Identity, Belonging, & Family Partnership
Where do I belong, and who do I become with others?
Strengthen identity, belonging, and trust.
Partner with families as co-creators of thriving schools.
Amplify learner voice to shape learning and school culture.
Cultivate stewardship, shared responsibility, and civic participation.
Explore the pathways that ensure every learner knows they matter.
Empower learners, especially those least represented, to strengthen belonging, school culture, and their communities.
View PD OptionsPosition students, families, educators, and community members as partners who investigate challenges and co-design solutions.
View PD OptionsUse learner identity and voice to strengthen evidence, relationships, belonging, agency, and instructional decisions.
View PD OptionsHuman-Centered Schools Develop Stewards of Learning and Community
People flourish when they know they matter. Learning is deeply connected to identity, relationships, and a sense of belonging. Students are more likely to engage, persevere, and thrive when they experience schools where their voices are valued, their cultures are honored, and their families are authentic partners in learning. Human-centered schools intentionally cultivate belonging, agency, stewardship, and shared responsibility so every learner develops the confidence, compassion, and capability to strengthen their communities and contribute to a thriving democracy.
Develop Learners as Leaders, Stewards, and Changemakers
Youth Empowered Stewardship (YES) develops leadership by beginning with learners who are often least connected or represented in traditional opportunities. Through meaningful projects with educators and community partners, students strengthen identity, confidence, agency, and purpose. As participation expands across tiers, learners improve belonging and school culture while becoming stewards of their schools and communities.
Educators Will Develop the Capacity To:
- Develop learner identity, leadership, and agency.
- Create authentic leadership opportunities for historically marginalized learners.
- Build a tiered stewardship model that expands leadership opportunities across the school.
- Increase belonging, attendance, engagement, and school culture through meaningful contribution.
- Empower learners to become stewards of their schools and communities.
Creating Schools That Work for All of Us: A Guide to Empowered Stewardship
Benjie Howard, Patricia McDonald, Gary Howard and with contributions from Wade Antonio Colwell
Build Intergenerational Communities of Inquiry and Improvement
YES Impact Team Inquiry brings students, families, educators, school leaders, and community members together to investigate a shared problem of practice. Using Liberatory Design, empathy interviews, quantitative evidence, and the Evidence-Analysis-Action framework, intergenerational teams develop a deeper understanding of challenges and co-design solutions that strengthen learning, belonging, equity, and school culture.
Educators Will Develop the Capacity To:
- Lead intergenerational collaborative inquiry.
- Use Liberatory Design to investigate meaningful problems of practice.
- Gather both quantitative and human-centered evidence.
- Conduct empathy interviews that elevate learner and family voice.
- Facilitate semester- and year-long inquiry cycles.
- Build shared stewardship across students, families, educators, and community members.
Creating Schools That Work for All of Us: A Guide to Empowered Stewardship
Benjie Howard, Patricia McDonald, Gary Howard and with contributions from Wade Antonio Colwell
Advance Culturally Responsive Formative Assessment
Amplify Learner Voice helps educators make formative assessment a culturally responsive partnership with students. By drawing on learners’ identities, cultures, languages, experiences, and knowledge, educators gain more meaningful evidence and build stronger relationships. Students reflect, offer feedback, co-construct success, and take an active role in their growth, strengthening trust, belonging, agency, and learning.
Educators Will Develop the Capacity To:
- Design culturally responsive formative assessment practices.
- Build stronger relationships through learner-centered assessment.
- Recognize and leverage learners’ identities and funds of knowledge.
- Use learner voice as an essential source of instructional evidence.
- Strengthen learner agency through reflection, feedback, and shared ownership.
- Create classrooms where assessment deepens belonging, trust, and learning.
Amplify Learner Voice Through Culturally Responsive and Sustaining Assessment
Paul J. Bloomberg, Ed.D., Kara Vandas, Ingrid Twyman, Vivett Dukes, Rachel Carrillo Fairchild, Connie Hamilton and Isaac Wells
Resources
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