This report highlights the following four matters that warrant particular attention as the 2021-2022 school year gets underway: (1) Outreaching and reengaging disconnected students; (2) Improving differentiated instruction; (3) Broadly embedding social emotional learning and development; and (4) Reorganizing student/learning supports. To address…

The number of students manifesting learning, behavior, and emotional problems far outstrips the ways schools deal with these matters. As school board members and administrators know, existing programs, services, and special initiatives tend to be fragmented and often engender fights over turf and counterproductive competition for sparse resources.…

Schools have long wrestled with how best to deal with student and schooling problems. The COVID-19 pandemic and other recent events have increased the number of such problems. This pressing reality along with growing concerns about social injustice and increasing criticism of public education have heightened calls for changes in how schools play a…

This resource provides frameworks and strategies to guide schools as they encounter common psychosocial problems. It is designed as a desk reference aid. After an introductory overview of mental health in schools, Part I stresses ways to keep the environment in perspective as a cause of certain types of problems. Part II frames the full range of…

This report continues a series analyzing proposals and blueprints for transforming schools from the perspective of how well they delineate ways to enable equity of opportunity for "all" students to succeed at school. The focus of this report is on the July 2010 draft of CCSSO's (Council of Chief State School Office's) "Model Core Teaching…

In this introductory packet, the range of conduct and behavior problems are described using fact sheets and the classification scheme from the American Pediatric Association. Differences in intervention needed are discussed with respect to variations in the degree of problem manifested and include exploration of environmental accommodations,…

This report explores the infrastructure problem at the district level. Then a prototype is offered to stimulate discussion of changes that are essential to the development of a comprehensive system of learning supports at every school. The report also briefly highlights infrastructure frameworks for schools and school complexes formulated and…

The data are clear: Too many students are not doing well in school. Too many are experiencing interfering barriers, most of which are not internal dysfunctions but are associated with neighborhood, family, school, and peer factors. If the situation is to change, schools must play a greater role in providing supports for students experiencing…

For those concerned with school improvement, resource-oriented mechanisms are a critical facet of efforts to transform and restructure daily operations. Resource-oriented organizational mechanisms focus specifically on ensuring the appropriate use of existing resources and enhancing efforts to address barriers to student learning. This report…

Today's school and community stakeholders are attempting to address complex, multifaceted, and overlapping psychosocial and mental health concerns in diverse, fragmented and at-times marginalized ways. This has led to competition for sparse resources and inadequate results. Enhancing mental health in schools is not an easy task. The bottom line is…

It is time for reform advocates to expand their emphasis on improving instruction and school management to include a comprehensive component for addressing barriers to learning. In doing so, they must pursue this third component with the same level of priority they devote to the other two. That is, such an enabling (or learner support) component…

The beginning of a school year provides an opportunity to review school improvement action plans to ensure that all students have an equal opportunity to succeed at school, address barriers to learning and teaching, and engage/re-engage students in classroom instruction. Five major concerns require particular attention: (1) Welcoming and Ongoing…

Resource-oriented organizational mechanisms focus specifically on ensuring the appropriate use of existing resources and enhancing efforts to address barriers to student learning. This report first explores such mechanisms at the school level, then in terms of a feeder pattern, and finally at the district level. We stress the fact that what we…

Few would argue against the idea of planning and implementing improvements to the nation's schools. This report contends, school improvement planning processes have frequently not been conceived in ways likely to produce desired learning outcomes for many students. The analyses presented in this report focus on a lack of attention to how schools…

As a strategic effort to advance the way schools address barriers to learning and psychosocial concerns, a consistent resource request has been for an example of a formal proposal for new directions (e.g., to present to a Superintendent, Student Support Director, Principal, Board, etc.). This report provides a draft of a design proposal that…