Back to school season is a great time to establish practices that will set the tone for the entire school year. We asked experts from across the 10 Regional Educational Laboratories what school leaders should keep in mind as the year gets under way, and they had plenty to say. We’re sharing five of their recommendations below.
1. How are you encouraging good attendance? The early years of school, especially pre-kindergarten and kindergarten, are an important time to promote good attendance habits. Set the stage for school success by connecting with families and explaining why regular attendance matters. Regular attendance in the early grades helps students develop essential learning habits and skills and sets the foundation for future academic success. Use REL resources like the Go-Learn-Grow toolkit and the family engagement fact sheet to convey the importance of regular attendance to families. Talk with families about getting their kids to school on time, every day, and why it matters. These tools can help you establish a successful start to the school year and beyond.
Christine Ross and Laura Dyer, REL Mid-Atlantic
2. How are you promoting family engagement? Back-to-school time is often filled with opportunities to communicate and interact with families. As you start the new year, think about ways you can develop strong and inclusive family engagement practices. Research shows that family engagement has a host of benefits, including improving student achievement, attendance, and behavior. Using inclusive language is one strategy educators can use to build trusting relationships with families. While using inclusive language is valuable for building relationships with all families, it is especially critical for interacting with family members who may not feel at ease or welcome in schools, such as kinship caregivers and grandfamilies. Check out the REL Appalachia infographic on How Educators Can Use Inclusive Language with Kinship Caregivers and Grandfamiliesfor more information
Sarah Dec, co-lead of the Supporting Students, Grandfamilies, and Kinship Caregivers Community of Practice, REL Appalachia
3. How are you supporting a sense of belonging? As you return to school, it's essential to foster a sense of belonging in your students and create an environment where each student can thrive. As highlighted in the REL Midwest handout, The Importance of Student Sense of Belonging, research shows that students who feel accepted, included, and supported are more likely to be engaged and perform well academically. To create this environment, prioritize building positive relationships with your students by recognizing and valuing their unique experiences and cultures. Incorporate culturally responsive practices into your teaching and create a classroom atmosphere where every student feels safe and valued. Remember, a strong sense of belonging can boost your students' motivation, emotional stability, and overall academic success.
Jaime Singer, training, coaching, and technical support lead, REL Midwest
4. How are you incorporating joy into rigorous instruction? To kick off the new school year in a positive way, purposefully elevate joy in evidence-based early literacy instruction. A good first step to achieve this goal is to select books that affirm children’s cultural, racial, linguistic, and other identities. Engaging children in interactive read-alouds with books that make them feel seen, heard, and loved promotes their pride in who they are, sense of belonging in school, and greater connection to the literacy activities centering the book. Second, integrate playful learning with evidence-based literacy approaches. For example, phonological awareness and phonics instruction that are game-like, incorporate singing, and include dancing, make them fun and therefore motivating and engaging. Read all about these approaches and more in the Joyful Reading and Creative Expression with Young Children: Planning Guide (2021) and the Joyful Reading and Writing with Young Children web resource collection.
Pamela Spycher, PhD, senior research associate, REL West
5. How are you building strong, sustainable support systems? The start of a new year is also an important moment to be sure that the systems and structures that schools have put in place to support students all year long are strong and vibrant. Multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) are commonly used in classrooms to ensure students receive high-quality academic support, and many districts are using an MTSS framework as a strategy to address student well-being. These systems allow schools to tailor resources based on student needs through the use of child support teams. To learn more about an MTSS approach to student well-being, including key considerations in creating child support teams, see the Meeting the Social, Emotional, and Mental Health Needs of All Students fact sheet.
Shai Fuxman, mental health and behavioral health expert, REL Northeast and Islands
The 10 Regional Educational Labs serve states, district, schools, and other education stakeholders across the nation. Find your lab and learn more about REL research and research-related supports at https://ies.ed.gov/rels. Principals, teachers, parents, policymakers, and anyone who is interested in learning more about what works for students can submit a question to the National Library of Education.