Giving Compass' Take:

• Hechinger Report contributor Andre Perry believes that more connected school communities will be paramount to reducing violence in schools because it will create a sense of emotional security. 

• How effective is the concept of 'school connectedness' in action? 

• Read about why school safety depends on emotional health and take a deeper dive into Andre Perry's beliefs on school connectedness. 

Responding to a steady stream of school shootings this year, the Trump administration has pushed to “harden” schools with extra security and armed teachers, but Hechinger Report contributor and Brookings Institution fellow Andre Perry writes that "school connectedness" is a more effective way to combat school violence.

“School connectedness,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is achieved when students believe adults and their peers care not only about their learning, but about their well-being as individuals, providing a sense of emotional security and a connection to a school community.

“Emotionally healthy, well-adjusted youth don’t tear through their classrooms armed with weaponry,” Perry writes before detailing the CDC's four main pillars for school connectedness: adult support, positive peer groups, a welcoming school environment, and student commitment to education.

What Perry describes as “school connectedness” could also easily be categorized as social-emotional learning (SEL), a growing trend in the K-12 arena.

For schools looking to implement or improve “school connectedness,” the CDC offers some tips. It suggests that schools:

  • Create decision-making processes that facilitate engagement, academic achievement, and staff empowerment by creating more opportunities for bottom-up decision making. 
  • Provide opportunities for families to be involved in a student’s academic life.
  • Provide students with the academic, emotional and social skills to be engaged in the school community.
  • Use effective classroom management and teaching methods to foster a positive learning environment.
  • Provide professional development and support for teachers and other school staff, enabling them to meet the diverse cognitive, emotional and social needs of children and adolescents. 
  • Create trusting and caring relationships that promote open communication among administrators, teachers, staff, students, families, and communities. 

Read the full article about connected school communities by Allie Gross at Education Dive