“The primary goal of k-12 education should be to empower individual students to reach their full potential.”-  Darling-Hammond & Cook-Harvey

One shift in the Continuous Improvement Cycle focuses on the whole child and the integrated approach to improvement. A report released by the Learning Policy Institute noted that whole child approaches to education had demonstrated positive trends in education (Darling-Hammond & Cook-Harvey, 2018). The whole child approach is defined as “...one that recognizes the interrelationships among all areas of development and designs school policies and practices to support them” (Darling-Hammond & Cook-Harvey, 2018, p. 1). In partnership with ASCD and CDC, a leading national model has been developed - Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child. The WSCC model provides a framework that focuses on the child, emphasizing community, health, and academic achievement (CDC Healthy Schools, 2021). To learn more about the whole child approach and strategies for implementation, check out the resources on this page.