencing housing instability. I called this program Tomorrow’s Promise. Whether it is purchasing a dress for prom or covering the costs of gymnastics classes, these positive childhood experiences provide memories that promote resiliency. 

What are the biggest misconceptions about families in transition housing? 

Homelessness comes with its own stigma. What the pandemic has helped us all realize is how close we could be to housing instability. Our transitional housing program goes far beyond providing a place to stay. There are other supportive services provided that allow for a family to build a savings (many of them for the first time). The families we serve also work to meet goals.

Our families are working hard towards goals that are set by them and our Case Manager. Some may come to us and not have experience living on their own. However, we also serve teachers, nurses, and people from other fields that most would not expect. 

What are the greatest needs of the students who you serve?

One word … stability. I always say that providing a safe space for children and parents to move from flight, fight or freeze to stability is the greatest gift. 

What can our education system do to help the youth you serve?

We lean on our educational system to be everything for our children. It is time for service providers to step up to provide positive experiences to help the child thrive. 

Why did you get involved with Family Promise and what future programs and services do you hope to develop to help the youth you serve be more successful in school?

The opportunity to lead an organization with the experiences I had in my childhood and adolescence proves that the children we serve can do anything. Having experienced homelessness and housing instability, among other challenges, as I was growing up helped me understand what the children in our program need. I will never forget my high school basketball coach and 4^th grade teacher who were both instrumental in providing the lessons and care that I needed to build resiliency on my own.

Tomorrow’s Promise Program developed from my childhood. I am looking for us to continue to bolster the types of experiences and events we have with our families. We partner with the faith community, businesses, and other service providers to accomplish this. 

Our youth today struggle to balance an immense amount of pressure from many angles. By alleviating the housing instability piece, we are promoting a foundation for the greatest success in the future. 

Jeff and the team at Family Promise in partnership with Craig Melvin from the Today Show and his family worked with one family to provide a fully furnished home which is an incredible example of the organization’s focus of ensuring every student has a home!

The post Family Promise: Ensuring Every Student Has A Home appeared first on Getting Smart.

Multilingual learners (MLs) face unique challenges as they navigate learning a new language and culture while also pursuing academic learning. An increasing number of multilingual students arrive in the U.S. also having endured trauma resulting from war, instability, or persecution in their home countries. Language barriers and cultural differences can further exacerbate students’ challenges, underscoring the critical need for educators to address their social and emotional needs. 

Though MLs comprise nearly 10% of the school-age population, the most widely-used social-emotional skills frameworks and programs currently lack an intentional focus on how to support multilingual students’ unique strengths and challenges. To foster MLs’ academic success and well-being, educators must consider students’ cultures, languages, assets, expectations, norms, and life experiences when integrating social-emotional practices. All students thrive when they are validated and supported to achieve their goals, empathize with others, build relationships, and make responsible decisions. 

Strong evidence shows that social-emotional skills support students’ well-being, however, a one-size-fits-all approach can undermine cultural heritage, limiting the potential benefit to multilingual learners. Culturally relevant assessments offer a crucial starting point for meeting the needs of multilingual students. These assessments not only help educators gain a deeper understanding of their students but also foster a more inclusive and supportive learning environment that allows students to have the same experience as their peers with support in their native language. 

Creating Culturally Relevant Assessments 

The first step in creating culturally relevant assessments is ensuring accurate translation. Best practices recommend a certified translation company that will create a consensus translation that considers regional dialects. Guidance from the International Testing Commission suggests that translation alone is not enough to guarantee the cultural relevance of an assessment, particularly for constructs influenced by language and culture. A comprehensive cultural review by native speakers can bring to light constructs or items that might pose potential issues. This expert cultural review can be done by native speakers of the relevant language who have expertise in education or child development. 

Next, studies investigating measurement invariance evaluate the comparability of the translated and English versions of the assessment to show whether the assessment functions similarly across groups. Invariance suggests that comparisons can be made across groups and that results can be interpreted in similar ways. 

At Aperture Education, we have used this process to create several translated versions of the DESSA Student Self-Report social and emotional assessments, including Spanish and Chinese, two of the most common languages other than English used in the K-12 school system. After translating the DESSA into these languages, we worked with expert reviewers to determine the cultural relevance of the items and constructs included. Reviewers in both languages agreed that the items and constructs of the DESSA were culturally meaningful for Spanish and Chinese-speaking students. 

However, the reviewers also noted some items that could warrant additional review when interpreting an individual student’s results. For example, a reviewer noted that the item, “believe that you can make a difference”, is less emphasized in Chinese cultures because there tends to be a greater focus on collective efforts to make a difference. 

We used the results of our expert reviews to prepare guidance for educators who work with multilingual students. We included notes like the example above to help educators interpret assessment results more thoughtfully and to better understand their students’ needs. Furthermore, it can pave the way for conversations that help educators delve deeper into their students’ cultures, languages, and unique life experiences. 

Community Engagement

Strong family and community engagement is a key component of effective SEL programs. Families new to the U.S. benefit from inclusive practices, and sharing culturally relevant social and emotional assessments. Some school sites using culturally adapted versions of the student self-report also choose to share copies of the assessment in the relevant language with families. Sharing assessment items in their native language helps families feel included and can support their engagement in schools’ SEL efforts. It can also help families discuss the social and emotional skills included in the assessment and consider how to support students’ development of these skills at home. 

Other sites have not only shared the assessments but also invited families to complete and share the assessment of the student with the school. This promotes active engagement, and can also provide the school with a more holistic assessment of a students’ social and emotional skills. If there are notable differences in how certain items are rated for example, a community liaison or educator can reach out to families to learn more. 

Social-emotional skills play a crucial role in students’ academic success and well-being. Adopting culturally relevant assessments and inclusive community engagement practices can ensure that the unique strengths and challenges of multilingual students are addressed. Engaging multilingual learners and their families through culturally adapted assessments fosters a more supportive learning environment and can better support students’ social and emotional development.

For more information on what a culturally responsive classroom could look like, listen to a conversation with Alex Red Corn and a conversation with Hollie Mackey. 

Evelyn Johnson is the Vice President of Research & Development for Aperture Education and Professor Emeritus of Early and Special Education at Boise State University.

The post Culturally Relevant Social and Emotional Assessments for Multilingual Students appeared first on Getting Smart.

According to Dr. K, helping students to position their voices should be central to our work as educators and requires us to create the space and conditions for every student to feel seen, heard, and valued. Most importantly, we must help students to position their voices in powerful ways. To do so, we must listen, reflect, and act on what we hear, even when it is hard. Focusing on student voice promotes engagement at every level, builds trust with teachers, addresses equity in the classroom and the wider community, and ultimately contributes to student success.

The My Voice is Powerful Book Series emerged from the Voice Leadership Camp for Girls and Boys. Voice Leadership Camp (VLC) is an evidence-based learning experience for children in grades 1st through 8th. The program focuses on creating a safe space for every student to be seen, heard, and valued.

I spoke to Dr. K about the MViP Book Series, the Voice Leadership Camp for Children, and Voice Positioning Training for Educators. 

Why has voice been such a large part of your work? 

As children, we learn critical lessons about our voice. One of the most prevalent lessons handed down through the generations is, “Children should be seen and not heard.” Recognizing the negative impact of these childhood lessons, I focused my doctoral research at Northeastern University on how they are silent or silenced in schools and communities. Based upon the findings from my research, I have committed my work to helping others position their voices in ways that allow them to harness their power and master their influence. In 2018 I released the book The Voice Positioning System: 7 Ways to Harness Your Power and Master Your Influence. 

Why is it essential to educate our youth about their voice, especially students of color? 

Seventeenth-century educator Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi espoused a “whole-child” approach that emphasized the development of all aspects of a child. I believe that to educate the whole child, we must give voice to their self-worth, self-love, self-esteem, and self-awareness. In addition, every child need self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. It is what every child needs!

What made you start the Voice Leadership Camps?

Findings from the 2019 Center for Disease Control (CDC) Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) study of middle school students in South Carolina showed the following startling results. 

Across the state, 30% of middle school girls had been electronically bullied through texting, Instagram, Facebook, or other social media outlets. In addition, 45% of girls reported being in a physical fight at some point, while 55% had been bullied on school property. The CDC also reported that 30% of middle school girls had seriously thought about killing themselves, 20% had planned how they would kill themselves, and 13% had attempted death by suicide. 

Findings from the 2019 YRBSS report also showed that 15% of middle school boys had been electronically bullied. Shockingly, 73% of boys had been in a physical fight at some point, and 42% had been bullied on school grounds. The negativity surrounding these youth contributed to their thoughts of self-harm. The report further indicated that 15% of boys in middle school had seriously thought about killing themselves, 9% had planned to kill themselves, and 6% had attempted death by suicide. 

In 2020, Dr. Kimberly Searcy, Senior Facilitator and Curriculum Developer, and I created the Voice Leadership Camp (VLC) for Girls and Boys to intervene in and disrupt these behaviors. VLC is a youth development program that delivers voice positioning education to girls in grades 1st through 8th. In the VLC program, students are immersed in understanding how to harness the power of their voice and master their influence. Through our interactive curriculum, students focus on voice identity, confidence, visibility, ownership, and amplification. Additionally, the curriculum provides voice strategies for building character, setting boundaries, and self-advocacy. 

What is your main goal for the children who participate in VLC? 

Through our research-based curriculum, our overarching goal is to give students the voice tools and strategies they need to gain the courage to stand up, show up, and speak up for themselves. Engaging students in our interactive workbooks and activities helps us to make voice positioning education exciting, engaging, and empowering.

What are some of the results from the VLC program so far?                                                                                                

Our pre-and post-participant surveys show that graduates increase their social and collaboration skills, confidence, self-esteem, and self-efficacy. Graduates also develop peer support networks. In addition, over 91% of graduates report advocating for themselves or someone else because of the program. The most meaningful result is their voice transformation. For example, I want to share a “Dear Voice” letter one of our VLC participants wrote to his voice:

What inspired you to write the My Voice Is Powerful Book Series? 

I wanted to create a voice starter resource to help parents and educators facilitate voice positioning for early learners. I wanted to introduce the foundation for building voice power. As a result, parents, early learning centers, and elementary schools have found tremendous value in including the series in their classrooms and libraries. 

Do you provide voice positioning training for educators?

In 2024, we launched The Voice Leadership Academy. One of the signature learning opportunities of the Academy is to provide voice positioning workshops and training for educators. The goal is to equip and support educators in becoming VOICE Champions for their students. We are currently scheduling consultations with School Administrators interested in bringing our workshops and training to their schools. https://re-sourcesolutions.com/contact/

Andrew Miller from the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development states “Voice and Choice can allow students to explore their passion and be honored for their ideas and opinion.”  The My Voice is Powerful Book Series, Voice Leadership Camp for Girls and Boys, and Voice Positioning Workshops and Training for Educators help elevate students’ voices in transformational ways!

The post Elevating Student Voice through Voice Leadership Camps and the MViP Books appeared first on Getting Smart.

When I was younger, I didn’t entirely know what I wanted to do. I often spent time playing school because I really enjoyed learning. I also loved animals and thought that maybe I might choose a career that involved working with animals. Helping others is something that I learned from my parents and I always sought opportunities where I could help others in any way that I could. 

What led you to the world of education and how long have you been in it?

I recall as a junior at Penn State having an interesting conversation with my guidance counselor. I was a student in the School of Liberal Arts and had taken the required courses and many focused on the French language and culture because that was one of my strong areas. I recall the conversation when my guidance counselor told me it was time to declare a major. I did not have a clue about what I wanted to do. They suggested going into education, because of my interest in helping others. I also have several members in my family who are involved in education and so I dove in without realizing that I might make it a long-term career for myself. I have been teaching since the last century, which is something I like to tell my students and other educators.

What are you hoping your students to “feel” when they walk into your classroom?

I want my students to feel welcome and safe in our learning space and to know that I am there to support them for whatever it is that they need. I want them to be excited about learning and know that I really do care about them and want to do the best for them during the year and beyond. With the way that I design my classroom, I want all students to know that they can come in anytime and that I am there to listen, guide, support and be a mentor for them as they navigate all of the challenges that can come with learning.

What strategies do you recommend for creating a positive and inclusive classroom environment for your students?

In hindsight, the key lies in building relationships. From day one, invest in getting to know your students, their interests, and needs. Engage in meaningful conversations and allow them to get to know you better. Fostering mutual understanding enables the creation of a positive and inclusive space. It’s essential to strike a balance between learning and enjoyment, shared challenges, and celebrate the big and small accomplishments. To achieve this, it is a priority to provide a comfortable learning environment. It’s okay to have fun, laugh together, experience challenges and learn together. 

As the rise of new technology continues to play a significant role in education, how do you strike a balance between digital tools and traditional teaching methods in your classroom?

I always think about what I’m trying to do. What is my purpose for using a specific method or a digital tool in my classroom? Sometimes with the content covered in my class, I know that students need additional examples beyond the ones that I’m providing for them. They need activities that are interactive or provide different ways for them to engage with the content. To do this, I often rely on some digital tools that are very versatile and that provide me with access to information about where students are in the learning process. I also want to use the time that I save by leveraging some of the tools, to spend with students working with them one-on-one, in small groups or as a whole class.

In today’s rapidly changing world, what skills do you believe are most essential for students to develop in order to thrive beyond the classroom, and how do you incorporate these skills into your teaching approach?

I started to realize a couple of years ago that even though I want students to love learning Spanish and maybe even become Spanish teachers or explore careers where they need these skills, I also need to take advantage of opportunities to help prepare them for whatever it is they decide to do in the future. When looking at social-emotional learning (SEL) skills or reviewing the Job Skills Outlook from the World Economic Forum, I look for ways to help students to build these skills in my classroom. I try to provide a variety of opportunities for students to collaborate, communicate, to work through challenges in learning, to connect with others and to leverage some of the different technologies that are available. I have to help prepare them for the different ways they may be engaging in work in the future.  I am always about embracing new ideas and diving into risks in my classroom. I think it’s important to talk with our students about why we are choosing a certain method or a tool and how we think it will impact them. It’s also important to make time to gather feedback from them to understand the impact. Was it positive, or negative and how can we improve from there?

Parents play a crucial role in a student’s education. What strategies do you suggest for fostering a strong teacher-parent partnership throughout the school year?

It is important from the beginning of the year to set up a way for parents to communicate with you. I always recommend using a survey to ask parents what their preferences are when it comes to communication. Do they prefer email, phone calls or a messaging tool for example? Do we have our class materials available on a class website so families can access it? Also, be consistent with providing information to families so they know about the learning that is happening in your classroom. Are there any events or projects coming up, and how can they become more involved in the learning experience of their children? Keeping communication open is essential because we know that the more the families are involved and engaged in learning, it helps to promote student academic achievement.

What’s one message you have for fellow school leaders?
My advice is to not be afraid to take some risks with new ideas or new tools. There are so many choices out there that can really help to enhance the learning experience of students but also to keep us learning ourselves. We want our students to not be afraid of challenges in learning and what better way than to show that we are also risk-takers. Dive into learning with them, show them that we are not afraid of making mistakes and how we learn from those mistakes. So if there is a topic that you’ve been interested in but I’ve been hesitant to try, I say this is the perfect time to do it. Involve your students in the process and learn with and from them and enjoy the school year. I am all about getting teachers to dive into AI and not worry about being an expert, we just need enough to get started!

What is your one hope for the future of education?

My hope for the future of education is that educators will be receptive to evolving ideas and technologies. We are in the best position to guide our students into whatever the future brings. I hope that we all realize that we are constantly learning and must keep on learning, making mistakes and pushing ourselves so that we can provide the best for our students.

The post An Education Journey: A Q&A with Rachelle Dené Poth appeared first on Getting Smart.

My principal poked her head into my classroom and said with a wink, “Friendly reminder! You need to make sure your word wall is up by tomorrow morning.” She then moved on to the next classroom to repeat the message. 

I sighed and thought, “Are you kidding me? What a waste of my time.” 

My principal was passionate about making our school beautiful. 

I was passionate about getting my students to pass the New York State Algebra Regents Exam. 

My principal wanted every classroom to have a word wall, where important subject-area concepts would be defined and displayed on colorful paper. She wanted bulletin boards showing student work on creative projects that demonstrated high levels of thinking. She brought in large, beautiful planters that lined the hallways with greenery. She found money to buy new wood-veneer tables for half the school’s classrooms to replace the old-fashioned single desks. 

Meanwhile, I just wanted printer paper, dry-erase markers, and calculator batteries. 

To me, the time and money spent on making our school and classrooms beautiful was just a distraction. Those things don’t help my students learn math. Or do they?

After three years of teaching, I went to graduate school in part to study how resources—from basic supplies to new furniture—affect teachers and students. What my research found surprised me: When teachers had their requests for classroom environment resources (like rugs, seating, or shelving) fulfilled on the crowdfunding platform DonorsChoose, their students did better on standardized tests, and (in new research) the teachers were less likely to leave the teaching profession. 

The small, basic supplies I needed still matter, but they can only help so much. My principal was right. She was creating more than just a beautiful space—she was building a welcoming and positive environment for students to learn and teachers to work. 

Don’t assume that classroom appearances aren’t important when it comes to learning. 

Do help principals and teachers create the schools of their dreams. Volunteer to beautify your school or bring in a plant for an empty windowsill or hallway. Donate to fulfill teachers’ wish lists if you can. Supporting what educators want—not just what they need—can make all the difference. 

With humility and gratitude,

Samantha Keppler is an assistant professor of technology and operations at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. Before graduate school, she was a public school math teacher in New York City. Previously published on Character Lab.

The post Style and Substance: Help teachers create the classroom of their dreams appeared first on Getting Smart.

We define proactivity as taking initiative. Why is proactivity so important? 

It’s often harder to get started than to keep going on a task. And the closer you get to achieving a goal, the easier it gets. So you could argue that the hardest part of reaching a goal is getting started. Research shows that there are times when it’s easier to get started—for example, when you feel like it’s the beginning of a new era. “Today is the first day of the rest of your life”—that cliché is actually helpful. If you feel like today is the start of a new time period, you are more motivated to start working toward goals. 

How can parents and teachers help kids get started on projects? 

Saying “just do it” isn’t very useful when you feel overwhelmed. It helps to break things down into smaller steps and tell yourself consciously, “All I’m doing today is getting started on the first step, and I’m not going to worry about the rest. Today is a good day for getting started.” Once you’ve done the first small thing, the next small thing is easier to do. The next day, you can say to yourself, “Today is a good day to get started on step two.” Before you know it, you’ve completed the whole task. 

Sometimes parents see a project due in a week and think their kid should be working on it, but the kid thinks there’s no rush. What’s a good way to talk about deadlines?

The two different viewpoints—feeling a sense of urgency when a task is due in a week or feeling like there’s still a lot of time left—are both totally valid. There’s only a problem if people clash in those views, when one person feels like, “Why are they not working on this? They should be doing things because they only have a week,” and the other person thinks, “It’s not due for a whole week. What’s the rush?” I think the best way to bridge the gap is to talk about the difference in perception and set deadlines you both agree on. You have to be very explicit about what the kid plans to do and when they plan to do it to avoid miscommunication.  

How can parents and teachers help kids manage their time for long-term projects?

It’s possible to shift people’s perception of time—how close or far into the future something feels. If you show the deadline in a very large timeframe like the school year and the assignment is due in a month, it feels a lot closer than if the timeline only spans two months, so the deadline is right in the middle. With little visual tricks, you can shift people into feeling motivated to get working. 

You can also break down the project into smaller steps and set intermediate deadlines. You can ask kids, “What will you do per week?” and establish weekly deadlines so they don’t leave everything to the end.

What’s one easy thing we can do to help kids be more proactive?

Help them practice thinking into the future. My own kids don’t often do that spontaneously, so I have to encourage it. I’ll ask them, “What do you want to happen a year from now? What do you want to do between now and then?” So they practice planning out tasks and steps to reach goals. I’ll also talk to them about fun things, like a trip we will take this summer, and what we have to do beforehand. Do we need to buy luggage? What will we pack? I think this kind of explicit planning is a skill that can transfer over to other areas, like academics. 

What do you think people get wrong about proactivity? 

People believe that some kids are proactive and others aren’t. But they might just see the proactive impulses of one kid more than another. Maybe the other kid is being proactive in ways that aren’t as obvious. Or maybe they just haven’t had the circumstances that push them to show those qualities. 

Everybody can be proactive. Everybody has the potential to be a champion for their ideas and get started on things and be inspiring to others. Proactivity is a quality we all have—it’s just about giving space to it and showing it to the world. Originally published by Character Lab, a nonprofit advancing scientific insights that help kids thrive.

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In the mornings, as I walked from the train station to the office, I planned my day by making a to-do list in my head: the scientific articles I would read, the data sets I would analyze, and—most urgent of all—the piercing insights into human nature that it was my job to discover.

Each evening, I trudged back to the station, again ticking through my mental checklist, but this time sizing up my performance against the expectations I’d set for myself that morning. Time and again, when comparing my to-do list with my got-done list, I found myself falling short. 

But one day, something very strange happened. At the midpoint in my commute home, without any conscious intent, my thoughts began to shift. Instead of cursing my weaknesses, I thought, and even said aloud sometimes, very softly: I’m a nice person. I’m a nice person. I’m a nice person.

By the time I boarded my train, I was done with my little mantra—until the next day when I walked home. And again, after inventorying my failures, I found myself saying quietly: I’m a nice person. 

What kind of person walks around giving themselves compliments? Was I a narcissist? What was going on? 

It turns out that there’s a technical term for this practice: values affirmation. And what it boils down to is recognizing, and reinforcing, the personal values you hold most dear.

When you affirm a core personal value, you shore up your sense of self-worth. You broaden your perspective: Instead of zooming in on your inadequacies, you switch to a wide-angle view that includes your resources and opportunities. Research also shows that the majority of adults spontaneously engage in some form of values affirmation. And the more people are in the habit of doing so, the happier, healthier, and more hopeful they are. 

Over time, I made progress in my research and learned a lot about what makes most successful people special, including this: Nobody has passion and perseverance unless what they do aligns with their values.

Try values affirmation for yourself. Take a moment and think of a value you hold dear, whether it’s kindness, creativity, gratitude, or integrity. Whatever it is, name it. And then say to yourself: Come what may, I know who I am. Your values are your foundation and your compass, too. Trust them, and they will lead you home.

With grit and gratitude,

Angela

The post Know Thyself: Your Values Are Your Compass appeared first on Getting Smart.

Our choice in what we measure reflects our values, but we must also engage in conversations about how to effectively support what we value. It is not enough to focus solely on the outcomes; we must also consider the processes and support structures that enable learners to thrive.

Stephanie Malia Krauss’s book, “Whole Child, Whole Life: 10 Ways to Help Kids Live, Learn, and Thrive” addresses the concern of kids giving up or burning out before reaching adulthood. Krauss, who has experience as a classroom teacher, school leader, and national leader on education issues, explores the importance of understanding and addressing the holistic needs of children in order to promote their overall well-being.

Whole Child Portraits: Moving beyond demographics and determinants, Krauss challenges the traditional approach of profiling children based solely on academic and demographic factors. Instead, she advocates for a broader perspective that considers a child’s individuality, health and developmental milestones, and the context in which they exist.  

“At its worst, profiling dehumanizes children. It depicts them without dimensions and details, leaving us to sort, group, assume, and judge. At its best, profiles are a jumping-off point – a collection of data and insights that begin to tell us who a kid is and what they need to thrive.”

By turning profiles into portraits, educators, and caregivers can gain a deeper understanding of each child’s unique strengths, struggles, and needs.  

10 Whole Life Practices 

1. Meet basic needs
2. Prioritize mental health
3. Invest in personal interests
4. Nurture healthy relationships
5. Build community and belonging
6. Embrace identities and culture
7. Attend to the past and the present
8. Act with a 100 year mindset
9. Be a force for good
10. Seek awe and wonder

Whole Life Practices: Above are ten proven practices to support young people’s well-being throughout their lives. These practices extend beyond academic and cognitive development to encompass physical and mental health, personal interests, spiritual development, and more. By considering and addressing these aspects in unison, educators and caregivers can support children’s overall growth and development.  

It is important to note that Krauss emphasizes the significance of adults attending to their own growth in this process as well as the need for cross-training among educators and caregivers to ensure they have a comprehensive understanding of health-related issues that may impact children’s learning and overall well-being.

Aim for Wholeness: Assessing well-being involves recognizing when children are thriving and understanding which indicators to look for. Krauss encourages the use of developmental growth charts that extend beyond academic milestones, encompassing social-emotional and physical progress. By having a comprehensive grasp of a child’s well-being, educators and caregivers can provide targeted support and interventions when necessary.

Stephanie Malia Krauss provides valuable insights and practical strategies to ensure children thrive in all aspects of their lives. Understanding the whole child is crucial for their success, both now and certainly in the future.

For more information on Whole Child, Whole Life you can visit the book website at WholeChildWholeLife.com. Images in this blog are taken directly from the book and created by Manuel Herrera.  

The post Districts Must Consider The Portrait of a Whole Child appeared first on Getting Smart.

At Challenge Success, we partner with school communities to elevate student voice and implement research-based, equity-centered strategies to improve student well-being, engagement, and belonging. We know from our research and the work of others in the field that these three elements of the student experience are intrinsically linked. Through a series of blogs for the Getting Smart community this summer, we look forward to unpacking well-being, engagement, and belonging with you and diving into what that looks like in the school communities where we have worked over the past 20 years.

How is well-being defined?

Experiencing a sense of well-being is a broad concept that encompasses the physical, economic, emotional, and social aspects of wellness. Even though one’s safety, financial security, and physical health are important factors of well-being, for the purposes of this blog, we focus on the aspects of well-being that can be nurtured in classrooms and schools across departments, disciplines, and activities. In our student survey (also known as the Challenge Success-Stanford Survey of School Experiences) we track several indicators that can help us understand trends in student well-being including sleep, stress, and support.  Informed by the data we have collected from our partner schools*, as well as other researchers in the field, we have learned some best practices to support student well-being that we are eager to share with the Getting Smart community.

*Challenge Success survey data referenced in this blog were collected from over 15,000 high school students and 4,000 middle school students across the United States from January-May 2023.

Creating the Conditions for Well-Being in Schools

Reduce Unhealthy Stress

While it is natural for students to experience some level of stress as they are attending to their studies, work, family obligations, and relationships, we hope to avoid chronic stress that has an unhealthy impact on students. In our surveys,  we ask students to list their major sources of stress, and the answers are consistently grades/tests, workload, and lack of sleep. These are often good places to start when addressing key levers within the school setting to reduce undue stress.

1. Rethink Assessment: Grades, tests, midterms and final exams can be particularly stressful for students who believe the stakes are high and who often don’t know what to expect, how best to prepare, or how to show what they know on time-bound, traditional kinds of assessments. We often work with schools to consider changes to their overall assessment practices to allow for more transparency, scaffolding, and flexibility. For instance, we ask teachers to increase their use of performance-based assessments where students can choose different ways to demonstrate what they’ve learned. Teachers can offer opportunities for ungraded assignments, revision and redemption, and self-assessments. Try letting your students decide which assignments to grade or giving quizzes to check for learning without recording points. There are a whole host of ways to reduce student stress when it comes to grades and assessments, and even small shifts can go a long way in putting students at ease (Schrader, 2023).
2. Balance High Expectations with Care: While we don’t want to cause undue stress, we certainly still aim for students to engage deeply with their learning. In the search for the “zone of proximal development” (Vygotsky, 1978) – we want to nudge students past their comfort zone, holding them to high expectations, while offering encouragement, support, and scaffolding to help them reach mastery. Teachers can hold students accountable for completing their schoolwork while also explicitly showing that they believe in their abilities and respect and value them as individuals. Try co-creating expectations and agreements, and reminding students that the goal is to focus on learning and improvement rather than grades. Schools might consider doing away with class rankings and publishing college acceptance lists. This helps to let students know that their inherent value is in who they are, not what they produce and that we believe in their potential (O’Reilly, 2018).

Help Students Get the Sleep They Need

It will come as no surprise to anyone who interacts with young people that they are not getting enough sleep. In fact, although teens need 8-10 hours of sleep per night, 43% of high school students in our surveys are getting less than 6.5 hours per night, and the data is only slightly better for middle schoolers.

Lack of sleep (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, 2022) has profound effects on the human experience and is linked to physical and mental health problems, injuries, reduced learning and focus, and difficulty judging and reacting to other people’s emotions. Children who are sleep deficient might be overly active, have trouble paying attention, and struggle to meet expectations at school.

In our survey, 70% of high schoolers report feeling exhausted in the last month. While as educators we can’t make teens go to bed earlier, there are some ways we can support their rest:

1. Reduce Homework: Research shows that middle school and high school students who self-reported higher workloads in school tended to also report more symptoms of exhaustion and lower rates of sleep (Galloway, Conner, & Pope, 2013). As an individual teacher, reducing the amount of homework you assign may be one of  the quickest ways to create more time for sleep in your students’ lives. In addition, for students to reap any benefits from homework, they need to see its value and purpose. Ideally, the assignments should be interesting and engaging, and should encourage students to apply their learning as opposed to practice rote skills (Challenge Success, 2020). Finally, consider having homework-free weekends and holiday breaks so that students can truly rest.2
2. Host a Sleep Campaign: Of course, students may not necessarily take advantage of this extra homework-free time by going to bed earlier. So we urge educators to pair a reduction in workload with explicit lessons on the value of getting more sleep.  Educating students and families on the importance of sleep and the effects of using electronic devices before bedtime can have a big impact on how students prioritize their time outside of school. We find these campaigns to be particularly effective when they are student-led. Download our Sleep Campaign Resources here.
3. Start the School Day Later: California was the first state to implement a mandatory later start time (De Leon, 2022) for middle (8 a.m.) and high schools (8:30 a.m.), a change that many other states are now also exploring. While a state-wide mandate is helpful in establishing universal guidelines, districts – and sometimes individual schools – don’t have to wait for a mandate, and should consider the viability of moving the start time later. Even a 30-minute change once or twice a week can have a significant impact for students.

Provide Emotional Support

A great deal of what we naturally do as educators is rooted in caring deeply for our students. We strive to know them, to understand their strengths, and to support their growth. That being said, the past few years have been incredibly difficult for students and educators alike, and we weren’t surprised to see that students are often missing school for health or emotional reasons. In fact, 42% of high school students and 38% of middle school students missed school for a health or emotional reason in the month prior to taking our survey this past winter or spring. Moreover, our data show that most students do not have a high level of confidence in their ability to cope with stress, and many believe their teachers don’t care whether or not they come to school.

In our work, we see relationship-building as the primary way to create a safety net of emotional support around students. While it would be wonderful to increase the number of counselors and other support staff in schools, that isn’t always possible, nor is it wise to infer that counselors alone are the solution. Instead, we encourage all faculty and staff to find ways to connect with students. From small moments of kindness to listening when a student has a personal problem, there are many ways schools can offer students emotional support.

1. Make Time for Relationship Building: Scheduling time for advisory, clubs, and other less-structured activities allows teachers to form authentic relationships with students. Several of our partner schools have adopted four-year advisory programs where the advisor stays with the same 15 to 25 students for their entire high school career. Meeting times may vary from advisories that meet daily to those that meet once or twice a week for 15 to 40 minutes, but most have found that the consistency across the weeks and years is really what drives the positive student-teacher and student-student relationships.
2. Model and Teach SEL Skills:   In the past several years, we have heard from many schools that students need more time to practice social-emotional skills such as understanding their own emotions, identities, values, and goals (Hoffman, et al 2020), regulating their own emotions and behaviors (Gross, 2015), empathizing and feeling compassion for others, and collaborating and communicating effectively with others (Jagers, Rivas-Drake, & Williams, 2019). Many educators are incorporating practices such as mindfulness, movement, and breathing exercises into their classroom routines. We especially appreciate the resources offered by CASEL and IFSEL for concrete lesson plans and tips for helping students learn these vital SEL skills.

Well-being  ≠ being happy all (or even most) of the time

Adolescent psychologist, Lisa Damour, Ph.D., emphasizes in her work that one of the ways we can best support teens is by helping them to see that well-being doesn’t mean being in a state of perpetual happiness. Rather, being well is having the resilience to move through a difficult emotion and reflect on it from the other side. We may not be able to shield students from all of the ups and downs of adolescence, but we can certainly take some intentional steps to focus on the protective factors that we know will make a difference for their well-being in the long term. We invite all educators and decision-makers in schools to consider these research-based strategies for improving student well-being in school settings.

Sarah Miles, Ph.D., M.S.W., is the Director of Research at Challenge Success.

Denise Pope, Ph.D., is the Senior Lecturer at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education and Co-Founder/Strategic Advisor at Challenge Success.

The post What Is Student Well-Being, and How Do We Create the Conditions to Support It in Our Schools? appeared first on Getting Smart.