ERIC Number: ED620390
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2022-May
Pages: 15
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
District-Level Strategies to Improve Students' Sense of Belonging in School. Solutions for Educational Equity through Social and Emotional Well-Being
Grossman, Jean B.; Portilla, Ximena A.
MDRC
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that when students' social and emotional well-being are poor, their engagement in instruction is profoundly affected. That revelation and the national mobilization for social justice sparked in 2020 have heightened public awareness is heightened that inequitable structures and policies--in school and out--have been harming the well-being of many of our nation's students even before the pandemic. Now more than ever, educators and families understand that in order to fully engage students, schools need to be healing places where all students feel valued and a part of the community. This brief is about supportive and inclusive strategies that school systems are using to increase all students' social and emotional well-being, particularly their sense of school belonging and connectedness: giving students more voice and choice, improving school climate through support services for all, providing students with targeted forms of support when needed, replacing exclusionary practices with "restorative" ones, and nurturing trust between students and the adults in schools. In each area, the brief examines the research supporting these practices, then provides concrete examples of practices being implemented in one of three districts that are taking a district-wide approach to improve educational equity.
Descriptors: School Districts, Educational Practices, Sense of Community, Social Emotional Learning, Administrator Surveys, Inclusion, Partnerships in Education, School Community Relationship, Intervention, Positive Behavior Supports, Administrator Attitudes, Educational Administration, Elementary Secondary Education, Faculty Development
MDRC. 16 East 34th Street 19th Floor, New York, NY 10016-4326. Tel: 212-532-3200; Fax: 212-684-0832; e-mail: publications@mdrc.org; Web site: http://www.mdrc.org
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Authoring Institution: MDRC; Alliance for Excellent Education (All4Ed); Education Trust
Identifiers - Location: California (Sacramento); Tennessee (Nashville); Illinois (Chicago)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A