LAS curriculum director Dan VanderMeulen explains the connection between belonging and educational success

By Justin Tiemeyer - Contributing writer

31 Dec. 2024

In the State of Michigan, schools have a school improvement plan. It is the sort of thing that school leaders discuss, submit, and adhere to throughout the year. The first two components pertain to proficiency in reading and math, and the third component speaks to the importance of students having a feeling of belonging. Dan VanderMeulen is the curriculum director for Lowell Area Schools.

“Our number one priority is student learning,” VanderMeulen said. “What we do know is that if students feel like they belong and have a place in school, then learning increases.”

VanderMeulen noted that the same is true in schools as it is in the workplace, and the school’s approach has the feeling of a research-informed managerial technique. It is appropriate to have plans for those things that correspond with state testing, like reading and math, but the root cause for any deviance from the school’s expectations of excellence can often be found in the social/emotional spectrum.

Lowell Area Schools operate under the multi-tiered system of supports, or MTSS, which is well-known within the educational community, and this methodology is often expressed as either an umbrella or a pyramid. Under the umbrella, educators find tools like parent engagement, teamwork, and school/community collaboration to help reach their goals, while the pyramid divides the school into tiers of intervention, with tier 1 representing a universal approach given to all students, tier 2 targeting the 20 percent or so who need additional resources for success, and tier 3 identifying the 5 percent or so who have more intensive needs.

VanderMeulen spoke of the school’s motto, “Learners today, leaders tomorrow, Red Arrows for life,” and much of the tier 1 approach was evident by reflecting upon those words. Students are “learners today,” which means that they are not expected to already know everything, so presence and participation are valued over perfection. They are “leaders tomorrow,” meaning if they trust the process laid out in front of them, not only will it benefit them but the whole community that they are part of. As for “Red Arrows for life,” it is the ultimate statement of belonging - no matter who you are now or who you become, you have this singular experience as a Red Arrow, and that is something that never expires.

While math and reading are listed alongside belonging in terms of the school improvement plan, VanderMeulen noted that it is much more difficult to diagnose social/emotional issues.

“When it comes to math or science, you have an assessment of some sort. Teachers can look and see what you have learned and what not,” Vandermeulen said. “We do have social workers and counseling staff at every building. We do have a child study process at every building. We have a system that we would use to help identify early warning indicators.”

Those warning indicators are typically deviations in a student’s grades, attendance, and behaviors. As students progress through school, they do not know they are doing it, but they establish a baseline of performance and behaviors, and in many cases this can make identifying a significant life event easier. If an even-keeled, high-performing student starts disrupting class and getting Ds and low Cs, that is a student who might have experienced rejection from their social group, the separation of their parents, or some other event that has disrupted their sense of self and community.

“Because kids learn at different rates and they come from different backgrounds, we need to be flexible enough to do what we need for individual kids,” VanderMeulen said.

Thus, the work of promoting inclusion for all students cannot be done without working knowledge of a wide variety of contributing factors, and an important tier 1 approach might be training educators and administrators on the specifics that some students are dealing with. VanderMeulen recounted an all-staff training conducted during the last school year where the topic was trauma. Participants learned what trauma is, what to look for, and the end result was a staff better prepared to remove one more impediment to learning.

“As the director of curriculum, I believe there’s been a false narrative which is to say that somehow we’re not as focused on the academic work as we once were,” VanderMeulen said. “The truth of the matters is that I spend probably 95 percent of my day focused on academic improvement and teaching and learning. If people are struggling with mental health and/or feeling like they don’t belong in school, then their learning decreases.”

During the recent Lowell Area Schools board of education election, one candidate suggested that Lowell put a banner on the front of every school saying that everyone belongs, but that banner is already there, albeit inside the schools: “Learners today, leaders tomorrow, Red Arrows for life.” What VanderMeulen adds to the discussion is the need not just for words but for action as well, and that is what takes the conversation from the general to the specific. After all, if you push for inclusion for all but do not have the tools to identify why a particular student does not feel that inclusion, then it does not matter what banner is hung on the school as its message will ring false, and learning will suffer.