Recent Publications

This chapter synthesizes recent advances in the science of learning and development and their implications for youth development practice in community-based settings. Drawing on findings from neuroscience, epigenetics, and developmental psychology, it outlines key principles that inform effective youth work.

This chapter explores the value of leveraging four "moving trains"—broad efforts that are gaining momentum, led primarily by education reformers and transformers, that validate the broad tenets of positive youth development that undergird out-of-school time (OST). It discusses about linking academic competence to broader definitions of how, where, when, with whom, and why learning happens, and linking learning and development advances more specifically to equitable ecosystem goals. The

The conception of human learning and development unfolding within complex dynamic systems is particularly consequential for seeking to understand the diversity and cultural variation within and across human communities. Diversity in pathways of learning and development are normative in human life as are our interdependence across communities and interdependence with the natural world in all its complexities.

The paper discusses the use of chronic absence data to enhance learning conditions in schools, emphasizing the importance of addressing school-related factors that contribute to student disengagement

The school-to-prison pipeline, driven by institutionalized racism and privilege, is perpetuated through racialized classroom interactions and persistent discipline disparities. Eliminating this pipeline requires transformative, systemic approaches that foster equity-oriented learning conditions and culturally affirming practices to support every student.

Provides a comprehensive tool for school districts to implement effective approaches to enhance student well-being and learning. The tool provides transition phase guidelines, a change readiness checklist, and action Lenses.

Suggests how understanding of socio-cultural and dynamic processes to improve the impact of CBAM and how this can be done in a practitioner-friendly manner

Discusses the importance of creating equitable, safe, and supportive school environments through trauma-informed and culturally sensitive practices, emphasizing social-emotional learning and actionable steps for implementation.

Spanish translation of Creating Safe, Engaging, Equitable Schools with new forward, preface, and translators essay

Report of the systematic transdisciplinary review of research on human development, emphasizing the interplay of biological, contextual, historical, and cultural factors in shaping learning and resilience, with the aim of informing educational practices and policies.

Synthesizes foundational knowledge from multiple scientific disciplines regarding how humans develop in context. Epigenetics, neural malleability and plasticity, integrated complex skill development and learning, human variability, relationships and attachment, self-regulation, science of learning, and dynamics of stress, adversity and resilience are integrated into a developmental system framework

Synthesizes evidence from the learning sciences and several branches of educational research regarding well-vetted strategies that support the kinds of relationships and learning opportunities needed to promote children’s well-being, healthy development, and transferable learning.

synthesizes research on how relationships and contextual factors influence the healthy development of children and youth through a relational developmental systems framework.

This Planning Tool is to guide how you explore what is necessary to realize equitable, whole-child design by creating environments that fully support young people in achieving their full potential.

Thriving and equity are dynamically interdependent, cumulative, and culturally influenced. Our capacity to address one depends on our capacity to address the other. Interventions and decisions, however, often focus on one outcome, apply to one system, are timed for quick impact, and ignore cumulative effects. This is because conceptualizations, especially in the global North and in much of the global South, treat thriving and equity in a delimited, segmented, disciplinary-specific, ahistorical, culturally evasive, linear, individualist, and reductionist manner.

This paper synthesizes scholarship across multiple disciplines and review work from indigenous scholars and community-responsive researchers and practitioners. We present expansive definitions of thriving and equity separately and in their context-dependent and dynamically interdependent wholeness. We introduce robustness into our conceptualizations of both. We further address the collective, interpersonal, and intrapersonal processes and structures that contribute to or undermine thriving and equity, contrasting expansive and narrower definitions. We summarize key points that underlie both terms and use these definitions to examine the factors and conditions that promote or constrain thriving and equity.

The report co-authored with Karen Pittman, Jill Young, Hal Smith, Deborah Moroney, and Merita Irby, explores the interconnected concepts of thriving, equity, and learning and development to enhance youth success emphasizing the need for integrated approaches that address social factors influencing learning, thriving, and equity.

A Collaborative Handbook on School Safety, Mental Health, and Wellness [2 volumes]

A Comprehensive, Evidence-Based Approach to Supporting Students

Enhancing the Lives of All Young People