MindShift

From a child's perspective, school, extracurricular activities and home are part of the continuous experience of life. From the perspective of teachers, coaches and parents, those experiences may seem more differentiated and are thus treated separately. However, if the adults in a child’s life approach his or her growth as a collaboration following a clear developmental path, every child will have a better chance at a life filled with choices and the skills to achieve goals, according to a report.

“The idea is that if everybody starts to have a common understanding about what they’re trying to do and what an effective approach would be, and they understand that it’s a shared responsibility to help kids develop and learn over time, then hopefully it will lead to more discussion,” said Jenny Nagaoka, lead author of the Foundations for Young Adult Success: A Developmental Framework and deputy director of the University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research...