Design Principles for Schools Featured in NY Daily News Op-Ed by Shael Polakow-Suransky
Photo credit: NY Daily News
Design Principles for Schools: Putting the Science of Learning and Development Into Action, a playbook created by the Learning Policy Institute and Turnaround for Children, in partnership with the Forum for Youth Investment, was featured in an op-ed by Shael Polakow-Suransky, the President of Bank Street College of Education, published in the NY Daily News.
The piece explores how schools and districts in New York City should allocate additional federal funding to best support the needs of students. Along with using the money for COVID-19 recovery efforts, the article advocates for long-term investments in solving the inequities of the current school system. One such investment includes taking research from the science and learning and development and applying it to practical use in schools, as outlined in the Design Principles for Schools playbook:
In addition to funding, we also have access to more research than ever before to help shape our future schools. This summer, The Learning Policy Institute and Turnaround for Children released a powerful report that translates the latest research from the fields of developmental and learning science into practical advice for schools about how to rethink what they do to create the optimal environment for learning.
At the heart of their advice is that schools need to think more broadly about our children. We can’t focus solely on teaching a narrow set of academic skills; we need to pay attention to the whole child. This means building school communities that know students well, connect who they are to what they are learning, and recognize that the social-emotional aspects of learning drive our brain’s ability to master complex academic skills.
The op-ed goes on to outline more insights from the science of learning and development and provides specific ideas for putting these insights into practice.
Read the full op-ed here.
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