Special Report
Student Well-Being

Educating and Motivating Students

By The Editors — October 17, 2017 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Does my teacher know anything about my life? If I make a mistake, how will my principal treat me? Do I believe working hard in school will propel me to college, a good job, and a happy and healthy adulthood?

How students respond to those questions reveals important insights into how they view their schools, whether they feel valued while they are there, and how they see their relationships with educators.

And how students feel about school has high-stakes implications for the rest of their lives. We know well the hallmarks of a disengaged student—poor attendance, low achievement, and too often, giving up on school completely. Likewise, the signs of an engaged and motivated student—coming to school regularly, working hard, and staying on track toward a bigger goal, be it graduation, college, or a job—are well understood by educators.

But cultivating the conditions and nurturing the relationships that allow all students to thrive in school require hard and deliberate work. In this report, Education Week takes an expansive look at student engagement and motivation and a range of strategies schools, educators, advocates, and parents are using to help students get—and stay—vested in their learning. In the resulting stories, it’s clear that relationships are the linchpin.

An Oregon district is forging ties with families and tribes to combat chronic absenteeism among its Native American students. New ways of recruiting and holding onto mentors are helping deepen connections between students and the adults or peers who mentor them. An innovative take on engaging parents—especially those who work in low-wage jobs—in their children’s education has taken root in New Orleans and is about to spread to Boston.

The Cleveland school district—where nearly every student is low-income—has scrapped the isolation of in-school suspensions in favor of building trust with students who are disruptive. And if you’re an English-learner, seeing your peers succeed has a powerful influence on your own success with learning a new language.

Finally, in a pair of explainers, we explore how simple, low-cost “nudges” show promise for influencing students to act in positive ways, while the research on using financial incentives to coax higher performance is far more mixed.

A version of this article appeared in the October 18, 2017 edition of Education Week as Editor’s Note

Events

School & District Management Webinar Crafting Outcomes-Based Contracts That Work for Everyone
Discover the power of outcomes-based contracts and how they can drive student achievement.
School & District Management Webinar EdMarketer Quick Hit: What’s Trending among K-12 Leaders?
What issues are keeping K-12 leaders up at night? Join us for EdMarketer Quick Hit: What’s Trending among K-12 Leaders?
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Artificial Intelligence Webinar
Teaching Students to Use Artificial Intelligence Ethically
Ready to embrace AI in your classroom? Join our master class to learn how to use AI as a tool for learning, not a replacement.
Content provided by Solution Tree

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Student Well-Being Download Traumatic Brain Injuries Are More Common Than You Think. Here's What to Know
Here's how educators can make sure injured students don't fall behind as they recover.
1 min read
Illustration of a female student sitting at her desk and holding hands against her temples while swirls of pencils, papers, question marks, stars, and exclamation marks swirl around her head.
iStock/Getty
Student Well-Being How Teachers Can Help LGBTQ+ Students With Post-Election Anxiety
LGBTQ+ crisis prevention hotlines have seen a spike in calls from youth and their families.
6 min read
Photo of distraught teen girl.
Preeti M / Getty
Student Well-Being Schools Are Eerily Quiet About the Election Results, Educators Say
Teachers say students' reactions to Trump's win are much more muted than in 2016.
6 min read
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump greets Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center on Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump greets Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center on Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Evan Vucci/AP
Student Well-Being Student Journalists Want to Cover Politics. Not Everyone Agrees They Should
Student journalists are grappling with controversial topics—a lesson in democracy that's becoming increasingly at risk for pushback.
7 min read
Illustration of a paper airplane made from a newspaper.
DigitalVision Vectors