What We’re Working On: An Inside Look at Turnaround’s Integrated Content Design

Turnaround’s design team is currently at work on a critical project known as the Integrated Content Design (ICD), enhancing the organization’s library of tools and resources to reflect the Science of Learning and Development perspective on how children learn and develop. The design team has worked closely with research institutions to identify practices that educators can use to support the development of the five student outcomes aligned to Turnaround’s Building Blocks for Learning framework that are most vulnerable to the impact of adversity — physical and emotional safety, relationship skills, sense of belonging, self-regulatory capacities and growth mindset.

The design process has included focus groups with Turnaround’s school-based staff as well as with school leaders and their teams to ensure that educators find tools relevant and useful. Some of the biggest accomplishments from the last few months include defining the content that will make up the ICD; the structure for how the content will be organized; the definition of the skills being targeted for development (an essential step in creating a measurement tool that will assess these skills within schools); and creating plans for next year’s development priorities. After finalizing an outline, the design team will draft the content that will be implemented with Turnaround’s school partners next year. Turnaround is also designing an implementation process for the ICD and measurement tools to support it. Stay tuned for more about this essential workstream.