About This Project
For two and a half years, Fig Education and Datability Education Consultancy studied how two public charter schools put practices in place to support the wellbeing of students, teachers, and staff.
Wellbeing, or the experience of contentment and purpose, is at the heart of student learning and teacher retention. Schools that are "well" are those where students and teachers have the support to be successful, where they feel care and belonging, and where they have opportunities for genuine input.
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School leaders can learn from the innovative ways these two schools supported whole-school wellbeing, teacher development, and student learning. However, for practices like this to survive, district, state, and policy leaders need to create the conditions for wellbeing to thrive. ​
Creating a System of Wellbeing
This policy report provides a model of whole-school wellbeing for school and system leaders. We argue that system leaders must do three things to ensure schools can be sites where students, teachers, and staff can thrive:​​​
​(1) Ensure schools have autonomy, with accompanying support to use it effectively
(2) Help schools communicate and track success in ways that align with wellbeing
(3) Learn from innovative models and incorporate their input into policy decisions​​​
Practice Guides and Case Studies
Whole-school wellbeing at Catalyst Public Schools and Lumen High School was not accidental. School leaders worked hard to staff roles and allocate funds, put structures in place to sustain initiatives, and promote belonging and inclusion.
In collaboration with school leaders, our team identified six practices that promote student, teacher, and staff wellbeing. Learn what affect these practices had and how you can bring them to your organization.
Student-Focused Practices
1
Discipline
Collaborative Conversations: A Skill-Building Restorative Practice
Learn about a skill-based restorative practice, Collaborative Conversations, that uses dialogue between an adult and student to address disciplinary issues. This relationship-based practice empowers students to co-create solutions to behavior challenges. We provide clear guidance for the systems and structures you need for successful implementation.
2
Mentoring
Cultivating Connection: Designing School-Based Mentoring
Students benefit from having protective relationships with school-based adults. Connection to students is also important for teacher and staff wellbeing. We show you how to implement goal-based mentoring in a way that is most likely to result in positive student outcomes. The simple practice can be done with any school-based adult.
3
Wrap-Around Services
Social Health: A New Model for Wrap-Around School Services
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Many schools use wrap-around services to meet basic resource needs for students and families. We describe a unique model that intentionally builds relationships, skills, and knowledge in addition to providing resource access. This way students and families cultivate the social support, social capital, and skills to own the resource access process.
Teacher-Focused Practices
4
Differentiated Instruction
Station Rotation: Grouping Students for Individualized Learning
Schools often struggle to meet students' individualized learning needs. Station rotation, or having multiple small groups during a class period, is one common approach. We provide a unique version of station rotation for literacy instruction. This guide describes how to combine students across multiple grade-level classrooms to ensure every student is receiving just-right instruction.
5
Co-Teaching
Co-Teaching for All: Using Two Educators in a Classroom
This guide helps schools rethink co-teaching as have one lead and one apprentice teacher in every classroom. This innovative approach builds a homegrown teacher pipeline and provides ample opportunity for small group and individualized learning. Learn how a small school was able to implement co-teaching successfully on a tight budget.
6
Teacher Community Building
Summer Professional Development: Creating a Foundation of Teacher Relationships
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Learn how schools can use summer professional development to building staff relationships, creating the foundation for a strong school culture and successful learning environment. Teachers build cultural competencies to mitigate biases when working with peers and students who have different lived experiences from their own.