Ready to Learn, Empowered to Teach: Guiding Principles for Effective Schools and Successful Students

This document details seven guiding principles and recommends actions designed to advance equity and lower or remove individual and structural barriers to learning by creating school environments that: (1) promote wellness; and (2) effectively address the learning, behavioral, social-emotional, and mental health needs of students. These recommendations reflect decades of research and the growing number of schools around the country that are improving students' outcomes using these approaches. The National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) firmly believes that addressing these issues is not ancillary to education but rather necessary to prepare all of America's children and youth for academic success, healthy development, and responsible citizenship. NASP believes that school psychologists, educators, and policy makers, both individually and collectively, have a responsibility for actively advocating for the policies and practices outlined in this document.