Western Educational Equity Assistance Center

Publication

Reframing Belonging: From How Students Feel to What K–12 Schools Build

Student belonging has become a central focus in K–12 education, showing up in district strategic plans, school climate surveys, and national conversations about student well-being. But most efforts to measure and improve belonging treat it primarily as a feeling that students report rather than a condition that schools actively create.

Drawing on research across psychology, education, and sociology, this paper reframes belonging as something that schools build through their everyday practices and structures, not just something students individually experience. For district and school leaders, the paper offers a practical shift in perspective—moving beyond viewing school climate survey scores as an endpoint to using them as a starting point for examining the conditions that determine whether every student can genuinely participate and thrive.

How Well Will Your State’s Schools Weather the Next Financial Storm?

While states are often impacted by cost pressures beyond their control, certain state policies can help stabilize school funding from year to year and help school districts maintain stable services during times of declining revenue.

This report delves into some of the most pressing conditions contributing to current revenue volatility. It then explores policies that states may want to consider implementing to help them weather economic uncertainty and declining enrollment.

Improving American Indian Student Outcomes in Nevada

Nevada’s American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) students face persistent gaps in attendance and graduation, and a structural data problem compounds these outcomes because the state counts only students who self-identify solely as AI/AN, likely undercounting the true Native student population. For years, Nevada’s Office of Indian Education sought a formal plan to guide the state’s work on behalf of these students.

This impact story describes how the Western Educational Equity Assistance Center (WEEAC) at WestEd provided sustained technical assistance to help Nevada develop and launch its Plan to Improve Outcomes for American Indian Students in Nevada 2025–2030. Combining data analysis, broad community engagement with Tribal leaders and district superintendents, and ongoing thought partnership, the WEEAC built the state’s capacity to own and lead the work. The result is a published 5-year plan with measurable targets—launched at the state’s 2026 American Indian Education Summit—and an expanded Office of Indian Education positioned to lead sustained implementation in the years ahead.

Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation: The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community

A Surgeon General’s Advisory is a public statement that calls the American people’s attention to an urgent public health issue and provides recommendations for how it should be addressed. Advisories are reserved for significant public health challenges that require the nation’s immediate awareness and action.

This advisory calls attention to the importance of social connection for individual health as well as on community-wide metrics of health and well-being, and conversely the significant consequences when social connection is lacking. While social connection is often considered an individual challenge, this advisory explores and explains the cultural, community, and societal dynamics that drive connection and disconnection. It also offers recommendations for increasing and strengthening social connection through a whole-of-society approach. The advisory presents a framework for a national strategy with specific recommendations for the institutions that shape our day-to-day
lives: governments, health care systems and insurers, public health departments, research institutions, philanthropy, schools, workplaces, community-based organizations, technology companies, and the media.

Six Global Lessons on How Family, School, and Community Engagement Can Transform Education

Six Global Lessons on How Family, School, and Community Engagement Can Transform Education (“Six Global Lessons”) is the result of the participation of hundreds of students, families, school educators, and researchers who dedicated their time and energy to investigating the critical role that families and communities play in ensuring students and schools can flourish. It is a culmination of over two years of collaborative research and hundreds of conversations on six continents. While there were unique findings in each school, district, and country, six powerful lessons stand out across geographies and contexts. This research report delves into these lessons and how to build greater family, school, and community partnerships as seen through the eyes of families, educators, and students who shared their beliefs on, experiences with, and trust in schools.

Strategic Resources Allocation for the 21st Century

With education systems across the country facing an increasingly challenging fiscal environment, state departments of education and local school districts are being forced to make difficult decisions about how to leverage limited dollars to best meet the needs of students. During these difficult budget periods, state leaders are uniquely positioned to support school districts.

As a follow-up on two previous “Silent Recession” reports, this paper describes state-level strategies for helping school districts address rising education costs and deploy resources strategically to improve student outcomes.

The strategies focus on three key areas: special education, educator compensation and benefits, and revenue generation. The paper draws from research literature, a media review, and interviews with state leaders, directors of regional education-focused nonprofits, and leading education researchers.

The paper is prefaced with commentary from the authors on new challenges and considerations resulting from the COVID-19 crisis.

Identifying Resource Inequities

SEAs have a tremendous opportunity to leverage the RAR in supporting LEAs and schools to adopt a systemic approach to equitable resource planning and alignment. This brief provides a systematized approach for conducting a meaningful resource allocation review (RAR).

As a result of an intensive four-year design process, field research, and piloting, the Region 15 Comprehensive Center offers state education agency leaders concrete examples of resource inequities, decision-making considerations, and ways to reduce the RAR burden on LEAs and schools.

Resource Allocation Strategies to Support the Four Domains for Rapid School Improvement

Despite national attention on the need for school turnaround, many school districts across the United States are struggling to fund even the basic costs of school district operations, despite increases in funding. The fact is, revenues are not keeping pace with expenditures in many school districts across the country. As a result, the fiscal circumstances in local school districts and state education systems are increasingly challenging as costs for pensions, special education, employee healthcare, and other cost pressures continue to rise. Yet the need to support vulnerable student populations and struggling schools remains high. This paper outlines strategies for how school districts can maximize the use of existing resources to support the practices outlined in the “Four Domains.”

An Old Idea for a New Age? Aligning Block Grants to Achieve State Goals and Improved Outcomes for Students

Many indicators point to block grants as a mechanism that the Trump administration may use to help achieve government efficiency in many areas of the federal budget, including public education.

As state education leaders adapt to an evolving funding landscape, block grants offer an opportunity to align resources with states’ goals to support students.

This policy brief provides state education leaders with an overview of how block grants work and presents four recommendations for how states can maximize their use:

  • Set clear goals and outcomes that lead to meaningful allocation.
  • Reimagine accountability through rapid innovation and engineered quality improvement.
  • Communicate clearly with the public about the value and impact of block grant funds.
  • Build systems for interagency collaboration.

How Well Will Your State’s Schools Weather the Next Financial Storm?

While states are often impacted by cost pressures beyond their control, certain state policies can help stabilize school funding from year to year and help school districts maintain stable services during times of declining revenue.

This report delves into some of the most pressing conditions contributing to current revenue volatility. It then explores policies that states may want to consider implementing to help them weather economic uncertainty and declining enrollment.