Challenge Success: The Benefits of Developing the Whole Child

By Rachael Lachhwani, Communications Manager

The Alexander Dawson School is proud to be Nevada’s first Challenge Success school. In alignment with the Challenge Success philosophy, we provide students and families with information and strategies to create a more balanced and academically fulfilling life for kids. We partner with parents to help children strengthen their sense of self, increase their motivation and criticalthinking skills, and learn how to effectively deal with life’s inevitable challenges.

Dawson had the distinct privilege of welcoming Dr. Denise Pope, co-founder of Challenge Success and senior lecturer at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education, to campus in November to meet with parents, faculty, and students. Dr. Pope explored how the guiding principles of Challenge Success promote “developing the whole child”, an approach that includes creating environments of belonging and connection so students thrive. This foundation supports and nurtures all areas of a child’s overall development and learning and is necessary for children to grow into well-rounded, healthy individuals.

As a parent, how do you define success? What are the life outcomes you value the most for your children? According to Challenge Success, the students of today are under more pressure than ever to be successful, and with that expectation comes immense stress that can lead to sleep deprivation, feeling overloaded by homework and extracurricular activities, mental health issues, lack of a sense of belonging and authentic social connections, and feeling the need to cheat to keep up academically. Denise shared that from preschool-aged children to high schoolers, this all leads to widespread disengagement, decreased resilience, and students not being prepared with the 21st-century skills necessary to participate and thrive in an ever-changing world. These important skills include critical thinking, communication, creativity, problem-solving, perseverance, collaboration, information, technology, and digital literacy. Instead, we find ourselves surrounded by “robo-students”, or kids who spend the day merely going through the motions, devoid of any real sense of engagement, well-being, or belonging.

S - Students’ schedule and use of time: Applying a school schedule during the day that allows for creativity and collaboration, and a homework load that supports a healthy school-life balance. Dawson faculty also utilize a special project and test calendar so each has knowledge of what’s happening in other classes so as to not overschedule kids. This places important value on their well-being and supports student engagement .

P - Project and Problem-Based Learning: Allowing students to have voice and choice in their work when they solve problems in our community and beyond. This dispels the misconception that deep, challenging, and rigorous learning is connected to workload. In fact, it’s more purposeful and engaging for students to learn the mastery of skills through profound reflection, feedback, and revisions rather than hours and hours of homework.

A - Authentic and Alternative Assessments: Dawson has constructed rubrics that show it’s okay to make mistakes and to use these learning experiences to develop a Level-Up mindset versus solely focusing on letter grades. Revision and redemption policies in classes allow students to gain the feedback they need to appropriately learn and grow.

C - Climate of Care: The most successful academic environment is achieved when there are trusting, caring connections between adults and students. Our socialemotional learning foundation is built into students’ daily schedules and supplies them with the positive coping strategies necessary to deal with stress and challenging situations. This includes Dawson’s relational discipline policy and our Middle School advisory program, which further supports students’ resilience, critical-thinking skills, and global awareness.

Denise shared that one way Dawson commits to developing the whole child is through the application of the Challenge Success SPACE Framework, a blueprint for creating an equitable learning environment in which all students are given the support they need to be happy, healthy, safe, supported, and challenged affectively, behaviorally, and cognitively:

E - Education for the Whole Community: The significance of a school-home partnership, or the open and honest dialogue between parents and teachers, ensures that we are working collaboratively to support all students. Dawson offers opportunities for faculty and parents to attend workshops and provides resources through blogs, podcasts, parenting sessions, and more that deliver insight with motivational and encouraging ideas to help families best support the individual needs of their children.

Most importantly, Denise asked families to participate in a session of personal reflection: Ask yourself (honestly) how many hours your child is in school versus how many hours of homework they have versus how many hours of extracurricular activities they participate in versus time spent on chores versus time spent online versus…. You get the point. The most important thing you can do for your child is PDF: give them the gift of playtime, downtime, and family time:

• Although well-meaning, stop asking how the test went that day. Instead, ask discovery questions such as, How was your day? Did you make a friend? In what way did you stand up for someone today?

• Hit the pause button and allow for some unstructured enjoyment. Let your kids be kids. Let them unwind, relax, be creative, and simply play.

• Encourage them to get to sleep on time without devices or other distractions. Kids need anywhere from nine to 13 hours each night depending upon age, and sleep deprivation can lead to depression and anxiety, issues with short and long-term memory, bullying, and sports injuries.

• Spend time together as a family to make connections, such as having a meal or playing a board game. Family time communicates to kids, “You belong here. We love you, no matter what.” Kids need to feel that they belong. It’s not enough to just say it to them.

Focus on what really matters: health, safety, and relationships. Calm fears and anxieties (including your own) by discussing and modeling that there is no straight-and-narrow path to success; there are many roads to the mountaintop. And this is all perfectly okay.

Challenge Success-Stanford Survey of Adolescent School Experiences

Dawson continues to look for ways to respond to the unprecedented health and emotional wellness issues students are facing, largely as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and cultural stressors. Our goal continues to be educating our community about mental and physical health and wellness to help keep our students safe. The best way to keep our pulse on student health and wellbeing is through data collection.

In November, Dawson further partnered with Challenge Success to conduct the Challenge Success-Stanford Survey of Adolescent School Experiences. During their morning advisory period, we invited our fifth through eighth-grade students to participate in this research study on their social, emotional, and physical well-being; their educational goals; beliefs about teacher care; and their views on the academic climate and expectations at Dawson and at home. The Challenge Success survey delivered helpful insight into how we as a school can decrease academic stress, increase student engagement, and foster greater student voice and belonging in school.

During her campus visit, Dr. Pope met with all faculty to review the findings of the survey, which our studentcentered Challenge Success Team will use as a guide when planning our annual Challenge Success Week during the second semester. This will ensure that the efforts of our Dawson team continue to best meet the needs of our community. Challenge Success surveyed over 310,000 middle and high schoolers at 300 schools. Some important data gleaned from Dawson’s student survey include:

THREE WORDS STUDENTS USE TO DESCRIBE DAWSON

• 46% - Fun

• 33% - Caring and Welcoming

• 21% - Difficult or Stressful

SOURCES OF STRESS

• 64% - Grades/tests/quizzes/assessments

• 53% - Overall workload or homework

• 39% - Lack of sleep

• 33% - Lack of time to relax, play, or be with friends or family

HOMEWORK LOAD

• High schoolers have 2.7 hours per night

• Middle schoolers have 1.7 hours per night

• Dawson middle schoolers have 1.5 hours per night

• 1% have more than 3.5 hours per night

• Over 37% perceive homework as busywork

EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

• 94% participate in at least one extracurricular

• Average middle schoolers have 6.1 hours of extracurriculars per week

• Dawson students have 5.9 hours of extracurriculars per week, with 2.7 hours over the weekend

Sleep

• Middle schoolers are recommended to have 9 to 11 hours per night

• The average of sleep for middle schoolers is 7.8 hours

• The average of sleep for Dawson students is 7.9 hours

• 55% of Dawson students have their phone in the bedroom when they go to sleep

• 25% of Dawson students have their phone in another room when they go to sleep

• 20% of Dawson students have no phone at all

Connections

• 77% of Dawson students have an adult they can go to if they have a problem

• 27% of Dawson students are engaged affectively (students find schoolwork interesting and they enjoy doing the work)

• 24% of Dawson students are engaged behaviorally (students complete assignments and work hard)

We asked our Challenge Success team of Middle School students, What does Challenge Success mean to you?

Payton Borsari, 7th Grade: Having a less stressful school life

Levi Finfrock, 8th Grade: Giving each student what they need to become successful

Jordan Luh, 6th Grade: Challenging yourself in multiple ways to reach your goal

Bianca Raddue, 6th Grade: Balancing academics and mental health

Jackson Steele, 8th Grade: Speaking from the student perspective

Genevieve Thai, 8th Grade: Change for everyone

By

Phillips,

Taylor Corrigan Miller, Class of 2007, joined The Alexander Dawson School in its very first year as a second-grader in current Librarian Kelly McNamara’s class. She always loved school, and Dawson’s learning environment and community always felt like her home away from home. The relationships she developed in her early years with teachers and peers alike are ones she still maintains today because of their significant, positive impact on her life.

“While Dawson has grown tremendously since its first seven years, it is evident that its foundation and its core Mission are well-withstanding,” says Taylor. “If anything, I only wish I could attend the school today and experience its even-morerobust program.”

During her younger years, Taylor learned the importance of developing a growth mindset and was challenged to think outside of the box. Her experience was the result of many things: enthusiastic and dedicated faculty, a well-rounded offering of rigorous academics mixed with creative electives, and access to leading resources and opportunities. Plus, she says, “Having such a supportive and close-knit community surrounding me for seven years shaped my character, interests, and work ethic in countless ways.” This strong work ethic –one rooted in accountability, intrinsic motivation to continually push herself, and teamwork – are among the life skills Taylor learned at Dawson that have been critical to every endeavor thereafter.

One year that stood out as an influential favorite was the third grade in Dawson’s current Head of

School Roxanne Stansbury’s class. “The learning in her classroom was authentic, cross-curricular, project-based, and allowed for so much creativity, all while instilling a strong foundation of core skills,” Taylor remembers. “The relationships and class environment she established was one that motivated me then as an eight-year-old student and now as an adult educator.”

As an eighth-grader, Taylor delivered the student commencement speech for her class during graduation, and it was a culminating moment in which she reflected on her years as a Bear. “Dawson instilled in me a deep determination to succeed in the face of challenges and the importance of staying academically curious,” she recalls. These values, coupled with the rich and personalized experiences she was exposed to, proved invaluable to her during high school and beyond.

Taylor always knew she wanted to be a Gorman Gael after Dawson. In addition to the many family and friends who attended the school, she knew it was her right fit because it shared many of the values that were important to her: a strong emphasis on academics and athletics, and like Dawson, Gorman had a very strong community. During her high school years, Taylor felt academically prepared because, “Dawson was more rigorous in terms of the cross-curricular, real-world problem solving and creative application that was demanded. Aside from pure academic readiness, Dawson also equipped me with the overall learning behaviors and study skills that made the transition to high school very smooth.”

After high school, Taylor attended Southern Methodist University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing and a minor in education, followed by a master’s degree in elementary education. She always loved school and knew she would work in education one day, and today, Taylor is a third-grade social studies teacher at The Hockaday School, a nationally acclaimed, all-girls PK-12 school in Dallas, Texas. She is honored to be a contributing member of a school whose mission is to help develop confident women of character inspired to lead lives of impact. Taylor recalls how pivotal her Dawson teachers were in unlocking her own love of education and the support she felt as they pushed her to reach her full potential. “It is impossible to inspire a love of learning if you aren’t passionate about it yourself,” she says. “The passionate educators I learned from at Dawson inspired me to instill the same love of learning in younger generations.”

As a social impact coordinator at The Hockaday School, Taylor’s favorite project has been launching “Dolphin Tank”, a third-gradefriendly version of the Shark Tank television show that merges her school’s mission of leading lives of impact with her business background. Using design thinking, Taylor’s students create a business stemming from a need or problem they see within their community. They work collaboratively with high school entrepreneurs to develop a business plan and pitch their final presentations to their community. Explains Taylor, “It is critical that, at a young age, students see themselves as innovators, leaders, and problem solvers who are creating meaningful impact in the world around them.”

The pursuit of her teaching career and most, if not all, of her educational approach and philosophy, can be attributed to her seven-year career as a Dawson Bear. The enthusiasm and joy modeled by the faculty at Dawson, along with her own affection for language arts and love of cultures and people, is what drives her as a social studies teacher each day. Taylor says the best thing about being a teacher herself is, “It’s incredibly rewarding to work alongside colleagues who share your same passion and desire for continual progress and innovation. Furthermore, my students are learning to see themselves as leaders and problem solvers in a very rapidly changing world.”

For our current Dawson Bears, Taylor’s advice includes, “Leave all inhibitions, hesitancies, and doubt at the door. Any experience or opportunity is what you make of it, and fearing failure or rejection stifles all possibilities of innovation, growth, and ultimately, success. Dawson does an incredible job of presenting its students with a plethora of challenging, authentic experiences, and in order to continue that trajectory of involvement as you get older, you need to be willing to get out of your comfort zone. Jump right in!”