Raikes Foundation -

Most risks- drugs, sexual activity, school disengagement, and delinquency- start before age 14.

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Building Student Agency Strategy
The rapidly evolving demands of life, work and global citizenship in the 21^st century require a more comprehensive approach to educating young people. Content knowledge and academic skills remain critical, but a growing body of research suggests students’ attitudes and beliefs about learning, as well as learning skills, can have a powerful influence on their ability to excel—both inside and outside the classroom.

Excited by the data in this still nascent field, a top priority for the Raikes Foundation is to advance research, policy and practice in what we call student agency. Student agency is a cluster of academic mindsets and learning strategies that have been demonstrated to advance learning and achievement.Academic mindsets are more evident in students who feel a sense of belonging in a certain subject, class or school; believe that they have the capacity to learn, and see value in their participation. Learning strategies include study skills, meta-cognition and goal-setting, competencies that help individuals persist when learning becomes challenging.

We are particularly focused on the development of student agency during the middle school years, when young people are solidifying their academic identity and establishing patterns of behavior, thinking and judgment that will shape their future success.

Our student agency strategy has three goals: 1) Strengthen the evidence base on academic mindsets and learning strategies through investments in basic and applied research, especially concerning how teachers can cultivate student agency; 2) Promote adoption of strategies to build student agency through integration with other education reforms efforts, and 3) Create demand for student agency in the US education system through field building, communications and advocacy.

Proposals are by invitation only.