As a critical part of the evolution of community schools, today’s community schools are taking to heart an essential lesson learned—a good student support system cannot compensate for a weak core instructional program that is not responsive to individual student development and learning needs (including social, emotional, and cognitive). To strengthen their core instructional programs and achieve school transformation, today’s community schools are guided by the emerging consensus on the ‘science of learning and development’ (SoLD) which synthesizes a wide range of educational research findings 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 into a developmental systems framework. These key conditions for learning provide the foundation for the four pillars described above. The SoLD framework posits that the following are necessary for student learning and development:

• Supportive environmental conditions that foster strong relationships and community
• Productive instructional strategies that support motivation, competence, and self-directed learning
• Social and emotional learning (SEL) that fosters skills, habits, and mindsets that enable academic progress, efficacy, and productive behavior
• System of supports that enable healthy development, respond to student needs, and address learning barriers

For more information regarding Key Conditions of Learning, please view the CCSPP Framework.