The School LIFE approach is comprehensive, evidence-based, and sustainable.
School-wide growth and improvement involves all members of a school, where individuals with different roles, expertise and knowledge all work toward a common goal. As part of the School L.I.F.E. approach, school leaders, teachers (in-service and pre-service), and families/caregivers receive systematic synchronized, and content-aligned professional development on improving the schooling experience of MLEs through workshops, tools, podcasts and coaching.
The School L.I.F.E. approach draws on successful models of professional development implementation and provides training on practices grounded in research findings endorsed by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). In particular, the professional development model used has educators work on a set of ideas, practices, and behaviors over extended time, and receive feedback and coaching on those practices in their school context. All groups receive training on evidence-based strategies that can be implemented across different curricula, grade levels, content areas, and which align with teacher education and preparation standards for high-utility practices for classroom instruction.
- works with school leaders to design plans, procedures and processes to support MLEs in the long term;
- establishes a dual-pathway model where pre-service and in-service teachers are paired and receive content-aligned professional development, building long-term mentoring relationships, a pipeline for pre-service teachers to matriculate and land jobs, prepared to work with MLEs, and a pathway for in-service teachers to serve as future teacher-leaders in their school communities; and
- builds virtual and in-person spaces for families to collaborate on supporting biliteracy in their householdand beyond, forging linguistic communities across local schools.