Same Science, Companion Playbooks
Priscilla Little, Senior Consultant
This blog is the first in a series aimed at introducing community-based practitioners and K-12 educators to some of the key concepts described in Design Principles for Community-based Settings: Putting the Science of Learning and Development into Action. It tackles the question: Why did we create a companion playbook for schools for community-based settings?
This question has a simple answer:
Community-based learning settings are fundamentally different than schools in ways that make the opportunities and challenges associated with implementing the design principles very different.
The Playbook is intended to be used by community practitioners who want to bring more intentionality and rigor to their practice and by the many leaders across community settings who want work together to support community-wide adoption of science-informed practices that support learning, development, and thriving. Language and frames are important. Examples are important. Having a Playbook that parallels the one created for school leaders should accelerate the bridge-building between school and community program leaders who, while sharing the same goals for youth, operate within very different systems.
Schools are very complex settings. When most of us think of schools, we think about classrooms. But we seldom stop there. We imagine a building full of “micro-settings” (classrooms, labs, cafeterias, libraries, outdoor spaces, music rooms, ball fields, gyms, hallways filled with bulletin boards and lockers). The size and quality of these settings changes, but our expectations for each are generally consistent and are reinforced in school policies and budgets.
Communities are very complex settings. When most of us think about communities, we rarely think about classrooms first. We imagine an array of formal and informal places and spaces managed by different organizations and systems — libraries, parks and recreation departments, community-based nonprofits, civic and faith-based organizations, and affiliates of national organizations like Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Communities in Schools, or National Urban League that support learning during and after-the school day, in and outside of school buildings, and throughout the summer.
The Design Principles for Schools: Putting the Science of Learning and Development into Action was written with a deep understanding of the traditional understanding of school, with the explicit purpose of re-envisioning how these settings and the education system itself should be designed. The playbook lifts up practices and design structures using real-life examples of how schools are transforming away from these traditional starting points by working in ways that are scalable throughout fairly uniform systems.
Community-based settings, however, have always been anything but uniform. They are exceedingly diverse, in part, because they are highly flexible. This flexibility stems from a combination of factors:
- participation is voluntary (young people and families “vote with their feet”);
- content is not mandated (academic instruction may be a part of the programming, but is not required);
- accountability standards are not, for the most part, linked to dedicated public funding. While this flexibility comes with challenges related to capacity and sustainability, it also encourages innovation, adaptation and authenticity.
As we worked with advisors to create the Design Principles for Community-based Settings playbook, we quickly recognized the need to articulate both how the design principles illuminate the goals and strategies already adopted by so many community-based learning settings, and why community learning settings would benefit from a playbook that is different than the one for schools. Creating a separate Community-based Settings playbook underscores the role that all adults across all settings play in supporting whole child development.
A few notes for those in community-based settings diving in to the playbook:
Taken together, the design principles are integrated non-negotiables for every setting and every organization that claims to support learning and development.
If settings (or the organizations that support them) are “in the red” on any element (implementing practices and policies that actively go against the principle), not only is learning threatened, but it is possible they are doing harm. No organization or setting should be in the red, but few, if any can honestly argue that all five principles are their top priorities.
Taken separately, the design principles often reflect the primary purpose or top priorities of each system or organization.
Mentoring programs lead with relationships. STEM and arts programs lead with activity-rich experiences. Character organizations lead with building skillsets, mindsets and habits. Multi-service organizations lead with access to integrated supports and services. This variation of emphasis also applies to specific settings and adults within organizations (e.g., the counselor may be more focused on supports and services, the coach on building skillsets, mindsets and habits). A playbook for community-based settings helps those working in any community-based setting find their natural entry point into the “blue wheel.”
The diversity across community-based settings and organizations of what guiding principle they lead with makes it difficult to offer general recommendations for design structures.
One setting or organization’s weakness could well be another organization’s strength. Instead of pointing to specific structures that enable the implementation of science-informed practices, the Community-based Settings playbook points to the features of settings that help community-based practitioners find their “hook” into the non-negotiables.
Design Principles for Community-Based Settings and the Design Principles for Schools playbooks are available for download now. Stay tuned for more from the Readiness Projects as we delve deeper into applying these principles.
