Blog

Decoration

Stay up-to-date with the latest social-capital expert analysis, interviews, and insights grounded in current events and real-time fieldwork.

A whole child, whole life approach puts relationships at the center

What do kids need? That simple question is one that I ask myself daily as a parent. And I’m often overwhelmed by the litany of answers that friends, family, and the internet are willing to serve up on any given day. That’s why I was relieved and excited when I found out that my colleague […]

Relationships as outcomes: Updates from the field measuring students’ networks

In 2020, the Christensen Institute released our first Missing Metrics report, detailing how schools and nonprofits were starting to measure their students’ networks. In the three years since, the field has seen significant developments in surveys and other measurement strategies. As the urgency to understand and leverage social capital gains a stronger foothold across education, industry, and […]

near peers

The far reach of near peers

In most schools today, there’s a harsh reality: Students’ access to social capital—relationships and the array of resources they can offer—is inherently limited by their campus’ human capital: the employees on schools’ payroll. School-based relationships are critical sources of student support. But tight budgets spell small support networks. This is especially true when it comes […]

students' networks

From idea to action: 5 strategies to build students’ relationships

By now, many educators have probably heard about the sweeping Nature study that revealed that whom you interacted with as you grew up is a major determinant of future economic success. Specifically, children who had connections with peers from higher-income families ended up with higher incomes themselves. Relationships between young people from different socio-economic groups […]

education trends

5 education innovation trends worth watching in 2023

2022 marked a confusing year in the world of education innovation. As a friend and school leader said to me a few months ago, “Innovation is dead, right?” She was half joking while perfectly summing up something in the air last year in schools: a pandemic hangover mixed with ongoing, day-to-day challenges of running complex […]

student networks

How do you talk to students about their networks?

How do you talk to students about social capital? If you want students to deepen and expand their networks, what messages and experiences increase the likelihood that they’ll feel confident and inspired to do so? These questions come up frequently in our fieldwork. Although this is certainly an area where more R&D would benefit the […]

student data

What schools miss when they’re missing relationship data

A few months ago, a new study in Nature revealed a key predictor of economic mobility: connectedness. Specifically, researchers at Opportunity Insights found that relationships with higher-income students dramatically improved low-income students’ chances of upward mobility in adulthood, even more than traditional success metrics like school quality. The Opportunity Insights team garnered praise for the sheer size […]

internships

Don’t just pay interns, help them build networks

Summer internships are a proven gateway to jobs. But that gateway is not equally open to students from different backgrounds. Low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented students’ internship participation rates lag behind those of their wealthier, white peers. Moreover, access to paid internships, which are associated with long-term wage premiums, remains uneven along lines of race and class. Any organization with an internship program […]

Connection over content: A new era for education technology

The pandemic cast education technology (edtech) into a starring — and some might argue above-its-paygrade — role in education. For many students and overwhelmed parents, virtual learning became synonymous with isolation. Algorithms and Zoom rooms were meager surrogates for authentic connection. Students’ relationships with faculty and friends in the classroom, not to mention chance encounters […]

school data

Why better data on students’ networks can start the school year off right

Back to school means back to building relationships. Across high school campuses this fall, the first weeks of class will be marked by new rosters, ice breakers, hopes and dreams conferences, and the like as teachers set out to get to know their students and to help students get to know one another. But before schools set […]

economic mobility

Schools that aren’t measuring students’ relationships are leaving their economic mobility to chance

Measuring students’ access to networks of support can inform data-driven strategies for opening doors to economic mobility.

Do you know who your students know? Here’s why you should.

Students exist in an ecology of relationships far beyond the four walls of their school

Invigorating the youthforce: Mentorship, social capital, and work-based learning

This virtual ASU+GSV session makes transparent the importance of students’ social capital and what it will take to scale relationships.

Taking “navigation and guidance” to church

Supporting students to and through college equitably amounts to more than a checklist of short-term fixes and nudges.

student wellbeing

No, the kids aren’t okay. Here are four social supports that can make a difference.

Research lays out four social support considerations educators can leverage toward students’ wellbeing.

What will it take for education’s most promising innovations to scale?

Scaling education innovations requires access to peer data and democratizing access to evidence

edtech connections

Edtech’s lasting value as the pandemic continues

Edtech can supplement face-to-face connections with other relationships otherwise out of reach for students.

3 lessons from parent surveys over 3 years that should guide family engagement in 2022

Parent surveys reveal notable shifts and lessons to guide family engagement in schools

college dreams

The pandemic has dashed and deferred too many college dreams

Amid the pandemic, an unprecedented number of high school grads are putting their college dreams on hold—a troubling trend that could have long-term consequences.

2022 trends

5 education innovation trends worth watching in 2022

Even amidst the exhausting toll the pandemic has taken on the education system, a host of innovative approaches to teaching, learning, and launching students into good careers could blossom as 2022 trends.