Assets and Academics: Helping Kids Thrive at School

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Assets and Academics Helping Kids Thrive at
School

• Presentation to the PTA
• Taylor Elementary School
• October 1, 2002

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The Partnership

• A group of citizens and senior staff
• Appointed by school and County Boards
• Charged with recommending changes to make
  Arlington a more family-friendly community
• Two key questions
• How do we know we are working on what really
  matters to children, youth and families?
• How will we know we are making progress?

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Assets Framework

• 40 developmental building blocks that all kids
  need to succeed
• External Opportunities, support, boundaries, and
  expectations provided by adults and youth
• Internal Personal qualities, skills, and values
  nurtured by adults and other youth
• Measured through a survey, beginning in grade 6

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List of first 20Assets

• Family Support - family life provides high levels
  of love and support
• Positive family communication - young person and
  her or his parent(s) communicate positively, and
  young person is willing to seek advise and
  counsel from parent(s).
• Other adult relationships - Young person receives
  support from three or more non-parent adults.
• Caring neighborhoods - young person experiences
  caring neighbors.
• Caring school climate - School provides a caring,
  encouraging environment.
• Parent involvement in schooling - Parent(s) is
  actively involved in helping young person succeed
  in school.
• Community values youth - young person perceives
  that adults in the community value youth.
• Youth as resources - young people are given
  useful roles in the community.
• Service to others - young person serves in the
  community one hour or more per week.
• Safety - young person feels safe at home, school,
  and in the neighborhood.
• Family boundaries - family has clear rules and
  consequences and monitors the young person's
  whereabouts.
• School boundaries - schools provide clear rules
  and consequences.
• Neighborhood boundaries - neighbors take
  responsibility for monitoring young people's
  whereabouts.
• Adult role models - parent(s) and teachers
  encourage the young person to do well.
• Positive peer influence - young person's best
  friends model responsible behavior.
• High expectations - both parent(s) and teachers
  encourage the young person to do well.
• Creative activities - young person spends three
  or more hours per week in sports, clubs, or
  organizations at school and / or in the
  community.
• Youth programs - young person spends three or
  more hours per week in sports, clubs, or
  organizations at school and/or in the community.
• Religious community - young person spends one or
  more hours per week in activities in a religious
  institution.

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List of second 20Assets

• Achievement motivation - young person is
  motivated to do well in school.
• School engagement - young person is actively
  engaged in learning.
• Homework - young person reports doing at least
  one hour of homework every school day.
• Bonding to school - young persons cares about her
  or his school.
• Reading for pleasure - young person reads for
  pleasure three or more hours per week.
• Caring - young person places high value on
  helping other people.
• Equality and social justice - young person places
  high value on promoting equality and reducing
  hunger and poverty.
• Honesty - young person acts on convictions and
  stands up for her or his beliefs.
• Honesty - young person "tells the truth even when
  its not easy."
• Responsibility - young person accepts and takes
  personally responsibility.
• Restraint - young person believes it is important
  not to be sexually active or to use alcohol or
  other drugs.
• Planning and decision making - young person knows
  how to plan ahead and make choices.
• Interpersonal competence - young person has
  empathy, sensitivity, and friendship skills.
• Cultural competence - young person has knowledge
  of and comfort with people of different
  cultural/racial/ ethnic backgrounds.
• Resistance skills - young person can resist
  negative peer pressure and dangerous situations.
• Peaceful conflict resolutions - young person
  seeks to resolve conflict nonviolently.
• Personal power - young person seeks to resolve
  conflict nonviolently.
• Self-esteem - young person reports having a high
  self-esteem.
• Sense of purpose - young person reports that "my
  life has a purpose."

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Assets ProtectMore assets, less risky behavior
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Assets PromoteMore assets, more thriving
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Assets Enhance Educational Outcomes
Building assets complements efforts to raise
achievement through changes in instructional
practices or curriculum.
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Do Arlington youth have enough assets?

• Only 8 percent of Arlington youth meet Search
  Institute goal of over 30 assets
• Most young people report less than half of the
  assets

Good (30 Assets)
Marginal (21 to 30 Assets)
Struggling (Less than Half)
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How do asset levels change by grade?
External assets generally decline with grade.
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External Assets Most Closely Linked to Academics
All students, grades 6, 8, 10 and 12
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Internal Assets Most Closely Linked to Academics
All students, grades 6, 8, 10, and 12
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Parenting with a PurposeGetting Started at Home

• Shift your thinking, especially about teenagers
• Think about assets your child has - then ask for
  their opinion
• Model positive behavior (including taking care of
  yourself)
• Stay involved but change the how
• Get to know and support the adults in your
  childs life - neighbors, coaches, teachers

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Asset Building at Taylor
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Links between Asset Building and Character
Education

• Clear connections between pillars and assets
• Caring, responsibility, honesty/trustworthiness
• Fairness / interpersonal competence
• Citizenship /service to others
• Values promoted by character education profoundly
  affect other assets
• School climate
• Positive peer influence

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Lessons from Assets Framework

• Must provide external support while young people
  develop internal qualities
• Connect school policies to values
• Be good role models
• Repetition and redundancy is key
• Kids check to see if adults agree (as do adults!)
• Need to reinforce at home, at school, in the
  neighborhood

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How to learn more about Assets

• Handouts from the Partnership
• Reference materials at Central Library
• Search Institute Web site and publications
• The World According to Our Kids report
• Contact us

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How to contact us

• Mary Ann Moran
• Assets Coordinator
• [phone]
• mmoran_at_co.arlington.va.us
• Amy Graham
• Data Coordinator
• [phone]
• agraha_at_co.arlington.va.us