The Tuscaloosa County Whole Child Partnership: A Roadmap for Sustainable School and Community Transformation

Presenters

Gregory J. Benner, University of Alabama - TuscaloosaFollow
David Scott, Tuscaloosa County School SystemFollow
Jacqueline S. Hudgins, Tuscaloosa County School SystemFollow
Brandi Shanklin, University of Alabama - TuscaloosaFollow
Angela Kelly, Tuscaloosa County School SystemFollow
Cheryl D. Wallace, Tuscaloosa County School SystemFollow

First Presenter's Institution

University of Alabama

First Presenter's Brief Biography

Dr. Gregory J. Benner is the Helen and Pat O’Sullivan Professor in the College of Education at the University of Alabama. He has a knack for grassroots collective impact—getting whole communities including families, child welfare, mental health, and schools on the same page to meet needs of the whole child. In February 2018, he received the Presidents’ Award from the Northwest PBIS Network for his outstanding leadership of social and emotional learning and PBIS. He is co-founder of the Tacoma Whole Child Initiative, a comprehensive blueprint for sustainable school and community transformation.

Document Type

Event

Primary Strand

Positive Behavior Interventions and Support

Relevance to Primary Strand

High-quality implementation—the process—is required to transform school
systems for good. The whole child approach allows school, community, and family leaders to attain excellence in implementing processes for lasting, comprehensive community transformation. Whole Child focuses on both the model and the underlying culture. It links research-based practices, data, and systems to create an organization capable of sustained
improvement. Four main elements of design are emphasized:
1. Outcomes. Emphasis on academic and behavior performance measures endorsed by students, families, and educators.
2. Practices. Use of evidence-based interventions, strategies, and professional
development activities related to SEL and academic achievement.
3. Data. Collection of reliable information to assess the status, need for change, and effects of intervention.
4. Systems. Provision of supports necessary for the accurate and durable
implementation of data and best practices for safe and supportive schools.
Positively impacting one student requires sustained change of family, classroom, school, district, and community systems of support.

Alignment with School Improvement Plan Topics

Climate and Culture

Brief Program Description

The Tuscaloosa Whole Child partnership offers a decade-long roadmap for school and community transformation that leads to youth success. To be successful, our schools and community partners must embrace a common vision, common language and common implementation processes to bridge their contrasting structures, environments and scopes of work. To spread our whole child work across the community, we plan three distinct implementation segments or “shifts.” One will occur for Schools (shift 1), one for Community Programs (shift 2), and one for Families (shift 3). When fully scaled, our whole child work will allow for consistency and predictability for our children no matter which environment they are in. From cradle to career, we will have the most impact on children’s lives if every adult they come in contact with supports and promotes their academic and social emotional learning skills by utilizing effective strategies.

Summary

The Whole Child model starts with integration of SEL across all environments in the community. SEL is the youth version of emotional intelligence in adults, and it is the basis of comprehensive, cultural transformation in the WCI model. The lives of youth are transformed when they occupy and move through welcoming and equitable home, school, and community environments. Likewise, the lives of educators, caregivers, and families are transformed when they reside and work in positive environments. According to the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (2022), SEL competencies include self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.

Safe, Nurturing Environments

Infusion of SEL across community contexts serves as a preventive behavioral health measure (i.e., behavioral vaccine) that leads to healthy changes in the environments in which people live and move. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2013) indicated that safe, stable, and nurturing relationships and environments are essential for preventing child maltreatment (e.g., ACEs; National Center on Safe, Supportive Learning Environments, 2014). Environments that foster successful development and prevent the development of psychological and behavioral problems are usually characterized as nurturing environments. These environments minimize biologically and psychologically toxic events. They also teach, promote, and richly reinforce prosocial behavior, including self-regulatory behaviors and skills needed to become productive members of society. In addition, they monitor and limit opportunities for problem behaviors. Finally, they foster psychological flexibility—the ability to be mindful of one’s thoughts and feelings, and act in the service of one’s values, even when discouraged from doing so (Biglan et al., 2012).

Communitywide SEL intervention works by employing high-yield, evidence-based kernels of behavioral influence across all environments, but it is not easy to carry out. It requires grassroots, authentic discussions with people of all walks of life in the community to answer questions such as:

1. If we were successful with our youth, what would that look like?
2. What beliefs matter most to you?

Responses to these questions inform the community’s WCI vision in two ways, which are described below.

Shared Definition of Success

Answers to the first question (i.e., “If we were successful with our youth, what would that look like?”) allow for communitywide consensus on youth success or a communitywide shared definition of youth success. Each component of youth success becomes a benchmark, with specific and measurable indicators that are shared in real time so that anyone can judge progress. For example, Tacoma Public Schools, has five community-developed goals: Academic Excellence, Partnerships, Early Learning, Health and Safety, and Operations. Indicators under the Health and Safety goal are: (a) extracurricular activities: middle and high school—the percentage of students enrolled in one or more extracurricular activity; (b) annual SEL plans—each school will complete and publish a summary of its plan; (c) exclusionary discipline: high school—the percentage of students with no suspensions or expulsions; (d) exclusionary discipline: middle school—the percentage of students with no suspensions or expulsions; (e) exclusionary discipline: elementary school—the percentage of students with no suspensions or expulsions; (f) climate survey—the percentage of student, family member, and staff surveys returned; (g) healthy youth survey—the percentage of surveys returned from students in grades six, eight, 10, and 12; and (h) extended learning opportunities—the percentage of students in grades three and five participating in one or more community-based opportunity. Shared community goals, associated indicators, and progress in reaching goals are provided on the Tacoma Public Schools (n.d.) website.

Shared Community Culture and Vision

Understanding the culture of the community, as well as its hopes and dreams for youth, beliefs, and definition of success, is a necessary starting point for a culturally responsive behavioral vaccine that answers the second question (i.e., “What beliefs matter most to you?”). Then, a community can move toward behavioral vaccines that are low or no cost, produce immediate benefit, are easy to explain and implement, solve other competing demands, are easily socially marketed, and impact community risk factors. The next step is to move toward consensus on the top two to three beliefs from the perspective of diverse and randomly selected community members. For example, when the WCI process began in Scottsbluff, Nebraska in 2015, the community identified the three beliefs, or pillars, as Safe, Respectful, and Responsible. All community agencies were invited to pledge themselves to support WCI; to decide what being safe, respectful, and responsible meant to them; and to prominently display a plaque listing the community pillars. Applying this procedure with the people of Tacoma, Washington, consensus was reached on the beliefs of Respect and Responsible. Using the same process with youth, community members, and tribal leadership associated with Chief Leschi Schools, the indigenous community of Tacoma, the beliefs of Leadership, Respect, and Safe reached consensus. The authentic beliefs and culture of indigenous peoples is woven through all their environments and interactions, as rooting preventive behavioral health in these beliefs is central to native education. Positive identity of native belonging is promoted communitywide (CHiXapkaid et al., 2008; Harrington & CHiXapkaid, 2013; Demmert, 1994; Demmert et al., 2003), whether the community is rural, urban, or indigenous.

School Norms

Within the WCI model, the whole staff of each school comes together to articulate what it looks and sounds like to treat youth safely, respectfully, and responsibly in each environment (e.g., classrooms, hallways, lunchroom) and during each major activity of the school day (e.g., extracurricular activities, arrivals, departures). Youth and staff then co-create social and emotional norms for showing safe, respectful, and responsible behaviors in each environment at the school. Thus, the transformation process begins with changing the culture to focus on aspirational pillars that reflect deeply important beliefs to the people of the community. Youth and adults practice safe, respectful, and responsible social and emotional pillars in every interaction and context, considering every thought that a person may think (e.g., “I keep thinking that I’m terrible at math—how can I show more respect for myself and think more positively?”) and every feeling that a person may feel (e.g., “I’m angry at my friend—how can I handle my emotions responsibly?”). Clear, visual, culturally responsive expectations aligned to each pillar are posted and reinforced across all contexts—schools, community settings, and homes. The pillars are taught, practiced, and reinforced from cradle to career across these contexts, setting the stage for safe, nurturing, and caring environments throughout the community.

Super Strategies

In addition to reaching consensus on SEL pillars, community members move toward consensus on super strategies—the simplest, highest-impact strategies that work for youth in the community. For example, the signature whole child practices are implemented across all schools, community programs, and homes in the city of Tacoma. These practices are Warm Greetings, Relationship-building Circles, and Emotion Checks (Tacoma Public Schools, 2022). Kernels to promote behavior change (Embry & Biglan, 2008; Jones & Bouffard, 2012) are considered super strategies due to their low cost, simplicity, and effectiveness.

Evidence

Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child: Sustainable and Comprehensive Change with Foundational Social and Emotional Supports

The Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model was developed and launched in 2014 as a collaboration between the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and ASCD (formerly known as the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development). This model was a response to the “call for greater alignment, integration, and collaboration between education and health to improve each child’s cognitive, physical, social, and emotional development” (ASCD, n.d.). In the ensuing years, it has become the preeminent school health framework in the U.S., used by the vast majority of states, districts, and schools. The WSCC model became even more prominent and more widely adopted as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The need for engagement and collaboration between these two key sectors is undeniable.

Public health and education serve the same children, often in the same settings. By focusing on the child, the WSCC model aligns the common goals of both sectors to put into action a whole child approach to education. To support this alignment and to provide literal support across the school and community, the WSCC model comprises 10 key components (see Figure 1): (1) health education; (2) physical education and physical activity; (3) nutrition environment and services; (4) health services; (5) counseling, psychological, and social services; (6) social and emotional climate; (7) physical environment; (8) employee wellness; (9) family engagement; and (10) community involvement. These components promote environments where students are supported, cared for, and able to learn and grow socially, emotionally, physically, and cognitively.

Figure 1

The Whole Child Approach: Learning and Health

For sustainable and comprehensive communitywide change, it is necessary to transform the environments in which youth move and live. Social and emotional learning (SEL) provides a mechanism to transform these environments for good. With a common vision and effective improvement practices, impactful SEL strategies may be implemented and sustained across the whole school and whole community to enhance children’s mental, emotional, behavioral, and health. Over the past 15 years, the authors of this chapter, in partnership with educators, providers, thought leaders, and researchers, have articulated a blueprint for sustainable and comprehensive communitywide change called the Whole Child Initiative (WCI). This chapter discusses three aspects of the WCI model: (a) the need for a public health approach to sustainable change, (b) the WCI vision, and (c) how SEL practices provide the foundation to transform environments and lives.

Need for a Public Health Approach to Sustainable Change

According to the American Public Health Association (2021), public health promotes and protects the health and wellness of people and the communities where they live, learn, work, and play. Whereas many school initiatives are reactive in nature—focused on quick fixes for academic growth and behavior modification—the whole child approach takes advantage of proven systems and partnerships to enhance interpersonal relationships and transform schools and communities from the inside out, thus proactively promoting the long-term development and success of all children, as well as their families and communities.

Below, we describe the rationale for a public health approach to sustainable school and community transformation, focusing on factors such as professional learning, reduced time for classroom instruction due to inappropriate behavior, employee wellness, childhood trauma, and future readiness.

Professional Learning

Educators receive about 8 hours of training on effective classroom management strategies and even less training on how to support students with significant behavior problems (National Council on Teacher Quality, 2014). As a result, teachers often feel unprepared to effectively instruct and manage students, especially those with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD; Shapiro et al., 1999; Slate et al., 2019). Additionally, students’ misbehavior often elicits distracting negative emotions that have a negative effect on teaching and learning (Benner et al., 2013, 2022; Emmer & Stough, 2001; Sutton, 2004). Research shows that SEL strategies and programs can reduce educators’ stress by reducing student misbehaviors (Goddard et al., 2004; Jennings & Greenberg, 2009).

Reduced Time for Classroom Instruction Due to Inappropriate Behavior

Loss of instruction is a concern for all students with challenging behavior and especially for students with EBD, who characteristically engage in inappropriate behavior, making teaching challenging (Kauffman & Landrum, 2018). Most of these students were educated in separate settings in the 1990s, but by 2013 over 45% of them spent 80% or more of their time in general education classrooms—and 17% spent 40-70% of their time in this regular school environment (National Center for Education Statistics, 2016). Off-task, disruptive, and other problem behaviors can take away almost two-thirds of instructional time (Martella et al., 2012) and educators of students with EBD devote about 30% (less than 2 hours) of the school day to academic instruction (Wehby et al., 2003). Given the large percentage of students in general education classrooms with or at risk for EBD, dedicating resources to alleviate behavioral challenges is a viable strategy for increasing classroom instruction and enhancing academic engagement and achievement.

Employee Wellness

Educators report higher job-related stress than other professionals (Steiner & Woo, 2021) with 17% leaving the profession in the first 5 years (Gray & Taie, 2015). Emotional stress and poor emotion management caused by disruptive classroom behavior leads to dissatisfaction and attrition (Boyd et al., 2011; Darling-Hammond, 2001; Ingersoll, 2001; Montgomery, 2005). Moreover, an inordinate amount of schools’ human and economic resources are consumed by the constant process of replacing educators (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2005).

Considerable evidence suggests that improving classroom-management practices can decrease inappropriate behavior and increase prosocial behavior among students (Martella et al., 2012; Oliver & Reschly, 2007, 2010; Wang et al., 1997). Students in well-managed classrooms tend to have fewer behavioral problems relative to students in poorly managed classrooms (Stronge et al., 2007). In addition, proactive classroom-management strategies decrease educator stress compared to reactive strategies (Clunies-Ross et al., 2008). As educators’ stress decreases and student behavior improves, student–educator relationships become more positive (Schaubman et al., 2011). Thus, improving teachers’ ability to effectively manage challenging student behavior can benefit educator health and wellness in numerous ways, and reduce teacher attrition. Unfortunately, interest in the issue of educator health and well-being has arisen only recently, sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic and a teacher “mental health crisis” (Noonoo, 2022).

A National Association of Secondary School Principals (2022) report highlighted areas for concern as many school leaders and teachers are burning out and quitting:

• Job satisfaction is at an all-time low, with almost 4 out of 10 principals (38%) expecting to leave the profession in the next 3 years.
• The principal pipeline is directly affected by the teacher shortage.
• Almost half of all school leaders (47%) report that the role of the principal has changed “a great deal” since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak.
• More than one-third of principals report having been threatened in response to steps they took to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in their school.

Similar results have been reported by the education unions. The RAND 2021 State of the U.S. Teacher Survey (Steiner & Woo, 2021) found that:

• Nearly 1 in 4 teachers may leave their job by the end of the current school year.
• Black or African American teachers were particularly likely to plan to leave.
• A much higher proportion of teachers reported frequent job-related stress and symptoms of depression than the general adult population.
• Health was one of the highest-ranked stressors for teachers.
• Pandemic-related conditions were linked to job-related stress, depressive symptoms, and burnout.

Childhood Trauma

Mental, emotional, behavioral, and health problems are interrelated, and stem from a set of common conditions (National Research Council & Institute of Medicine, 2009). Regarding students with challenging behavior, two strands of research have illuminated the contributing causes of EBD. The first strand has shown that a child’s mental health development is arrested when coercive processes govern interactions with caregivers, including educators. The Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group proposed the dynamic cascade model of antisocial behavioral development to explain how minor externalizing problems (i.e., aggressive, defiant, violent, explosive behaviors) can lead to serious antisocial behavior and violence, depending on transactions with the environment across childhood (Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group, 1992; Dishion & Snyder, 2016; Dodge et al., 2008). Fitting with this model, the environment, including past and present coercive interactions with parents and teachers, predicts a child’s current mental health. While EBD often stems from child biological difficulties and trauma, coercive teacher–student interaction patterns also play a critical role (Dodge et al., 2008; Patterson, 1982). Coercive interactions impede children from learning key academic and SEL competencies that emerge from healthy, positive, engaging interactions (National Research Council, 2000; Patterson, 1982, 1995).

The second strand of research centers on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d.), a term that describes the common conditions for mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders. ACEs include abuse, neglect, and other traumatic experiences that occur to individuals under the age of 18. The landmark CDC-Kaiser Permanente ACE Study examined relations between childhood ACEs and mental, emotional, and behavioral health outcomes in adulthood (Felitti et al., 1998). Between 1995 and 1997, over 17,000 people receiving physical exams completed confidential surveys containing information about their childhood experiences and current health status and behaviors. The ACE study examined three categories of adverse experience: childhood abuse (i.e., emotional, physical, and sexual abuse), neglect (i.e., both physical and emotional neglect), and household challenges (i.e., growing up in a household with substance abuse, mental illness, violent treatment of a mother or stepmother, parental separation/divorce, or that had a member of the household in prison). Respondents were given an ACEs score between 0 and 10 based on the number of ACEs they have experienced. Researchers have suggested that ACEs represent the top public health issue of this generation (Center for Youth Wellness, 2022), with important implications for educators and educational leaders to consider:

• People with six or more ACEs died nearly 20 years earlier on average than those without ACEs (Brown et al., 2009).
• The yearly lifetime costs associated with child maltreatment is estimated at $124 billion (Fang et al., 2012).
• ACEs cost $1.33 trillion annually in North American and Europe alone (Bellis et al., 2019).
• A 10% reduction in the rates of two or more ACEs would translate into an annual savings of $105 billion across North America and Europe, equivalent to a total reduction of three million disability-adjusted-life-years, a measure of global burden of disease from sickness and death.
• Chronic school absenteeism (missing 15 or more days during a single school year) is common among school-age children who witness neighborhood violence, live with family members using substances, or have multiple ACEs (Stempel et al., 2017).

Future Readiness

Emerging data on college and career readiness is concerning—especially from an equity perspective. Although graduation rates have risen significantly, many graduates are unprepared to enter college or the workforce. For example, in Alabama the classes of 2020 and 2021graduation rates were 92%, and the college and career ready rate was 76% (a 16-percentage-point gap). The graduation rate for Black students was 85.5%, but only 55.6% of these have earned one of the state’s credentials for college/career readiness; in comparison, 91% of white students graduated and 80.4% were ready for college and careers (McCartney & Morton, 2022). The U.S. Department of Education college and career indicators include: (a) scoring college-ready in at least one subject on the ACT, (b) scoring at the silver level or above on the WorkKeys assessment, (c) earning a passing score on an advanced placement or international baccalaureate test, (d) successfully earning a Career and Technical Education Credential, (e) earning dual enrollment credit at a college or university, (f) enlisting in the military, (g) completing a Career and Technical Education Program of Study, and (h) completing an in-school youth apprenticeship (McCartney & Morton, 2022). Educational leaders should seek new, effective ways to close the college and career readiness gap, and ensure equitable readiness for all students, regardless of race, socioeconomic status, or location.

WCI Vision

The WCI proposes a clear, future-oriented vision: sustainable, communitywide change targeting the whole child. WCI is a systematic model for school and community transformation that embraces a common vision, language, and experience to address environmental conditions which give rise to mental, emotional, behavioral, and health difficulties for youth. Shared solutions to address these conditions include collective goals, strategies, and aligned supports to keep every child safe, supported, engaged, healthy, and challenged in the community at large.

Comprehensive Shifts in Systems of Support

To foster sustainable change that nurtures all children in a community, WCI calls for comprehensive, transformative shifts of three systems: schools (shift 1), community organizations (shift 2), and families (shift 3) (Figure 2).

Figure 2

WCI Transformative Shifts of Schools, Communities, and Families

The original WSCC model, on which WCI was based, has been endorsed by the Aspen Institute National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development, which provides detailed recommendations for practitioners, policymakers, and researchers (Darling-Hammond et al., 2018). The WCI reimagines the relationship between schools and communities, and it is primed for expansion. This model unites schools, community partners, and families with one long-term vision, using processes that enable continual improvement—every day, week, and month—toward the vision. The “process” is the key to transformative results—not specific interventions, curricula, or strategies, which can come and go.

Experienced educators and service providers have seen different innovations cycle through schools and youth-serving organizations year after year. Sometimes, the initiatives pile up, causing feelings of having “too much on our plates” to pursue real, lasting systems improvement. It is rare for an innovation to “stick”—that is, to be fully implemented and sustained in an organization—and constantly changing directions takes a fiscal and human toll. We can do better. We need a common North Star and a common culture that embraces the health and well-being of every person from children to adults. This culture occurs occasionally by accident, but more often and more successfully by intent and development. A recent article about the original WSCC model (Slade, 2022) stated:

The original WSCC model has brought the sectors closer together, but if there is one aspect that may be missing it is the underpinning influence of the school culture, led by the overarching direction of the school leader. Too many initiatives fail to make an impact because the model and culture do not match, and this is often because the initiative doesn’t have the overt and committed direction of the school leader. … An addition to the WSCC model would therefore be the addition of culture, led by the influence of the school leader.

Model + Culture = Success

High-quality implementation—the process—is required to transform school systems for good. The WCI approach allows school, community, and family leaders to attain excellence in implementing processes for lasting, comprehensive community transformation. WCI focuses on both the model and the underlying culture. It links research-based practices, data, and systems to create an organization capable of sustained improvement. Four main elements of design are emphasized:

1. Outcomes. Emphasis on academic and behavior performance measures endorsed by students, families, and educators.
2. Practices. Use of evidence-based interventions, strategies, and professional development activities related to SEL and academic achievement.
3. Data. Collection of reliable information to assess the status, need for change, and effects of intervention.
4. Systems. Provision of supports necessary for the accurate and durable implementation of data and best practices for safe and supportive schools. Positively impacting one student requires sustained change of family, classroom, school, district, and community systems of support.

Preventive Behavioral Health

A critical issue in the prevention of behavioral health problems involves the identification of the “active ingredients” of effective substance abuse, mental health, SEL, and youth violence-prevention programs. A common solution cannot be found in a single packaged prevention program. According to Embry (2004), there is considerable overlap in presumptive best practices published by the U.S. Department of Education, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Prevention, among others. These agencies offer lists of packaged evidence-based prevention and intervention programs, but not the specific, active ingredients. It is important to understand the active ingredients in order to create a community-based culture of effective practices that can be sustained, especially when state and local government budgets are stretched (Embry, 2004).

Embry (2004, 2011) suggests that one approach to communitywide preventive behavioral health efforts is a “behavioral vaccine.” A behavioral vaccine is characterized as: (a) any intervention that inoculates recipients against morbidity or mortality, in this case problematic, aggressive, or potentially dangerous or lethal behavior, hospitalization, incarceration, suicide, or murder; (b) low cost, as exemplified by handwashing to prevent infections or healthy diet and exercise to prevent high blood pressure and diabetes; (c) easily administered to ensure minimum costs and maximum benefits, with daily routines that assure everyday practice with little training; and (d) amenable to mass administration. Behavioral vaccines differ from conventional “universal” prevention programs commonly articulated by federal or state agencies because they make it possible to directly reach the maximum number of people with a minimum of costs and without the need for trained, technical, or professional personnel (e.g., fluoride in drinking water). These initiatives produce immediate benefit, can be easily explained, are widely socially marketed, and impact identified and targeted risk factors (Embry, 2004).

In the WCI model, specific components of preventive behavioral health—or, active ingredients—are called kernels. These are “fundamental units,” or activities, shown through experimental studies to improve specific behaviors (Embry, 2002, 2004; Jones, 2017). Kernels relevant to WCI include deep nasal breathing for calming down, using hand signals in the classroom to indicate a change in activities or to send a message to the group, and specific and concrete use of positive praise (Embry & Biglan, 2008). These kernels are proven effective for a wide range of academic achievement and social adjustment outcomes, including classroom behavior, discipline, self-control, and managing emotions effectively. Kernels are compelling because they do not have to be tied to a particular curriculum; yet, the kernels appear in many evidence-based curricula. They are also typically low cost and simple to use. By design, kernels target a specific behavior and can be taught quickly. Community members can choose kernels or sets of kernels based on students’ needs and abilities. As a complement to universal approaches, kernels offer a flexible and personalized approach enabling educators to select strategies or activities that best fit individual needs and goals, thereby increasing potency, efficacy, and buy-in while promoting sustainability (Jones & Bouffard, 2012).

How SEL Practices Provide the Foundation to Transform Environments and Lives

The WCI model starts with integration of SEL across all environments in the community. SEL is the youth version of emotional intelligence in adults, and it is the basis of comprehensive, cultural transformation in the WCI model. The lives of youth are transformed when they occupy and move through welcoming and equitable home, school, and community environments. Likewise, the lives of educators, caregivers, and families are transformed when they reside and work in positive environments. According to the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (2022), SEL competencies include self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.

Safe, Nurturing Environments

Infusion of SEL across community contexts serves as a preventive behavioral health measure (i.e., behavioral vaccine) that leads to healthy changes in the environments in which people live and move. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2013) indicated that safe, stable, and nurturing relationships and environments are essential for preventing child maltreatment (e.g., ACEs; National Center on Safe, Supportive Learning Environments, 2014). Environments that foster successful development and prevent the development of psychological and behavioral problems are usually characterized as nurturing environments. These environments minimize biologically and psychologically toxic events. They also teach, promote, and richly reinforce prosocial behavior, including self-regulatory behaviors and skills needed to become productive members of society. In addition, they monitor and limit opportunities for problem behaviors. Finally, they foster psychological flexibility—the ability to be mindful of one’s thoughts and feelings, and act in the service of one’s values, even when discouraged from doing so (Biglan et al., 2012).

Communitywide SEL intervention works by employing high-yield, evidence-based kernels of behavioral influence across all environments, but it is not easy to carry out. It requires grassroots, authentic discussions with people of all walks of life in the community to answer questions such as:

1. If we were successful with our youth, what would that look like?
2. What beliefs matter most to you?

Responses to these questions inform the community’s WCI vision in two ways, which are described below.

Shared Definition of Success

Answers to the first question (i.e., “If we were successful with our youth, what would that look like?”) allow for communitywide consensus on youth success or a communitywide shared definition of youth success. Each component of youth success becomes a benchmark, with specific and measurable indicators that are shared in real time so that anyone can judge progress. For example, Tacoma Public Schools, has five community-developed goals: Academic Excellence, Partnerships, Early Learning, Health and Safety, and Operations. Indicators under the Health and Safety goal are: (a) extracurricular activities: middle and high school—the percentage of students enrolled in one or more extracurricular activity; (b) annual SEL plans—each school will complete and publish a summary of its plan; (c) exclusionary discipline: high school—the percentage of students with no suspensions or expulsions; (d) exclusionary discipline: middle school—the percentage of students with no suspensions or expulsions; (e) exclusionary discipline: elementary school—the percentage of students with no suspensions or expulsions; (f) climate survey—the percentage of student, family member, and staff surveys returned; (g) healthy youth survey—the percentage of surveys returned from students in grades six, eight, 10, and 12; and (h) extended learning opportunities—the percentage of students in grades three and five participating in one or more community-based opportunity. Shared community goals, associated indicators, and progress in reaching goals are provided on the Tacoma Public Schools (n.d.) website.

Shared Community Culture and Vision

Understanding the culture of the community, as well as its hopes and dreams for youth, beliefs, and definition of success, is a necessary starting point for a culturally responsive behavioral vaccine that answers the second question (i.e., “What beliefs matter most to you?”). Then, a community can move toward behavioral vaccines that are low or no cost, produce immediate benefit, are easy to explain and implement, solve other competing demands, are easily socially marketed, and impact community risk factors. The next step is to move toward consensus on the top two to three beliefs from the perspective of diverse and randomly selected community members. For example, when the WCI process began in Scottsbluff, Nebraska in 2015, the community identified the three beliefs, or pillars, as Safe, Respectful, and Responsible. All community agencies were invited to pledge themselves to support WCI; to decide what being safe, respectful, and responsible meant to them; and to prominently display a plaque listing the community pillars. Applying this procedure with the people of Tacoma, Washington, consensus was reached on the beliefs of Respect and Responsible. Using the same process with youth, community members, and tribal leadership associated with Chief Leschi Schools, the indigenous community of Tacoma, the beliefs of Leadership, Respect, and Safe reached consensus. The authentic beliefs and culture of indigenous peoples is woven through all their environments and interactions, as rooting preventive behavioral health in these beliefs is central to native education. Positive identity of native belonging is promoted communitywide (CHiXapkaid et al., 2008; Harrington & CHiXapkaid, 2013; Demmert, 1994; Demmert et al., 2003), whether the community is rural, urban, or indigenous.

School Norms

Within the WCI model, the whole staff of each school comes together to articulate what it looks and sounds like to treat youth safely, respectfully, and responsibly in each environment (e.g., classrooms, hallways, lunchroom) and during each major activity of the school day (e.g., extracurricular activities, arrivals, departures). Youth and staff then co-create social and emotional norms for showing safe, respectful, and responsible behaviors in each environment at the school. Thus, the transformation process begins with changing the culture to focus on aspirational pillars that reflect deeply important beliefs to the people of the community. Youth and adults practice safe, respectful, and responsible social and emotional pillars in every interaction and context, considering every thought that a person may think (e.g., “I keep thinking that I’m terrible at math—how can I show more respect for myself and think more positively?”) and every feeling that a person may feel (e.g., “I’m angry at my friend—how can I handle my emotions responsibly?”). Clear, visual, culturally responsive expectations aligned to each pillar are posted and reinforced across all contexts—schools, community settings, and homes. The pillars are taught, practiced, and reinforced from cradle to career across these contexts, setting the stage for safe, nurturing, and caring environments throughout the community.

Super Strategies

In addition to reaching consensus on SEL pillars, community members move toward consensus on super strategies—the simplest, highest-impact strategies that work for youth in the community. For example, the signature whole child practices are implemented across all schools, community programs, and homes in the city of Tacoma. These practices are Warm Greetings, Relationship-building Circles, and Emotion Checks (Tacoma Public Schools, 2022). Kernels to promote behavior change (Embry & Biglan, 2008; Jones & Bouffard, 2012) are considered super strategies due to their low cost, simplicity, and effectiveness.

Relationship-building circles. Circles can be used to start and close the day or

activity (e.g., morning meeting, closing circle) (Module 2; CASEL, n.d.). Adults select which questions or topics to pose, depending on the group. The circle is meant to show that everyone is equal and has a chance to speak and participate, so care is taken to ensure equitable access to the activities within the circle.

Look and listen. Educators can use physical signals, such as hand signals, a special look, or proximity, to indicate it is time to switch activities or to direct student attention to the teacher. Teachers can devise own cues, adapted to what works best for their teaching style, learner needs, and classroom context.

Looks like, sounds like, feels like. “Anchor charts” listing the key classroom behaviors—often accompanied by pictures (e.g., an eye for Looks Like)—can be placed on student desks to help them remember. Teachers can individualize the chart with pictures of the individual student engaged in specific behaviors (e.g., a picture of the student asking and answering questions).

Self-check-ins. Students may be encouraged to reflect on their emotions and make a decision to move forward. This process builds self-awareness (“How am I feeling right now?”) and self-management (“How can I manage my emotions right now?”). Students can take a break and reflect on their feelings in a designated space. Teachers may signal students to complete a check-in by dropping a laminated “Take a Break” card or giving a non-verbal cue. Students also can signal that they want to do a check-in.

Make it right plans. This conflict resolution tool helps students resolve interpersonal challenges. If students made a mistake that would normally warrant a disciplinary action, a Make it Right Plan can be used to help them understand the impact of their actions and to identify ways to make things right. Make it Right, also known as Steps to Resolution, can be used instead of an office referral or suspension.

Calm-down strategies. Strategies to help students calm down include breathing deeply, listening to calming music on headphones, drawing a picture, getting a drink, having a snack, and watching a short calming video. Calm-down strategies can vary by student.

Emotion checks. Emotion checks involve creating intentional opportunities for youth to identify, name, or describe their emotions (Module3; CASEL, n.d.). There are a multitude of ways to conduct a check-in, including using verbal strategies or physical movement to help children articulate or represent their emotions. This can be as simple as asking youth to identify the color or zone they are in or as complex as asking students to use metaphors or movement to communicate their emotions.

Warm welcomes. The WCI approach recommends that every student receive four warm welcomes by name by four different people every morning (Module1; CASEL, n.d.). This is called the 4x4. Greeters may be staff, other students, or people from the community.

Warm goodbyes. Warm goodbyes, also called optimistic closures, end activities with optimism. WCI encourages educators to “flip the 4x4 around” by providing four warm goodbyes by four different people to end each student’s day. Educators or service providers should reserve the final 5 minutes to have a closing circle that includes warm goodbyes and a reflection for the day or activity. It is critical to end activities, including the school day, optimistically. WCI strives to make the last memory positive and supportive. Bus drivers play an important role in communities committed to warm welcomes and warm goodbyes, as they are often the first and last contact of the day. Drivers should be celebrated as key to the most foundational part of a whole child model.

Conclusion

The whole child model equips educators, caregivers, and service providers with skills and attitudes necessary to deliver high-quality instruction, and maintain an engaging, safe, healthy, supportive, and challenging learning environment (Benner et al., 2010; Carey, 2004; Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development et al., 2001; National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000). This model is backed by actionable implementation science findings and strategies, change-management strategies, and concrete tools to support effective implementation (Blase et al., 2013; Fixsen et al., 2005; Odom, 2009; Penuel et al., 2011; Wandersman et al., 2012). With WCI, schools and their surrounding communities can create unprecedented support for the whole child by addressing, connecting, and harmonizing academic, social, and emotional stability. Long after the 10-year WCI plan has ended, communities will be able to maintain focus on their North Star, holistically developing the whole child by building resilience, and enhancing health, well-being, and learning.

Learning Objective 1

Conference participants will understand the “why” (rationale), “how” (change process), and “what” (evidence-based practices) of the whole child approach.

Learning Objective 2

Participants will articulate how to launch and sustain school and community transformation efforts.

Learning Objective 3

Participants will be able to explain the three transformative shifts of sustainable community change.

Recommended Citation

Benner, Gregory J.; Scott, David; Hudgins, Jacqueline S.; Shanklin, Brandi; Kelly, Angela; and Wallace, Cheryl D., "The Tuscaloosa County Whole Child Partnership: A Roadmap for Sustainable School and Community Transformation" (2023). Southeast Conference on School Climate. 64.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/secsc/2023/2023/64

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