WGU D168: Schools as Communities of Care

Understanding D168: Schools as Communities of Care

WGU D168, Schools as Communities of Care, is a course in WGU's School of Education. You will most likely meet it if you are working toward a teaching license or a graduate education program, where it sits alongside courses on learner development, assessment, and professional practice. The course asks a deceptively simple question: how do you build a classroom and a school where every student, family, and colleague feels seen, supported, and safe enough to learn? The answer draws on social-emotional learning, culturally responsive teaching, and the ethical dispositions expected of professional educators.

Direct answer: D168 is a performance-assessment course, so you pass it by completing a set of written and reflective tasks rather than sitting a timed multiple-choice exam. Read each task prompt and its rubric line by line, address every lettered part in plain language with specific examples, and run your work through the course's writing checks before submitting. Careful, complete responses that follow the rubric are what earn a pass.

This is not a memorization course. It is about applying frameworks to real or realistic situations: analyzing a classroom video, reflecting on your own biases and strengths, describing how you would support a student's mental health, and planning ways to partner with families and the surrounding community. That makes it feel practical and grounded, which many students appreciate after a stretch of theory-heavy classes.

What the Assessment Covers

D168 is evaluated entirely through performance tasks that you write and submit for evaluator scoring. There is no proctored objective test to schedule. Across the tasks, the course concentrates on a consistent set of themes:

• The asset-based model — viewing students through their strengths, interests, identities, languages, and cultures rather than their deficits.
• Social and emotional learning (SEL) — building self-awareness, relationship skills, and social-emotional competence in yourself and your students.
• Culturally sustaining and responsive pedagogy — choosing diverse texts, honoring language diversity, and creating classroom spaces that affirm every learner.
• Mental health and trauma awareness in schools — recognizing when students need support and understanding the school's role in responding.
• Professional dispositions and ethics — self-assessment against recognized professional teaching standards and a professional code of ethics for educators.
• Family, school, and community partnerships — identifying stakeholders and designing collaborations that extend care beyond the classroom walls.

For the authoritative, current scope and any task updates, check the official course listing on WGU's teaching degrees page, since programs and task structures are revised over time.

How Hard Is D168, Really?

Difficulty is personal, but many students report that D168 is one of the more approachable courses in their education program precisely because it is application-based and there is no high-stakes exam to cram for. Several describe writing each task over a focused sitting or two, revising for clarity, and moving on. Because it is self-paced, motivated students who already work in or around schools sometimes finish in one to two weeks, while others spread it across the term.

Treat those timelines as encouragement, not a promise. Your pace depends on your writing comfort, how quickly you absorb the frameworks, and how carefully you address each rubric point. Budget more time if academic writing or citing sources is not yet second nature. The tasks are not tricky, but sloppy or incomplete responses get returned, and a revision cycle costs you days. Slow and complete beats fast and returned.

A Study Plan That Fits This Course

Because D168 is graded on written tasks, your "studying" is really structured preparation for good writing. Here is a workflow that plays to how the course is assessed:

• Start from the rubric, not the reading. Open each task's evaluation rubric first and turn every "competent" descriptor into a checklist. Everything you read and write should map back to those lines. This is the single highest-leverage habit in performance-assessment courses.
• Use active recall on the core frameworks. Close the book and try to explain the asset-based model, culturally sustaining pedagogy, SEL competencies, and the purpose of a professional code of ethics in your own words. When you can teach each concept out loud, you can apply it in writing.
• Space your reading across several days. Rather than one marathon session, review a framework, sleep on it, then return and connect it to a task. Spaced repetition helps these ideas stick and surface when you need an example.
• Practice with the video and scenario prompts. When a task points you to a classroom video or scenario, take structured notes: what did you observe, which framework explains it, and what would you do? This rehearses the exact move each task rewards.
• Draft, then check against the rubric again. Write a full first pass, then reread each rubric line and confirm you addressed it with specifics. Use the course's recommended writing tools to catch grammar and clarity issues before submission.
• Cite deliberately. When a task asks you to reference sources or standards, use in-text citations and a reference list in the expected format. Missing or vague citations are a common reason work comes back.

If you want to sharpen the writing and self-reflection habits this course rewards, the sibling course guide D090 The School as a Community of Care covers closely related territory, and D184 Standards-Based Assessment reinforces how evaluators think about evidence and rubrics.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Answering the topic instead of the prompt. Each task has lettered parts (A, B, C...). Evaluators score those parts directly. Write to the letters, and label your sections so nothing is missed.
• Staying abstract. "I would build relationships with families" is weaker than a concrete plan naming who you would contact, how, and why. Specific, realistic examples are what earn a competent rating.
• Skipping the self-reflection. Tasks that ask you to self-assess your dispositions want honest, thoughtful reflection tied to standards, not a paragraph of praise for yourself. Show growth areas.
• Underusing the provided resources. The course materials, videos, and standards documents are the source of the "right" vocabulary. Borrow their terms so your response speaks the evaluator's language.
• Rushing the writing mechanics. Grammar, structure, and citations count. A strong idea buried in unclear prose can still be returned for revision.

D168 Readiness Checklist

Before you submit any task, run through these self-checks:

• Can you explain the asset-based model and give a classroom example that uses it?
• Can you describe how culturally sustaining pedagogy shows up in the texts, language, and space of a classroom?
• Can you name the core social-emotional competencies and how you would nurture them in students?
• Can you honestly self-assess your professional dispositions against a recognized standard and identify a growth area?
• Can you explain what a professional code of ethics for educators is for and connect it to a real decision?
• Can you outline how you would recognize and respond to a student's mental health or well-being needs?
• Can you map the family and community stakeholders around a school and propose a concrete partnership?
• Have you matched every lettered part of the task to a labeled section in your response?
• Have you checked grammar, clarity, and citations before submitting?

D168 FAQ

Is D168 an OA or a PA?

D168 is assessed through performance tasks (PA) that you write and submit, not a proctored objective exam. Your work is scored against rubrics by evaluators.

How long does D168 take to finish?

It varies. Many students report moving through it faster than a full term because the tasks are practical and there is no exam to prepare for, sometimes in one to two weeks. Your pace depends on your writing comfort and how carefully you follow each rubric.

How many tasks are there?

D168 uses a set of performance tasks rather than one big paper. The exact number and structure can change as WGU updates the course, so confirm the current task list inside your course of study before you plan your schedule.

What is the hardest part of D168?

Most students find the content approachable; the challenge is discipline. Addressing every lettered rubric part with specific examples, reflecting honestly on your own dispositions, and citing sources correctly are where returned submissions usually come from.

Do I need classroom experience to pass?

No. Real experience gives you ready examples, but the tasks can be answered from the course frameworks, provided videos, and realistic scenarios. If you lack direct experience, lean on the case materials and think through how you would apply each concept.

What should I read first?

Start with each task's rubric and the course's foundational readings on the asset-based model, SEL, and professional ethics. Those anchor the vocabulary evaluators look for across every task.

Ready to keep building your plan? Browse related education courses like D268 Introduction to Communication, explore the full School of Education hub, or see every guide in the complete study guide index.