Designing schools for adolescent development

The Center for Whole-Child Education, based at Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning Innovation, will co-lead a project with USC’s Center for Affective Neuroscience, Development, Learning, and Education centered on transforming adolescent education in California schools. The initiative aims to bring cutting-edge developmental science into classrooms, school systems and policy environments.

“Our work is rooted in the observation that young people learn best when learning environments respect and address their whole development,” said Tami Hill-Washington, executive director of CWCE. “This collaboration aligns the best developmental science with the practice-based insight of educators, giving California a powerful model for lasting systems change in secondary education that can help adolescent learners thrive emotionally, cognitively and socially.”

The Center for Whole-Child Education and USC CANDLE will engage researchers, educators and policymakers to identify and share the active ingredients that make adolescent-focused initiatives effective. The goal: help California’s educators and leaders better understand, align and sustain investments in initiatives like the California’s Golden State Pathways Program and the Community Schools Partnership Program by rooting them in developmental science.

Over the coming year, the Center for Whole-Child Education will support the initiative by hosting convenings, producing actionable reports and educator-facing resources, and collaborating on research centered on adolescent learning. Funding for the initiative was provided in part by the Stuart Foundation.

“This initiative reflects our belief that adolescence is a crucial stage and presents a powerful opportunity to support intellectual growth, emotional connection and deep learning,” said Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, founder and director of USC CANDLE. “Through this partnership with the Center for Whole-Child Education, we’re scaling what science tells us is critical — while learning directly from the educators doing this work every day, especially in the most relational and agile learning environments.”

CWCE is involved in the first track of the wider project, which also involves USC’s Brain and Creativity Institute. A second track expands USC CANDLE’s signature COLAB program — a year-long, research-practice innovation lab — into alternative high school settings. Watch a video statement by Hill-Washington: 

About the Center for Whole-Child Education
About USC CANDLE
About the Stuart Foundation