Unprecedented attacks on the federal funding streams and policy guidelines that define the public commitment to education and youth development have compounded the funding and staffing shortages that are constraining all our public systems and community organizations.
Every public system is adjusting. But our education system is hemorrhaging. A bold new architecture is needed. It is impossible, at this point, to build back better. We have to build forward together.
How do we see the full picture while also focusing on the pieces, especially in rapidly changing times?
Start with a grounding in the evidence of what makes a difference for young people.
For more than two decades, we’ve been building upon a framework developed by Youth Development Strategies Inc. (YDSI) through their landmark study — “Finding Out What Matters for Youth” — an analysis of multiple longitudinal studies of young people from high school entry into their mid-twenties. It provided a yet-to-be-replicated glimpse of the impact of simple developmental opportunities — strong relationships, challenging learning experiences, opportunities to make a difference — can have on youth readiness and young adult success.
YDSI rolled up massive amounts of data into a three-part definition that reflects our basic expectations for young adults — to be productive, healthy and connected. They found that less than half of young adults were doing well — a combination of being employed or enrolled, managing health risks and connected to family and community. Almost one-quarter were seriously struggling, disconnected from work and community or involved in criminal behavior.
[Related: Uniting in defense of the ecosystem]
The team went on to determine how much the odds could change if young people were supported throughout their high school years. The results were astounding: 50 percent increase in youth doing well (from 42 percent to 58 percent). Almost 50 percent reduction in youth struggling (22 percent to 12 percent). Equally important, they determined that every asset matters: positive relationships, challenging learning experiences, opportunities for meaningful contribution each have strong, independent impacts on youth readiness.
They then put all of this evidence together to create a community action framework. Building backward from the goal of increasing youth thriving and defining in plain, systems-neutral language the key ingredients of what is needed to improve youth readiness.
At a time when being on defense is not an option, we find it useful to be reminded of the long game. Here are five ways referencing this framework can help us think and talk differently — being more inclusive and more specific — about what all of us can do to help youth thrive.
Don’t get hung up on terminology. We can quibble about the nuanced differences between youth thriving, youth flourishing, youth success and youth well-being. The smarter path is to use level-down language that covers the bases. YDSI’s outcomes trio (productive, healthy, connected) is a good start that allows for further specification (for example, academic and vocational productivity, mental, behavioral and physical health, personal, family and civic connections). Use their data that shows that doing well in any of these areas contributes equally to youth readiness and young adult success. (We walk through the data in more detail in “Too Essential to Fail.”)
Always, always talk about learning. Learning is not the same as schooling. Learning happens naturally. Learning can be facilitated through the design of learning experiences that prioritize context as well as content. Learning to be productive, to connect with confidence and to navigate unexpected situations are critical assets for adulthood. Schools are working valiantly to put humanity back into teaching and learning. Those of us who never had to equate learning with academic progress need to reclaim the word and join with schools to embrace learning as a natural gift to nurture, building learning experiences that matter.
Don’t just talk about community, talk about the workforce. Name the people, places, possibilities and purposes embedded in the systems included in the learning ecosystem. Name and claim the formal roles adults play outside of teaching, the places learning happens outside of classrooms and the possibilities for learning different things in different ways. Demonstrate the presence of these roles and settings within the different learning systems. For example, the presence of mentors, sports coaches, health professionals, teaching artists, counselors and family advocates within schools and community-based organizations.
[Related: Can you legislate a collaborative, youth-centered vision of education? Iceland did.]
Actively advocate for a new education architecture that fully encompasses the systems that support anywhere, anytime, never-too-late learning. We can’t emphasize this point enough. We need to define the parameters of this new architecture to be broader than public education’s current boundaries by using the same language to talk about publicly supported learning opportunities in and beyond the school building, the traditional school day, the school year and school age (about age 18). We need to be specific about why the contributions and complementary approaches from the other systems in the learning ecosystem are too important to ignore.
Use the focus on building real skills for real life as the common floor to build on. Competencies are key assets young people need to succeed, but not the only ones. However, a focus on helping young people build real skills for and through real world experiences naturally creates space for young people to build a strong identity and sense of agency. Using movements like the Portrait of a Graduate (or its parallel, the Portrait of a Thriving Youth) as the way to push for rethinking learning content goes hand in hand with rethinking the learning experience. Make the connections explicit.
As we lean into a full-court press to protect the foundational systems that support youth thriving, being generous with our language may help us be bold and give us permission to do small but mighty things that can align us for future success.
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In her columns, Karen Pittman is exploring the research behind the statement, “When Youth Thrive, We All Thrive.”
