\u201cI had a lot of friends who didn\u2019t play sports, and they didn\u2019t have that sense of belonging to the school like I did,\u201d Woods says. \u201cI remember my buddies. When I was going to practice, they might be out doing God-knows-what. And when I would get back from practice, they\u2019d try to pull me in. I was like, \u2018I\u2019m not doing that,\u2019 because I had another goal, another connection to something.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Today, he says, \u201cmy passion and my goal is to make sure that all kids have opportunities to connect in school, so that they can reach success and have that same sense of pride.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A similar mindset is taking root across Western Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh Public Schools<\/a>, for example, has embraced \u201chouse systems\u201d to help students find a sense of belonging and community. The Greater Latrobe School District<\/a> is working to help kids build belonging as early as elementary school.\u00a0<\/p>\n Each of these districts is part of Future-Driven Schools, a regional alliance of 47 school districts working to prepare every learner for tomorrow. Together, they share ideas and encouragement to help teachers, administrators, and board members do what they do best: innovate and collaborate in ways that benefit students.<\/p>\n Greater Latrobe: Learning early about the skills of connection\u00a0<\/p>\n A few years ago, when Greater Latrobe began describing the strengths and skills they believed all students needed, they asked parents and community members what mattered most.\u00a0<\/p>\n Much of what they heard was about human connection and communication. \u201cOften, they didn\u2019t necessarily care whether their child had an A or a B in the class,\u201d says Becki Pellis, the district\u2019s assistant superintendent for elementary education. \u201cWhat they cared about was, \u2018Does my child communicate with you as a teacher? Does my child work well in a group? Is my child friends with everybody? How are they in class? Do they raise their hand?\u2019\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n These are the vital skills that help someone become better connected with their school community \u2014 and eventually help them succeed as adults. Pellis and her team had long aimed to teach these skills, but they \u201cwere not necessarily giving feedback to parents about those skills.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n So, leveraging the school\u2019s Wildcats mascot, they created \u201cPAWs scores\u201d to encourage and measure these skills at the elementary level.\u00a0<\/p>\n P stands for \u201cpractice kindness and respect.\u201d A is for \u201cactively engaging in learning.\u201d And W is for \u201cwork to do my best,\u201d which includes separate assessments of three things: accountability, readiness to learn, and commitment to excellence.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe do trimesters in our elementary school, so parents are now getting feedback three times a year on how their children are doing with those skills,\u201d Pellis says. Students are being acknowledged as whole people, and learning a shared vocabulary that highlights skills like effort and kindness.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n This shared vocabulary opens up conversations between parents and teachers, who can discuss ways to support each other. Teachers are with kids for multiple hours each day, gaining insight about how a child interacts in social settings, says Superintendent Kim Rieffannacht, whose own son receives PAWs scores in his third-grade class at Greater Latrobe.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n At the same time, parents see their kids in a different context at home, which can be enlightening for teachers when shared through the language of PAWs scores. \u201cAnd this language carries with students, too,\u201d Rieffannacht says.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSo, next year, when my son is having a conversation with his fourth-grade teacher, he knows what that expectation is. Students can start growing in those skills.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Pittsburgh Public Schools: Leveraging the power of \u201chouse systems\u201d<\/p>\n To grow as human beings, young people need to see themselves reflected at their school and feel like a valued part of something greater than themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s lofty, right? That\u2019s really hard to think about,\u201d says Melissa Pearlman, assistant superintendent for instructional leadership at Pittsburgh Public Schools. \u201cSo, we were really strategic at looking across our district in spaces where we were seeing a decline in post-pandemic attendance and achievement.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n How might increasing belonging help with these challenges?\u00a0<\/p>\n One strategy surfaced when Pearlman, Superintendent Wayne Walters, and other district educators visited the Ron Clark Academy, where \u201chouse systems\u201d were created.\u00a0<\/p>\n The system sorts students, Harry Potter-style, into \u201chouses\u201d that are each assigned a trait \u2014 strengths like altruism, friendship, or courage. House members strive to embody that strength throughout the school day.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s especially valuable in middle school, when students \u201cmay be struggling with peers or struggling with themselves,\u201d Pearlman says.\u00a0<\/p>\n After that initial visit, Pittsburgh Public Schools decided to learn more. Several school leaders chose teachers from their teams to visit the Ron Clark Academy themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cWe met with Ron and with many of the teachers,\u201d Pearlman says, \u201cand we met with some of their parents, which was really important.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In some district buildings, it took time to get the entire staff on board. Visits helped, says Pearlman: \u201cWhen you go to Ron Clark, the students are the tour guides who are telling you about their learning experience, talking to you about what it means to be in a house. They say, \u2018I get to earn points in my classes for answering a question correctly, for coming on time 10 days in a row, for doing my homework. But what\u2019s really powerful is that I get to show other people that my actions towards others also celebrate my house.\u2019 So it\u2019s a lot of team building.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Today, 10 schools serving middle school students are at full implementation, meaning every child is in a house and knows what their house stands for. Nearly a dozen more are set to follow.<\/p>\n The principals at these schools have creative freedom. \u201cEvery school has four houses, but those houses should have their own identity and represent something based upon the young people that we\u2019re serving,\u201d Pearlman says.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s important, when we talk about identity, that our young people see themselves in these houses. They need to know that their race matters, their ethnicity matters, their country of origin matters, the language they speak matters. So, some schools have utilized their demographics to represent in their house model.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Though this program is still being built, Pittsburgh Public Schools is already seeing progress: \u201cThere\u2019s an alignment to our Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports work,\u201d Pearlman says, \u201cand we can look at that data and metrics to determine how young people are showing up, performing, and making better choices.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Photo courtesy of Aliquippa School District.<\/p>\n