From Classroom to School: Spreading and Scaling Academic and Personal Behaviors

In recent years, the understanding that a certain set of noncognitive skills, habits, and beliefs that can improve student motivation and achievement has become widespread in education circles, but little has been written about how an entire school community can support these academic and personal behaviors. From Classroom to School: Spreading and Scaling Academic and Personal Behaviors provides a behind-the-scenes look into how three schools worked to seed, scale, and spread practices for fostering academic and personal behaviors across a system.

The report focuses on three schools—P.S./I.S. 266, I.S. 126 Albert Shanker School for Visual and Performing Arts, and Knowledge and Power Preparatory Academy (KAPPA International High School)—that participated in the NYC Academic and Personal Behaviors Institute. The case studies share the commonalities and unique steps that each school took to develop and spread practices that fostered academic and personal behaviors.

While each school faced a unique set of circumstances, four key findings emerged as common practices to all schools in this study:

1. Commitment of leadership proved key to aligning academic and personal behaviors work with existing school goals.
2. Research-based supports helped teachers develop expertise and confidence to apply concepts to their own classrooms.
3. Adults developed learning mindsets that helped them feel safe to test out new practices and model the kind of struggle and acceptance of challenge essential for developing a growth mindset.
4. Collaborative structures encouraged teachers to work as thought partners and organically spread ideas.

Institute: Academic and Personal Behaviors Institute
Partner: New York City Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Readiness in partnership with Eskolta