The video above captures the enthusiasm and commitment of the Fortune School community to their new “Community Circles” program, which is the result of a multi-year partnership with Beyond Us & Them and has been built on the foundation of council practice.
This collaboration grew out of Fortune’s strong desire to support social-emotional learning, enhance character-building and improve school culture within a school system that had become laser-focused on academic achievement, sometimes to the detriment of other critical developmental and social factors. Fortune staff had become aware of Beyond Us & Them’s transformative work with schools in Los Angeles and invited our team to design a training protocol to transform their school culture.
Creating a program to nourish school culture
After extensive consultation, a team of fourteen Beyond Us & Them trainers, led by Senior Trainer John McCluskey, conducted a system-wide training for Fortune School staff to resource the teachers, school site staff and, ultimately, the “student scholars,” as students are known at each of Fortune’s ten school sites.
Two-day intensive training workshops invited teachers and site staff into the practice of council, unpacked the pedagogy, explored the methodologies and offered educators a new approach to building community amongst their teams, as well as inside their classrooms. The concept of “community circles,” based on the pedagogy of council practice, was also introduced as a way to integrate council practice into the diverse school sites throughout the Fortune School system.
McCluskey, veteran council trainer, teacher and principal of New Vista High School, in Boulder Colorado, has been leading transformation in school systems for over 30 years. Along with his team from Beyond Us & Them, he has observed the extraordinarily positive impact that council has had on the Fortune School community, as this program has unfolded. Having witnessed the impact of council on a variety of school campuses throughout the years, this came as no surprise to him: “Council practice transforms school culture by creating spaces where students feel seen, heard, and valued,” he offers.
McCluskey was impressed by the eagerness of Fortune staff to embrace this new modality and to integrate it quickly and deeply into the fabric of the school system. “As we’ve trained over 300 teachers, leaders and staff at Fortune Schools, we’ve seen firsthand that when students connect on a deeper level, academic growth follows. Relationships, vulnerability, and storytelling are essential not just to student well-being but to true educational success. As this network of charter schools commits to the hard work of slowing down and prioritizing the inner life of their students, they are sure to be helping them, and our world, for years to come.”
Conflicts and fights are reported to have decreased by 80%
“There used to be a bunch of fights because we weren’t listening or hearing each other’s opinions,” remarked one Fortune student scholar. As a result of these opportunities to come together in council, he continued, “we’re able to listen to each other’s opinions and discuss how we feel.” Another Fortune scholar noted that the program has enabled students “to get closer, because we’re sharing our different points of views.” “You get to express yourself. You get to say what you like, and you don’t really get judged. So, it’s really cool.”
Fortune teachers agree: “It allows the students to understand there’s a way to communicate with each other, and there’s a way to problem solve when it comes to having an open dialogue with each other. So instead of resorting to getting angry, they can have a way to communicate with each other. Oftentimes we see them ask, ‘can we go with somebody and talk it out?'”
“Prior to embracing council,” noted one Fortune administrator, “we were stricter and more punitive in nature. Students suggested in their surveys that staff did not listen to them… We are already seeing such great success in our schools by prioritizing council.”
The palpable shift in positive school culture and the sense of decreased conflict and fights that teachers and students have remarked on has been reflected in evaluation surveys, as well.
“One of the things we tell staff is that once you have the rapport with the kid, you can ask them to do the hard thing, because they know that you care,” shared Principal Akele Newton. “Is it fixing all of our problems? No. But is it slowly but surely making incremental change because kids are connecting not only to their peers, but they’re also connecting to staff? Absolutely!”
About Fortune Schools
Fortune School of Education is a system of tuition-free, college preparatory public charter schools spread out over ten campuses in Northern California, for more information, visit their website, or watch the longer version of the video on their community circle program.
Want to learn more?
Find out about our program for schools & educators here.
Learn about all of our Beyond Us & Them programs here.
Help support our essential work by becoming a regular supporter – donate here.
For more information on this and other Beyond Us & Them programs, please contact us.
Share this article & help raise awareness of our work
