REQUEST FOR NOMINATIONS: Student and Community Well-being and Equity
UPDATE: The nomination period is now closed. Please stay tuned for updates on the selected schools.
WestEd requests nominations of schools that you believe are doing exceptional work to sustain the well-being of their school communities.
District and school leaders are eager for specific, actionable, and inspiring examples of how to center equity and well-being for their students, teachers, and other members of their communities, in sustainable ways. To that end, WestEd is launching a project to create a set of short videos that showcase a range of effective, evidence-based practices that schools nationwide have used (both virtually and in-person) to promote and sustain the social and emotional well-being of their school communities.
This project seeks to discover and amplify promising practices at the school building level, which other schools and districts may then adapt and implement in their own communities. The videos will be supported by online professional learning opportunities, a discussion guide, and other companion materials.
The WestEd team will follow up with nominated school leaders to gather their initial responses to key questions about their work, such as:
- Amidst the turbulence of this year, what are you learning about promoting social and emotional well-being for your teachers, students, and community? What values, ideas, or strategies have proved critical?
- More specifically, what successful practice (or practices) have you have put in place to promote the social and emotional well-being for your teachers, students, and community this year?
- What specific competencies, mindsets, or skills is this practice intending to promote?
- How does this practice engage students, families, and other stakeholders as co-designers and co-leaders?
- How does this practice promote equitable outcomes for students? How does it serve prioritized student populations?
The WestEd team will then record a video interview with selected school leaders so that they can share their practices nationally.
Selected schools will also be granted a $500 staff appreciation award. School administration teams and their staff have been working tirelessly over this last year to serve the needs of their students and families, and so the hope is that they will use this award for lunches, gift certificates, or other meaningful tokens of appreciation for their teams.
