George Lucas Educational Foundation

Building Social Skills Through Cross-Age Buddies

When educators paired kindergarten and third-grade students for weekly learning sessions, they saw improvements in behavior and social skills—not to mention sweet friendships.

June 9, 2022

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Schools That Work

Van Ness Elementary School

Public, Urban

Grades Pre-K–5

Washington, DC

Outperformed all but one other Title I school in Washington, DC, when third graders took the state test for the first time in 2019.
Scored 98% for student satisfaction and95% for parent satisfaction on DC Public Schools’Fall 2020–21 Insight survey.
Developed the Whole Child model of teaching and learning that’s being implemented by schools in 4 states, in collaboration with partner organization Transcend.