Empowered Learning in Secondary Schools: Promoting Positive Youth Development Through a Multitiered System of Supports

Positive youth development (PYD) is a strengths-based, positive psychology approach to fostering adolescents amp rsquo educational engagement and achievement. It focuses not just on students amp rsquo academic development but also on their vocational, social, and emotional development. The PYD philosophy is at the heart of Cynthia Hazel amp rsquo s unique model of secondary school change, which is presented in this book. Hazel amp rsquo s model uses a multi-tiered system of support to challenge the status quo of widespread achievement gaps. Because students amp rsquo own voices are critical to their empowerment and strong outcomes, the model calls for students to participate alongside parents, teachers, and administrators in designing and guiding the school amp rsquo s support structures.