Serving the Whole Person: Guidance for Alignment and Coherence for State and Local Education Agencies

What You Will Learn

WestEd provides consultative facilitation and support for states and school districts to improve the effectiveness of existing initiatives and enhance collaboration. Our desired outcome: serving the whole person by maximizing equitable learning and healthy development.

Using WestEd’s comprehensive, adaptable, research-informed, and field-tested Alignment and Coherence Guides—the basis of this service—our technical assistance team guides you through a structured yet flexible process to improve the alignment and coherence of whole-person efforts.

Who Will Benefit

• State education leaders
• State assistant or deputy superintendents
• District administrators
• District directors of student services
• District school improvement leaders

Service Details

With the facilitation, coaching, and consulting from our multidisciplinary and highly skilled staff, each of the three guides provides a step-by-step process to:

• Understand and develop shared definitions of three core concepts: whole-person learning and development, alignment and coherence, and equity.
• Connect your whole-person initiatives to a broader, strategic vision for whole-person outcomes.
• Tailor your whole-person efforts at the SEA level using six domains of alignment and coherence.
• Tailor your implementation of initiatives at the LEA level so your efforts are working together to achieve desired goals.
• Identify and showcase exemplars in SEL, school climate, and other related work at the local level.
• Enhance the effectiveness of your initiatives by reducing duplicated effort and increasing collaboration.
• Build capacity in your state or district to sustain coherence and alignment for whole-person initiatives in the future.
• Communicate—in a clear and compelling way—why and how your district or school serves the whole person.

Drawing on our national expertise in evidence-based practices and deep relationships in the field, we offer customized solutions based on the unique strengths and the needs of the communities you serve.

What Makes This Service Unique

Developed with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, WestEd’s trio of guides provide a roadmap for improving the results of your whole-person initiatives in order to promote systems that are more equitable and responsive. Three guides incorporate external reviews from national experts in alignment and coherence, as well as the experiences and feedback from local and state agencies we serve through the national Center to Improve Social and Emotional Learning and School Safety at WestEd.

Explore the guides:

• Serving the Whole Person: An Alignment and Coherence Guide for State Education Agencies: SEA leaders achieve greater alignment and coherence in their whole-person initiatives through an adaptable and guided process. Learn more.
  • Breaking Down Barriers, Building Relationships: Delaware’s Collaborative Approach to Inventorying Whole-Child Efforts: This case story describes Delaware Department of Education (DOE)’s collaborative approach to inventorying whole-child efforts, using and adapting the SEA Alignment and Coherence Guide to comprehensively review their statewide initiatives. Learn more.
  • Serving the Whole Person: Safety Through Collaboration: Ohio’s Comprehensive Approach to Student Well-Being: This brief details how the Ohio Departments of Public Safety (DPS), Education (DOE), and Mental Health and Addiction Services (MHAS) developed an efficient, effective, and comprehensive approach for improving school safety and synthesizing their data about whole-person initiatives. Learn More.
• Serving the Whole Person: An Alignment and Coherence Guide for Local Education Agencies: LEA leaders connect their whole-person initiatives to a broader vision for equitable whole-person outcomes, adapt the implementation of these initiatives to achieve greater equity, and develop a strategic communications strategy to engage with key stakeholders around this work. Learn more.
• Spotlighting Whole-Person Success: A Guide for Using Statewide Data to Identify Exemplar Districts in SEL and School Climate: State and regional education leaders identify local exemplars in SEL and school climate, using a mixed methods analysis. Learn more.
  • Preparing Students for Life Beyond the Classroom: Spotlighting Success in North Dakota: This case story examines the benefits of social emotional learning (SEL) in two rural school districts. Learn more.
• Aligned and Coherent Communications to Serve the Whole Person: A Workbook for State Education Agencies: This resource is designed to be used by SEA leaders as a companion to the above SEA guide in order to aid in the implementation of their strategic communications efforts. Learn more.

Cost

Price varies based on the needs of each client and the services selected.

Learn More

For specific questions about the Alignment and Coherence Guides or Resilient and Healthy Schools and Communities at WestEd, please contact Natalie Walrond at [email protected].