As schools try to determine how best to help students, the challenges, it seems, are everywhere: Health, safety, technology, food security, personal growth, and, of course, learning. Which is what makes learning about EL Education’s approach so useful.

EL Education guides a network of over 150 public schools in more than 30 states –  helping build schools in low-income communities that send all graduates to college through high student achievement, character and citizenship, while also building teacher capacity through professional coaching, resources and open-source curriculum.

But how does it work? And in particular, how are the program’s fundamentals helping students, parents, teacher, and administrators maintain learning and growing.

To learn more, we spoke with Ron Berger and Laina Cox. Ron is Chief Academic Officer for EL Education, and Laina is Principal at Capital City Public Charter Middle School in Washington D.C.

As you’ll hear in this part one of our two-part conversation, a lynchpin to EL’s success is something called Crew robust advisories that form human connections, and the connections in EL schools form a community.

For more information, go to www.turnaroundusa.org/podcast.