There's No App for That
Julia Freeland Fisher, Daniel Fisher, Clayton M. Christensen · 2018
This chapter analyzes what schools must do when students lack sufficient care and support networks, inhibiting their opportunities to both learn and connect. Resource and care gaps facing different student populations have always posed a thorny challenge to school systems. Integrating backward into nonacademic areas of students' lives can effectively allow schools to address chronic barriers to learning. Specifically, tackling performance head on requires understanding the resources and care flowing through students' most intimate, strong-tie networks: their families and caregivers. Depending on their family circumstances, some children may experience a gap in caring relationships. The goal of City Connects is to mitigate the effects of poverty on students' academic achievement and life chances. KIPP schools provide numerous nonacademic supports that appear to help explain its phenomenal success in addressing achievement gaps. Disruptive innovations that make new connections more accessible and affordable are beginning to penetrate schools.