Frameworks for Increasing Equity and Academic Success

Our Engaged Classrooms approach for secondary schools offers three key pedagogical frameworks that support increases in equity and the academic success and achievement of every student. They are:

• Equity-Centered Classrooms, which emphasize culturally responsive and developmentally informed practices that affirm students’ multiple identities, their cultural experiences, and the range of their developmental needs and interests. These practices aim to counter social and developmental barriers that cause disparities in student outcomes so that students across all groups experience high levels of achievement and social and academic efficacy. For more about equity-centered classrooms, see this excerpt from Chapter 1 of Engaged Classrooms: The Art and Craft of Reaching and Teaching All Learners.

• Multi-Tiered System of Supports provides a strategic and scaffolded approach for teachers to reach and engage diverse groups of learners through the implementation of universal promotion and prevention practices for all students, and teacher-facilitated interventions that are fair and standardized for students who are struggling academically and/or behaviorally. Click for an illustration.

• Learning and Life Competencies, which fall under the umbrella of social and emotional learning, are linked to academic achievement and college, career, and life success. Knowing how to nuance and integrate Learning and Life Competencies into learning tasks; classroom procedures, rituals, and routines; and learning protocols is essential to supporting sustained academic engagement. This results in an increase in students’ self-awareness, self-management, social efficacy, and academic efficacy. Click for a chart of these competencies and linked skills and target behaviors.

See this page to learn more about our Engaged Classrooms approach.

Click here for more information about Engaged Classrooms: The Art and Craft of Reaching and Teaching All Learners.