Today, the Education Redesign Lab at Harvard Graduate School of Education released a new report identifying personalized Success Plans as a promising strategy to support children both in and outside of school, along with a toolkit to guide communities to develop and implement what it refers to as Success Plans.
The one-size-fits-all approach, which has guided our current school system since its early 20th century origins, simply does not address the complex and varied needs of today’s children, particularly those living in poverty,” said Paul Reville, founding director of the Education Redesign Lab. “We believe Success Plans have the potential to transform a factory system of schooling into a targeted, customized system that has the capacity to realize our urgent goal of preparing all of our children for success.”
The report, Success Plans: Promising Tools for Customizing Student Supports and Opportunities explores the potential of personalized, “success planning” systems through an analysis of 13 organizations and agencies implementing different types of plans.
The report and toolkit offer recommendations and a roadmap to communities interested in developing Success Plans, which bring together schools, government agencies and community-based providers to identify students’ strengths, interests and needs, and then matches children and youth with customized and comprehensive supports and opportunities. There is growing evidence of the positive impact of customizing student supports.
The City of Salem has been working closely with the Education Redesign Lab since 2016 as part of the By All Means initiative, a four-year effort to improve child outcomes. As a part of this initiative Mayor Driscoll and the Salem Children’s Cabinet have launched a city-wide campaign entitled, Our Salem, Our Kids. A part of the Our Salem, Our Kids campaign has included a partnership with Boston-based City Connects, which has a 20-year track record of developing and implementing individualized plans to meet the diverse needs of students.
Every pre-K-8 child in Salem now has a personalized plan. The plans connect families, school staff and the community together to assess student needs, leverage services and opportunities, build connections, and improve student outcomes. Examples of new services include health care, after-school programming and behavioral health counseling.
“We have launched this citywide campaign to address the myriad needs of our children,” Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll shared. “We want to ensure that every child in Salem has the supports and opportunities she or he needs to succeed in academics and in life.”
Download the full report and toolkit here.
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