Evidence of the prioritization of sense of belonging may be found in Rhode Island Early Learning and Development Standards, such as:

Standard 1.a: Children develop trust in and engage positively with adults who are familiar and consistently present in children’s lives.

Standard 1.b: Children engage in positive relationships and interactions with other children.

(Rhode Island Early Learning and Development Standards)

Additionally, the Rhode Island Department of Education administers SurveyWorks, a survey intended to "gather insights and data to improve the state’s education system and school experience". One of the identified topics addressed in the 2025 survey is students' sense of belonging. (WPRI)

being accepted, valued, included and encouraged by others (teachers and peers)". (York, 2007)

"When students feel a sense of belonging in the classroom, it can increase their educational success and motivational outcomes." (Bowen, 2021)

Teachers who maintain supportive relationships with their students encourage positive emotional outcomes as well as increased academic achievements. (York, 2007)

In a 2016 study, researchers found that students whose teachers participated in training about the importance of empathy in the classroom were half as likely to be suspended by the end of the school year, compared to students whose teachers had not participated. (Blad, 2017)

There is no doubt that sense of belonging is a critical element of a student's education. Fostering sense of belonging in one's classroom is a necessity. Not only will it benefit students as individuals via higher degrees of motivation, achievement, and social emotional learning, but it will also benefit the classroom (and school) environment at large through establishing positive and welcoming environments, and diminishing occurences of disruptive behavior.

1. “Get To Know You”

2. Values Reflection

3. Morning Meetings

How is this practice evidence based?

Research has shown that morning meetings improved emotional support for students and improved classroom organization (Rimm-Kaufman, 2014)

Affirming values increased academic performance including improved GPA of marginalized students, belonging at school, and likelihood to enroll in college (Cohen et al., 2006, Layous et al., 2016)

Analysis of Data Significance

Given the direct link between social emotional learning and a sense of belonging, this data from the Learning Policy Institute (2022) confirms that a sense of belonging can have a significant impact on academic, social, and emotional outcomes for students. Therefore, it is important to implement practices and supports that provide and strengthen a sense of belonging among students in their school environment.

Research indicates the efficacy of universal supports such as: safe and inclusive practices and policies, parental contact/involvement, warm teacher presence, and teacher efforts to connect with students via activities or recognition of student achievements. Research suggests that effective Tier 2 and 3 supports for student sense of belonging include fair disciplinary practices such as restorative justice, and the availability of additional involvement opportunities such as extracurricular activities.

How are these practices evidence based?

Research has found that students’ sense of belonging can be influenced by racism and biased discipline practices. (Oregon Department of Education, 2023)

Students who experienced exclusionary discipline incidents during the school year were much less likely to agree with most sense of belonging indicators...Students who did not experience exclusionary discipline were slightly more likely to report having friends at school, and substantially more likely (more than twice as likely) to report feeling welcome and feeling safe talking with adults. (Oregon Department of Education, 2023)

How is this practice evidence based?

Strong supportive contacts between [home and school] appear to be paramount in facilitating optimum developmental outcomes for the adolescent. (York, 2007)

These data points are not outliers; between 2018 and 2024 the percentage of favorable responses related to School Belonging ranged between 58% and 63% in students grades 3-5. Among students grades 6-12, the range of favorable responses since 2018 was between 29% and 34%.

Analysis of Data Significance

There are three tiers within multi-tiered systems of supports (MTSS). MTSS can be defined as a "whole-school, prevention-based framework that relies on data-based problem-solving to support all students within a layered continuum of evidence-based practices and systems" (Branching Minds). Tier 1 refers to universal supports, available to and targeted at all students. Tier 1 supports should prove effective for approximately 80% of students. Tiers 2 and 3 then provide targeted supports to students for whom Tier 1 alone is not effective.

Rhode Island SurveyWorks data reveals that there is a clear deficit in sense of belonging among students in the state. This indicates that there are not enough effective practices in place for students to foster a sense of belonging in their school community.

To promote inclusion in the classroom, teachers can (when possible/applicable) ensure that the identities of their students are represented in instructional materials. This includes, but is not limited to, the representation of genders, diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, sexualities, and socio-economic statuses. Furthermore, it is important to represent a range of identities as capable and successful in a variety of circumstance, such as profession and status. This practice can increase how welcome and supported students of different identities feel at school, as well as influence their perception of their future opportunities.

In addition to diverse representation in instructional materials, teachers should check for and remove content from instructional materials that may be considered offensive or insensitive to students of varying identity groups.

Another inclusion practice that can be implemented in classrooms is providing students the opportunity to share their preferred name and pronouns, and using them accordingly. This will foster a culture of acceptance, and support and affirm student identities.

A practice that bridges inclusion and safety, in addition to promoting an overall environment conducive to learning, is the establishment and enforcement of community norms/agreements. This will set clear expectations and structure in classrooms. This practice has higher efficacy when students are involved in the creation of the norms/agreements, as this permits a sense of involvement and agency.

A foundational practice to promote safety is to have policies that address bullying and hate speech.

How are these practices evidence based?

These practices are supported by a significant amount of evidence presented in the literature review. Additionally:

Schools create more welcoming, supportive school climates when there is a culture of acceptance, which includes policies and interventions that affirm and support students’ identities, as well as policies that address bullying and hate speech. (Oregon Department of Education, 2023)

Research has found benefits to culturally and racially inclusive education across racial and ethnic groups, both in enhancing student self-perception and in improving measures of academic achievement. (Oregon Department of Education, 2023)

"Some focal groups have a school experience which differs greatly from others in the same school, especially when looking at school climate and safety."

"We also see that students who more frequently see people like themselves or their families represented in instructional

materials are more likely to agree with sense of belonging indicators related to feelings of safety and welcome at school, but are no more likely to report having friends at school, which suggests more directionality to that indicator and is a promising practice schools can pursue to increase sense of belonging."

Summary

A sense of belonging is sourced from factors such as social identity, representation, safety, connection, and overall school climate. Sense of belonging may be negatively impacted by factors such as exclusionary discipline, lack of identity affirmation and/or bullying, racism, and bias, and lower socio-economic status which may prove to be a barrier to involvement, and/or due to stigma.

Having peers who are like oneself, as well as adults like oneself, and seeing the representation of those like oneself in instructional materials are among predictive factors of higher sense of belonging. There are statistically evident inequities in sense of belonging among different demographics, including gender, racial, and ethnic groups.

Schools can promote sense of belonging via evidence based inclusive practices and policies, providing supports that allow students to meaningfully engage in their education and school community, and by encouraging responsibility, curiosity, and cultural responsiveness among staff. A higher sense of belonging is positively to higher outcomes in learning.

How is this practice evidence based?

"Extrinsic rewards have been found to influence students' sense of belonging when given frequently and for more

common everyday achievements." (York, 2007)

"Participants reflected the importance of extrinsic rewards given across a broad spectrum of achievements frequently." (York, 2007)

Alternatively, the school lacks an available extracurricular for a student who wishes to get more involved, teachers could assist students with creating a desired extracurricular. A teacher may connect a student to an appropriate activity sponsor/advisory, or be the activity sponsor/advisor themself.

How is this practice evidence based?

A key feature of a need to belong is 'interactions with others'. (York, 2007)

Extracurricular participation has been identified in the literature as a way in which students become connected to their school. (York, 2007)

LGBTQ2SIA+ students in schools with a GSA “felt greater belonging to their school community, performed better academically in school and were more likely to plan on

pursuing postsecondary education. (Oregon Department of Education, 2023)

"The belongingness hypothesis proposed by Baumeister and Leary (1995) argues that a sense of belonging is a "need rather than a want, people who lack belongingness should exhibit pathological consequences beyond temporary distress" (p. 498). Maslow (1968) defined belonging as a basic human need that can only be fulfilled by other people and, as a consequence, emphasized the importance of the environment in the individual's life."

"When students perceived a low SoSB their self-esteem was also low."

"Children and adolescents who experience a sense of school belonging are less likely to exhibit behaviour problems, develop mental health issues and less likely to drop out of school."

"Various adolescent mental health issues have been found to be positively affected by the adolescent's perceived SoSB; these include anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, drug use and intentional injury."

"A longitudinal study conducted by Resnick et al. (1993) found that a SoSB was a protective factor for both male and female adolescents against drug use, school absenteeism and risk of intentional injury."

"Teachers have been identified as important facilitators in developing in students a sense of school belonging."

"Students' identified teaching processes, style and the way in which teachers managed their classrooms to be important contributors to their perception of SoSB."

Summary

Teachers have a direct and significant impact on student sense of belonging. Teachers who are warm and supportive contribute not only to higher levels of sense of belonging, but also stronger personal well-beings among students. In addition to a warm and supportive presence, the teaching style and classroom management practices of teachers have an effect on student perception of their sense of belonging.

Belonging is identified as a human need by many scholars, including Maslow, who represents it in the well-known Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. It can be identified as a need due to its connection to achievement, but more importantly due it serving as a foundation for the building of student self-esteem, and it serving as either a barrier to the development of mental health issues and behavior problems, and/or a factor that reduces mental health issues and behavior problems.

"Minority students feel alienated from school and are less likely to be engaged in academic settings. However, the overall engagement of minority students can be improved by enhancing opportunities for students to interact with teachers and each other, which essentially will increase their sense of belonging."

"Research found that African American and Hispanic students are less engaged in school than White students due to the perception of limited opportunities and futures."

"Classroom social climate for minority students depends on how teachers organize their classroom instruction."

"As students’ sense of belonging increases, their social awareness, emotion regulation, supportive relationships, and positive feelings also increase...essentially, if the school makes it a goal to improve students’ sense of belonging, other areas of their well-being will improve as well."

Summary

Traditionally underserved students are often left feeling alienated in their school communicates due to outdated and/or hostile policies and practices. Teachers and schools can increase sense of belonging among minority students by providing and/or enhancing more opportunities for them to be involved at school, bring inclusive and representative practices into their classrooms, and making all students aware of their potential and future opportunities.

The fostering of student sense of belonging will lead to a positive effect on social awareness, emotional regulation, and supportive relationships. It is a component of a student's overall well-being.

I have always recognized the importance of student sense of belonging. To a certain extent, it is common knowledge/common sense. Though, I find it easy to forget what it was like to be an adolescent, and it may be for that reason that I did not realize the extent of its importance in the student development of social awareness and emotional regulation, and how it may serve as a barrier to the development of mental health issues.

I find that while I have employed most of these practices and strategies before, there is an ever-present room for refinement and improvement. For example, the first time I administered a "getting to know you" survey, I simply included a space for the student's name. Unbeknownst to me, I would have students asking if they could put nicknames they prefer or not, and a transgender student ask me if they could put the name they chose to go by rather than their deadname/government name. Now, I include a space for them to put the name I'd find on my roster as well as a space for their preferred name. While it may seem like a minor adjustment, I believe that tweak represents a positive step towards building an accepting and comfortable environment for students where they don't have to ask potentially uncomfortable questions out loud.

While I have occasionally made an effort to contact families with positive updates, I recognize that it may be a powerful tool and I am not implementing it to the extent of its possibility. It is not something I have ever considered a priority, so working towards that involves a mindset shift.

The refinement of my French curriculum to be more inclusive is something with which I've had varying degrees of consistency and success. At the beginning of the year, when I noticed the vast majority of my French students were hispanophone, I began making an effort to include not only English in my instructional materials, but Spanish as well. When covering nationalities, I make sure to center the nationalities of my students, most of which are not even mentioned in French textbooks. While I've seen some successes in this area, I've also encountered limitations in terms of time and other responsibilities.

My mindset has been evolving in terms of how I view frequent recognition and restorative justice. The way I grew up was very much a you don't get rewarded for what you're supposed to do environment. As such, that was the mindset I've carried with me through most of my life and into my teaching career. As I've received feedback that I should provide more student praise, I have made more of an effort although I will admit I did not have much of a mindset change. Conversely, the information I've found through this research has pushed me to want to actively change my mindset towards not only wanting to recognize student achievements, however common, but genuinely mean it. (That might have to be a discussion with my therapist.)

I would attribute my upbringing as the cause for the punitive mindset I've also developed and carried with me for most of my life. I have slowly been coming around on the idea that punishments should not be pushed, but rather we should be pushing for ways to involve students in the community in response to (non-violent) behavioral concerns. This project has helped me more clearly believe that and see its benefits.

Overwhelmed as I may be in my day to day life, I do pride myself on being a lifelong learner with a growth mindset. Students having a sense of belonging was already important to me in my classroom, and now I feel more equipped with an understanding of how to continually refine and improve my practices.

Students have so many parts to their identity, just as we do as adults. Things we may not think about every second of every day, but still impact how a student comes to school and class. Parts of their identity could be gender, immigration status, race, ethnicity, language, and their ability just to name a few.

I reflect on my mindset and attitude towards some students and often have to remind myself that behavior is communication. I have for lack of a better word, given up on some students. It was hard for me to get through to them between attitude, and technology usage. I eventually stopped trying- and in hindsight, that was problematic. I could have tried alternative ways to try and connect with them.

What else I realized is that sure, the one far and few between students I stopped trying with, overall, I know deep down I have been more consistent with my relationship building (probably because of that one student).

There is one student who has been seen as "problematic" for a majority of teachers on my grade team this semester, and yet he enters my room and there is never issues. Is it my ability to build a relationship, the routines and procedures I set in my class, or a combination of all the above? I'm not too sure. While that feels good, I also still hold the fact not all students feel that way in my room.

I have been struggling this year with differentiating instruction consistently, especially for my students who do not speak English. I have been unintentionally alienating them. After conducting more research and looking at increased student belonging, I am excited to try a few more tier 2/3 supports. One I recently tried was peer buddies. I noticed I had two students who barely spoke in class unless it was for the bathroom, and they never talked to other peers. I paired them together, and since then, I heard more engagement and communication. I was okay with them speaking Spanish with one another- because they were feeling more comfortable and doing the work.

I am excited to continue to refine and develop my practices as I grow as an educator.

In circles staff and or students sit in a circle and discuss conflict or feelings. The goal of the circle has two possible purposes, to one build trust in a relationship or to resolve conflicts. The point is to understand who has been harmed, what are their needs, and how to move forward and repair