Making Our Schools an Inclusive Community (MOSAIC)
Campbell Union High School District
The MOSAIC (Making Our Schools an Inclusive Community) Program is a cornerstone of the Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District’s commitment to students’ social-emotional well-being. Now in its fourth year, MOSAIC aligns with the district’s Strategic Plan, ensuring every student feels safe and empowered to express their authentic selves. With a range of topics from stress management to Title IX, this program features staff-designed lessons, incorporated with student input, to address needs that surface through the annual California Healthy Kids Survey. Each topic provides students with an opportunity to connect with a caring adult, share real-life experiences with peers, and provide resources to make positive, healthy choices. The MOSAIC program gives all students life-changing tools to navigate the social-emotional turmoil throughout their high school journey so they can focus on the academic and extracurricular opportunities that prepare them for college and career readiness.
Program Summary
The MOSAIC Program was created to address the critical need for social-emotional wellness among high school students at LGSUHSD, a concern heightened by the pre-pandemic rise of social media and further amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic. Recognizing the importance of student well-being for both their high school experience and long-term success, LGSUHSD designed MOSAIC to be a dynamic and responsive program that directly addresses student needs identified through CHKS data.
Initially launched as an advisory period during online learning, MOSAIC evolved into a hybrid of self-paced modules and online videos, eventually transitioning to in-person. Addressing State Priority 5: Pupil Engagement and the district’s LCAP Goal 2: School Culture/Social-Emotional Learning, the program’s adaptability ensures its goals remain intentional and relevant, with lessons tailored to each campus's unique needs. Los Gatos High School and Saratoga High School focus on distinct topics affecting each of their communities, even down to separate topics affecting each grade level.
Beyond its monthly sessions, the program’s influence extends to school-wide peer-to-peer groups, creating a culture of ongoing support and engagement, and a common language among students and staff. This intentional, data-driven approach ensures MOSAIC is not just a program but the heartbeat of the district's commitment to student wellness, empowering students to thrive academically, socially, and emotionally.
Program Goals
The district measures student social-emotional data in 9th & 11th grade annually through the California Healthy Kids Survey, assessing students’ well-being & school climate. With the MOSAIC program beginning in the 2021/2022 school year, the most recent 11th grade responses were the first class of students to have participated in the program since entering high school - and the results were astounding. The District quickly received confirmation of the transformative impact the program is having on increasing school connectedness & reducing risk factors, such as suicide. Supporting 100% of the student population, the MOSAIC program demonstrates remarkable progress:
Student-Teacher Relationships: The % of students who feel that a teacher/adult at school cares about them increased by 17% at Los Gatos HS (LGHS) & 19% at Saratoga HS (SHS) - the highest levels since the pandemic.
School Satisfaction: Students happy to be at school have increased by 24% at LGHS & 9% at SHS - the highest % since the pandemic.
Safety: Feelings of safety at school have grown significantly, with a 35% increase at LGHS & an 8% increase at SHS.
Mental Health: Reports of suicidal thoughts are at a five-year low, with a 32% reduction at LGHS & 34% at SHS.
Reporting Trust: Confidence in the school’s handling of sexual harassment reports has grown by 28% at LGHS & 7% at SHS.
These gains underscore MOSAIC’s effectiveness in reducing risk factors and enhancing protective factors (see charts in criterion #6).
Impact on Students
Originally created as self-paced modules, the MOSAIC program initially had challenges engaging teenagers in mandatory monthly lessons. To overcome this challenge, the district rebranded the program in the 2022/2023 school year and established a dedicated MOSAIC team at each high school tasked with thoughtfully designing and adapting lessons that resonate with students. With topic lessons still driven by the CHKS data, the MOSAIC program leads stumbled upon a simple yet innovative approach that immediately started to garner them results: collaborate directly with students to create and review lessons, reach out to like-minded clubs to get input, recruit students to create videos or record voice-overs that would not only grab their peers’ attention, but it would show the importance and value of the topic among the community.
This forward-thinking approach eliminated traditional top-down lesson roll-out and instead employed a new strategy that immediately improved results in future CHKS data. For example, the SHS MOSAIC team partners with the student-led Anti-Racism Taskforce to develop lessons on upstander culture and the LGHS team will have students create videos on how past MOSAIC lessons have impacted their lives, ensuring the program is reflective of the student voice.
The program’s annual reevaluation ensures it remains responsive to evolving student needs, making MOSAIC not only a curriculum but a living, adaptable model for inclusive and impactful education.
Innovation
The MOSAIC program is budgeted for annually, ensuring it is both cost-effective & feasible. Now in its fourth year of implementation, MOSAIC has become an integral part of the district, addressing critical student needs through engaging, data-driven lessons tied to the Board’s annual study session on this topic & district's Strategic Plan Focus Area 1 (Student Voice, Engagement, Success, & Well-Being) & Area 4 (Strategic/Family/Community Alliances & Leadership).
A dedicated MOSAIC team at each site, supported by stipends, leads the implementation of lessons with thoughtfulness & pride. Lessons are modeled by colleagues, ensuring teachers feel empowered to lead them, and the bottom-up approach enhances buy-in from staff, making the program a collaborative effort.
Students actively participate in MOSAIC lessons that reflect their voices and needs, as identified through CHKS data. Parents are kept informed of lesson outcomes through principal newsletters, fostering transparency and encouraging family conversations on important topics. And staff appreciate the program's flexibility and relevance, while the district’s Board and broader community recognize its value in promoting student well-being and inclusion.
Year after year, MOSAIC builds on its successes, as evidenced by improvement in CHKS data, including increased feelings of safety, belonging, & adult support among students. This continuous improvement demonstrates the program’s ability to adapt and remain effective.
Sustainability
A key component of MOSAIC’s replicability is the district’s establishment of a MOSAIC Team Lead job description and a workflow for lesson design and delivery. The team works collaboratively to create lesson outcomes, emphasizing interactive activities and ensuring every lesson includes a teacher guide. This allows any educator, whether a full-time staff member or substitute, to deliver the curriculum seamlessly. MOSAIC leads also meet district-wide to share ideas and align their efforts where there may be overlapping topics.
The program is cost-effective and manageable for districts, especially when structured as a stipend position or with release time for certificated team leads. These provisions ensure staff have the time and resources to create impactful lessons while maintaining their regular responsibilities.
The MOSAIC program leverages the data from CHKS, the largest student survey database in the country, to guide its content. Any district can administer CHKS to identify its students’ needs and compare results with similar districts, making it a powerful and adaptable tool. And with many high schools already having active peer-to-peer groups on campus, the MOSAIC program integrates and extends their work to amplify its impact.
By providing structured guidance, fostering collaboration, and utilizing universally available tools like CHKS, the MOSAIC program offers a sustainable and scalable model for districts seeking to prioritize student wellness and inclusion.
Replicability
Supporting Data & Info
Video of Program
