Education Week - May 3, 2023 - 17

Five Pathways for Improving
Student Opportunities
Meet the Range of
Student Needs
By Rey Saldaña
Goal of this work : To provide
wraparound services to break down
the maze of access to public and
private resources that students,
families, and educators need so
schools can focus on a welcoming
environment and rigorous academic
content for their students.
Why it matters : Schools and
teachers don't have adequate
resources or the time to meet the
range of student needs without
additional support; the level of
stress, trauma, and challenges
individual students carry with them
is pressuring educators to rethink
how schools provide services.
How to do this work : Education
leaders should take a proactive,
systems approach to redesign how
they plan to meet student needs,
including by:
Committing to external services
and partnerships that support
students' fundamental needs,
including for housing, nutrition,
physical and mental health;
Engaging well-trained, datadriven
relationship builders to
work with students and give them
authority;
Making schools the hub for
connecting families with support
providers; and
Planning well, allocating
resources, and using data-driven
metrics to assess quality and
success of this work.
Opportunity to Learn in action:
Communities In Schools is one
example of a national evidencebased
program that embeds schoolbased
staff inside schools to identify
and address complex barriers to
learning, such as homelessness,
housing instability, bullying, and
trauma, that can prevent students,
especially those from marginalized
communities, from achieving their
full potential.
SALDAÑA is the president and
CEO of Communities In Schools,
which brings community
resources directly into schools
by embedding locally hired and
trained coordinators focused on
student success. As a student, he
attended a CIS school and began
receiving wraparound supports in
the 10th grade.
Goal of this work : Improve failing
schools through state and local
efforts that address opportunity gaps.
Why it matters : The old school
improvement playbook hasn't
worked well for enough students.
How to do this work : State
education leaders must work closely
with school and district leaders to:
Understand if and how schools
are using available resources to
provide students with what they
need to succeed;
Ensure school culture and climate,
family engagement, and access
to extracurricular activities and
rigorous content aligned to
college and career expectations
are prioritized in conjunction
with measures of academic
achievement; and
Find out from students, families,
and educators what's working
and what isn't in creating schools
where all students are engaged
and feel that they belong.
Opportunity to Learn in action:
In Tennessee, like other states,
we've been trying to serve more
students with high-quality summer
programs and high-dosage tutoring.
There is evidence this is having a
positive impact. Summer learning
camps led to math and reading gains
last summer. Nearly 100,000 kids
participated. We've taken steps to
ensure these programs are engaging
and have high attendance rates.
In addition to more time on
math and reading, students need
opportunities to participate in
hands-on learning and the arts-
opportunities not always equitably
available. We are working with
stakeholders across the state to
ensure low-performing schools
make use of these approaches as
part of the rollout of a new studentbased
state funding formula and
that students and families play an
important part in shaping them.
Rigorous classroom content and
student-directed extracurricular
options support a sense of belonging
and student success.
HEYBURN MORRISON is
the executive director of the
Tennessee state board of
education. She has held a number
of education policy roles and
previously worked as a high school
English teacher and cross-country
coach.
To go deeper into these ideas, visit: as.pn./otl-in-action
EDUCATION WEEK | May 3, 2023 | www.edweek.org/opinion | 17
Goal of this work : To put student
voice at the center of education
change.
Why it matters : States that seek
out student voice are better able to
see opportunity gaps.
How to do this work :
Create spaces where educators
can hear from students directly.
Use school surveys to measure
school climate and ask the right
questions.
Invest in student journalism as an
outlet for telling student stories.
Expand student representation
on state and local boards of
education.
Opportunity to Learn in action:
Shared governance models, in
which students sit on state and
local boards of education, are
powerful. The idea is gaining
traction but sometimes comes
under attack from those beholden
to the status quo, which happened
in my home state of Kentucky in
2021. Republican state Rep. Killian
Timoney successfully helped
argue our point, however, on the
House floor saying, " If we had an
agriculture board without a farmer
on it, if we had a police board
without a policeman on it, if we
had a bar association without an
attorney on it, it wouldn't float. "
We could use more of that kind of
thinking.
BRENNEN is the co-founder
of and senior adviser to the
Kentucky Student Voice Team,
which seeks to elevate students
as partners in improving
Kentucky schools. He is also the
board chair of Seek Common
Ground, a national nonprofit
that supports community-facing
education advocacy efforts.
Why it matters : Most students
currently don't have future-ready
opportunities to apply their learning
to meaningful, real-world problems;
many schools still use century-old
" seat time " approaches to tally
Carnegie units.
How to do this work : State boards
of education can create indicators of
rigorous and relevant learning to spur
needed innovations, such as tracking
whether students have earned the
certificates or certifications needed
to be employed.
Develop dashboards that
prioritize competencies and
college- and career-ready learning
opportunities.
Streamline standards to focus on
the most essential ones.
Accelerate a shift to assessments
that better reflect the world of
work, including credentials valued
in the labor market.
Opportunity to Learn in action:
California's College/Career
Readiness Indicator identifies
whether high schools offer
career and technical education,
internships, dual credit, the
chance to earn a seal of biliteracy,
and Advanced Placement and
International Baccalaureate courses.
Indiana is developing a Graduates
Prepared to Succeed dashboard
with characteristics students need
for lifelong success, like work ethic
as well as civic, financial, and digital
literacies. Both tools are designed
to help education leaders, elected
officials, and the public understand
whether schools are doing a good job
preparing students for the future.
DARLING-HAMMOND is the
president of the California state
board of education, a professor
emeritus at Stanford University,
and the president of the Learning
Policy Institute. ERNEST is a
member of the Indiana state
board of education and recently
founded the consultancy Leadery
Global. He was the 2010 Indiana
teacher of the year, a high school
principal, and a head of schools for
a charter school network.
Improve Failing Schools
By Sara Heyburn Morrison
Center Student Voice
By Andrew Brennen
Prepare Students for
The Future of Work
By Linda Darling-Hammond
& Byron Ernest
Goal of this work : To support
innovative educational models that
use new technologies and hands-on
work in the community beyond the
school to prepare students for the
future of work.
Reimagine High School
By Angélica Infante-Green
Goal of this work : To reimagine
and improve the high school
experience.
Why it matters : Many of Rhode
Island's high school seniors were
not taking coursework necessary
for admission to local colleges and
universities. Students reported feeling
ill prepared for college and career.
How to do this work :
Understand the student experience
by reviewing student transcripts,
shadowing students, and listening
to their direct feedback.
Develop a proposal through robust
community engagement and
launch public-comment period
for proposal to improve the high
school experience.
Factor in student, family, educator,
administrator, and community
feedback and establish career- and
college-ready coursework as a
baseline.
Create action plan to implement
revised regulations. Tangible goals
could include publishing a tool
kit to support schools, districts,
and teachers implementing new
standards; partnering with familyfacing
organizations to ensure
families are active participants
in implementation; and offering
quarterly and on-call professional
development for school counselors.
Opportunity to Learn in action:
Rhode Island schools must develop
flexibilities for caregiving youth and
students who work. For example,
the state is exploring awarding
students community service hours
for their caregiving work and
designing flexible class schedules,
skills-building groups, and support
groups. Students will be empowered
to create their own futures by the
expansion of real-world, relevant
learning opportunities. Students will
graduate college- and career-ready
by demonstrating proficiency in
civics, financial literacy, computer
science, and the arts. Rhode
Island's education department will
support high schools in offering flex
credits. Flex credits will provide
educators the opportunity to design
rigorous and meaningful learning
experiences that align to the
passions and goals of our kids.
INFANTE-GREEN is the
Rhode Island commissioner
of elementary and secondary
education.
Getty
http://www.edweek.org/opinion
Education Week - May 3, 2023

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