The report and accompanying brief from the Learning Policy Institute summarizes evidence about the effects of positive school climate, social-emotional learning, and productive teaching strategies on student achievement. It identifies policy that can foster these conditions and practices on a wide scale. The authors affirm that while whole child approaches are ideal for all students, they are especially important for students living with trauma. The report provides key lessons from the sciences of learning and development (SoLD), discusses the implications of these findings for schools, and explains policy and practice strategies to develop whole child environments. The key lessons the report surfaces are:  

• Development is malleable. 
• Variability in human development is the norm, not the exception. 
• Human relationships are essential to healthy development and learning. 

• Adversity affects learning, and the way schools respond matters. 
• Learning is social and emotional, as well as academic. 
• Children actively construct knowledge based on their experiences, relationships, and social contexts.