ACEs 101 [For EdTechs]: Why Should I Care About Adverse Childhood Experiences And My Students? What Does It Mean For My Classroom? What Does It Mean For My Community?

Our schools care about students and their futures. Our schools use amazing best practices to improve aspirations, test scores, graduation rates, college going rates, and retention rates, but still we are losing too many of our students. As teachers, guidance counselors, and school administrators we know we need to do better, but how. This session takes a look at ACEs- Adverse Childhood Experiences and the impact of these experiences on school success. What we know from ACEs is that a trauma informed approach is needed in schools and without acknowledging and responding to the impact adversity has on developing brains and on social and emotional development, we will never close the achievement gap. This session seeks to share the very basic information of the ACEs study and what that means for educators, students, parents, and communities. If you never have heard of the ACEs study, this session is for you. If you have heard of the ACEs study but are not familiar with the specifics and how this impacts your classroom, this session is for you. This session is the starting point for all teachers and schools wishing to create more trauma informed school cultures.