Jane Quinn, Director National Center for Community Schools

1. Addressing the Needs of the Whole Child in Community Schools Jane Quinn, Director National Center for Community Schools

2. Objectives of Today’s Workshop • Understand the five domains of child and adolescent development • Become acquainted with the risk-and-opportunity developmental framework • Identify the needs of your students in each of the developmental domains • Begin planning an aligned set of programs and services around these domains

3. What Does Research Tell Us? • The developmental domains (cognitive, social, emotional, physical, moral) are inter-connected and growth in one area supports development in the others • Each stage of child and adolescent development has well-defined needs & tasks • Failure to achieve developmental milestones at one stage can hamper growth at the next

4. More Research • Bryket al. on school improvement: Student-centered school climate is an essential element of school improvement • Weissberg and Shriver: Meta-analysis of over 200 studies showed that good social and emotional learning in schools supports academic achievement (and does not compete with it). In other words, you don’t have to make a forced choice.

5. The Latest Research Supports a Whole Child Approach • Journalist Paul Tough reviews recent neuro-scientific research and argues, in How Children Succeed, that life skills such as persistence, curiosity and “grit” are as important as academic skills • Ellen Galinsky, in Mind in the Making, calls executive function skills such as focus and self control “essential life skills”

6. How do community schools support the needs of the whole child? • Community schools keep children’s growth and development at the center of their attention all the time. • They provide supports, services and opportunities that meet needs in the 5 areas • They also address “whole school” issues that are known to foster healthy development (e.g., school climate, wellness)

7. CAS Developmental Triangle Community EXPANDED LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES CORE INSTRUCTIONAL PROGRAM Family Child COMPREHENSIVE SUPPORT SERVICES

8. What Children and Youth Need:A Planning Framework

9. Risks and Opportunities

10. Needs Gap Analysis

11. Let’s Apply Some of These Ideas: • Using the Need Gap Analysis handout, pick a school you know well and jot down your planning ideas in each of the boxes. • Feel free to talk with a partner about your planning ideas. • We will take a few minutes to share our ideas comments before we end today’s session.

12. Student-Centered School Climate:“An Environment that …” • Physical: …is safe, welcoming and conducive to learning • Social: …..promotes communication, interactions and relationship building • Affective/Emotional: …promotes a sense of belonging and self-esteem • Learning/Cognitive: …promotes learning and self-fulfillment • Moral: …..promotes values, ethical behavior and character building

13. In Conclusion… A quote from a wise person: “…the first step in building community is the nurturing and development of children who will grow up into community-building adults.” --John W. Gardner