These BBA blog posts offer a range of perspectives on the importance of attending to children’s mental and physical well-being in order to boost learning:
- In Crunching Test Scores Isn’t Enough, veteran DCPS high school math teacher David Tansey compares the impact of his at-risk students’ daily life experiences on their approaches to learning to his own suburban high school context.
- Does Reform Have to Mean Separate and Unequal? uses the contrast in approaches between neighboring districts DCPS and MCPS to show how excessive focus on test scores to the neglect of children’s social, emotional, and other needs and skills can undermine their progress, rather than close gaps.
- In Deconstructing PISA, Elaine Weiss and former Boston Public Schools superintendent Thomas Payzant point to comprehensive health care in Massachusetts as one of several reasons for that state’s tie with high-scoring Finland on the international assessment (in contrast to Florida students’ company with their Romanian peers).