Bright Spots: The Power of Focusing on the Whole Child

Dear Educator,

I kicked off this week recording a podcast with my dear friend, George Couros, to chat about his new book with Allyson Apsey, What Makes a Great Principal. As we chatted about the five core pillars laid out in the book, I reflected on the many great principals I have worked with and the incredible difference they make for their staff, the learners, and the community.

While great teachers are life-changing for many young people, principals are the lynchpin that can bring a vision to life. They are uniquely positioned to foster a community that brings out the best in all teachers to create amazing learning experiences that ensure all their students have access and opportunity to reach their full potential.

After the podcast, I flew to Hawai’i for our Celebration of Learning with school leaders, which is my bright spot this week (and definitely high on my list for the year).

With Gratitude,

Katie Martin , CIO, Learner-Centered Collaborative

BRIGHT SPOT OF THE WEEK

The Power of Focusing on the Whole Child

I have had the pleasure of working with amazing charter school leaders in Hawai’i to anchor on their unique and inspiring vision, mission, and values. If you are reading this, you are likely aware that traditional metrics of success don’t often honor all that we value in the development of young learners and can result in a narrowing of the curriculum and experiences.

This project has been so inspiring. We have been able to shift mindsets and practices to truly honor the vision of these learner-centered schools. By aligning clear outcomes, success metrics, and evidence, school communities saw evidence of growth in not only a sense of belonging, cultural identity, and effectiveness of professional learning but also in math and reading scores. Yes, you read that right, by focusing on the whole child and an inspiring vision, they compelled growth in math and reading. Too often we get this backwards.

By creating a process and a community of practice, leaders felt supported to tell a story of impact that puts foundational academics on the same playing field as skills like problem-solving, collaboration, communication, and whole-child outcomes like physical, emotional, and mental well-being. Combined, this story shows how a school or district is developing learners who know who they are, thrive in community, and actively engage in the world as their best selves.

As we celebrated and reflected, school leaders highlighted this was an empowering process to look at what they were doing really well and create better processes to track it and give their school more credibility. Some of their reflections included:

• It allowed us to step back and take a global view of what was needed.
• It enabled us to connect vision/mission/goals for strategic alignment.
• It forced us to collect quantitative data on processes that were previously overlooked.
• It allowed us to go from generalizations to a more nuanced understanding.
• It compelled honesty from educators about what was really happening.
• It helped us identify non-traditional data points to assess the effectiveness of our programs, leading to inquiry and the power of data.
• It fostered collaboration across schools.
• It focused our staff on initiatives with rationale, resulting in more engaged staff with less resistance than usual.

How do you tell the story of impact in your community? I’d love to see more examples and learn what is working! Reply to this newsletter to share examples or tag me @katiemartinedu and #LCBrightSpots on social.

RESOURCE ROUNDUP

1. Article: Helping Schools and Districts Expand Their Definition of Student Success. Devin Vodicka and I lay out a new system for accountability in this featured story with The 74. Through real examples, we highlight how expanding the definition of success and tracking student progress through competency-based assessment methods produces learner-centered outcomes. Read here.

2. Blog: Education is Everyone's Business. We must ensure our view of success aligns with the realities of our world and the future where our students will live, work, and learn. To do that, we must rethink who we are bringing to the table when defining what success looks like for our young people. Read here.

3. Blog: How Might We Measure What Matters in Schools? Just like in sports or manufacturing, where different metrics and indicators measure progress and achievement, schools and school systems must also adopt a nuanced approach to assessing their effectiveness. Read here.

LET'S SHARE OUR BRIGHT SPOTS!

What are your learner-centered Bright Spots?

Share your #LCBrightSpots on social media!

Want this newsletter delivered directly to your inbox? Sign up here