In recent years, new roles have begun to crop up in schools: advocates who support the social side of students’ lives. These emerging roles vary. But by and large they aim to overcome the enduring structural barriers that separate social supports and academics in our traditional system. These new roles involve coordinating additional student services inside of school and connecting students to more opportunities beyond schools.

Why are school systems investing beyond the classroom? Put simply, by integrating more factors that influence students’ lives into their designs, schools stand to boost performance. This phenomenon is actually well studied beyond education. Across industries, when firms are trying to improve dramatically, they often wrap their arms around the various and sundry components that stand to impact performance.

Through the lens of Modularity Theory, our decades-long struggle to close race- and income-based achievement gaps suggests that schools may be grappling with the consequences of a system that has prematurely modularized. The different components that make up a student’s life chances and academic success—like healthcare, family support services, academics, and diverse networks into the knowledge economy—currently fit into stubborn silos. The social aspects of students’ lives are rarely accounted for in how we fund and organize schools. And strict interfaces separate what happens inside of school from what happens beyond it. As a result, schools often find themselves trying to help students thrive with one hand tied behind their back.

Short of radically restructuring youth-facing funding streams or the school system writ large, how might schools innovate in ways that overcome this modular system? One answer: hire someone who can traverse the boundaries that such siloed systems leave in their wake.

The social aspects of students’ lives are rarely accounted for in how we fund and organize schools. And strict interfaces separate what happens inside of school from what happens beyond it. As a result, schools often find themselves trying to help students thrive with one hand tied behind their back.

Read the full article about why schools need opportunity wranglers by Julia Freeland Fisher at the Christensen Institute.