The GENIUS Initiative • Sonoma County, California
The Pedagogy of Confidence and Mindfulness Practices
Overview of GENIUS Initiative with Sonoma County
The GENIUS (Genuine Empathy & Nurturing Intellect of Underserved Students) Initiative, from the California Department of Education, offers school leadership teams the opportunity to provide all students with a promise of educational settings that foster their growth and development, enabling them to thrive and flourish. McDowell School is a partner in this state initiative with the goal of creating a Genius Hub Site where teachers can learn from each other with the guidance of Dr. Yvette Jackson.
Goal: Teachers will observe students engaged in instructional practices that elicit high intellectual performances through the implementation of the Pedagogy of Confidence® and the 7 High Operational Practices® (Dr. Yvette Jackson).
Content
- Overview of The GENIUS Initiative
- People
- School Partnership Activities
- Research and Guiding Principles
- Critical Thinking Methods and Models
About The GENIUS Initiative
Rooted in love, justice, and possibility— the GENIUS Initiative guides us to create learning spaces where students feel seen, valued, and empowered to thrive. It also represents a bold and necessary move towards educational equity. Our support is centered on serving schools with high populations of historically marginalized and underserved students such as juvenile justice populations, high needs schools and schools seeking to create equitable systems, schools and leaders from the inside out.
Genuine, Empathy & Nurturing Intellect for Underserved Students
The GENIUS (Genuine, Empathy & Nurturing Intellect for Underserved Students) Initiative, also known as the Equity Lead Grant, was established in 2023 under Senate Bill 114 as a part of the California Statewide System of Support. At its heart, GENIUS is about giving every child a chance to thrive —no matter their zip code. The Equity Multiplier funding has allocated approximately $300 million across 57 of California’s 58 counties to 1,008 schools to support qualifying schools in closing opportunity gaps for our most marginalized students. This funding aims to ensure that every student receives the necessary support and resources for success. As part of California’s education funding, the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) Equity Multiplier provides additional resources to school sites with high non-stability rates and a significant percentage of socioeconomically disadvantaged pupils, directing funds to schools with the greatest needs.
A couple of critical components of the GENIUS Initiative are the collaboration between Kings, Los Angeles and Sonoma County Offices of Education and their research partnership with UCLA’s Center for the Transformation of Schools. This collaboration will provide continuous evaluation and impact measurement, ensuring that the initiative’s goals are met and that best practices are refined over time. By listening to the data and centering equity, we’re investing where it counts most—our kids.
Together, we’re not just changing outcomes—we’re changing lives.
—GENIUS Initiative Website
People
The collaboration with The Genius Initiative in Sonoma County.
The People with Pedagogy of Confidence and Mindfulness Practices Team.
Linda Montes
Initiative Coordinator
Sonoma State University Bio
Yvette Jackson
Pedagogy of Confidence
Columbia University Bio
Michele Rivers Murphy
Mindfulness Practices
Center for Educational Improvement Bio
Regina Seabrook
Professional Website
Stefanie Baker
Hope Academy Los Angeles
Robert Seth Price
Professional Website
Whitney Eakin
NUA – Pedagogy of Confidence Reflective Journal
Pedagogy of Confidence and Mindfulness Practices
School Partnership Activities
December 2025 Site Visit with McDowell School in Sonoma County, California
The site visit included a staff professional development in the morning, demonstration lessons in five K-7 classrooms, debriefings after each demonstration lesson and a debriefing after the school day with the whole staff followed by a debriefing with the leadership team. The GENIUS support includes Dr. Linda Montes (coordinator), Dr. Yvette Jackson, Dr. Michele Rivers Murphy, Dr. Regina Seabrook and Robert Seth Price.
Video Clips from the December 2025 Site Visit
December 2025, 9 minutes
including High Operational Practices and Mindfulness Practices
December 2025, 12 minutes
December 2025, 3 minutes
Kindergarten Inductive Reasoning and Sequencing – December 2025
Inductive sequencing a story (or process in math) to support critical thinking, collaboration, and mindful interactions with a Kindergarten class.
Research and Guiding Principles
The seven High Operational Practices are codified within the Pedagogy of Confidence:
- Building relationships
- Situating learning in the lives of students
- Amplifying student voice
- Eliciting high intellectual performance
- Identifying and Activating Student Strengths• Providing enrichment
- Integrating prerequisites for academic learning
Supporting African American Learner is an invaluable guide for improved and enhanced dialogue, learning opportunities, and outcomes through strategies and best practices that promote high-quality teaching and learning.
Mindfulness Practices: Cultivating Heart Centered Communities Where Students Focus and Flourish) is co-authored by Christine Mason, Michele M. Rivers Murphy, and Yvette Jackson. The book is designed for educators and school leaders, offering practical strategies to create compassionate, mindful, and trauma-informed learning environments. It is grounded in the latest neuroscience research and emphasizes both academic achievement and well-being.
Critical Thinking Methods and Models
The four pillars of critical thinking are models of practical methods that are the core of developing critical thinking skills.
Download Critical Thinking Methods and Models Guide
Collaborative Communities are three supporting methods of collaborative tools for individual and collaborative success. These include: community building exercises and models, collaborative learning methods and peer-to-peer coaching.
Questioning Methods are used to engage students in curiosity, exploration, discovery and discussions. This includes effective methods for developing questioning skills leading to inquiry based shared inquiry.
Cognitive Visual Mapping is for organizing and understanding thinking individually and collaboratively. The maps support recognizing patterns of thinking along with the frame of reference to understand different perspectives.
Thinking Environments is an awareness, understanding and a process focused on the design, interface and impact of the environment including a person’s use of space, materials, and objects.
Video and website links to structures and critical thinking methods modeled during the site visit.
Haiku for student and educator reflections. Download PDF file.