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6 Oct 2016
Brief

Creating Healthy Schools: Ten Key Ideas for the SEL and School Climate Community

Elizabeth Devaney and Juliette Berg

About The 10: The 10, an occasional series by AIR’s Education Policy Center, offers policymakers, educators, and the general public accessible, research-based information on pressing education issues.

Social and emotional learning (SEL) and school climate are complementary and intertwined. Positive school environments with opportunities for social and emotional learning enable students and staff to develop social and emotional competence, which in turn can make school climate more positive.

So, how do schools start integrating and aligning these two important concepts? How can the two fields join to build awareness and strengthen understanding? What should happen now, and how can we plan for the future? And what key opportunities must educators seize to ensure that SEL and school climate initiatives instigate real and effective change?

These are questions the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and AIR sought to answer when they convened some of the nation’s top SEL and school climate practice leaders to begin setting out how schools and communities can best support the healthy development of children and youth.

This report outlines the ten key ideas that emerged from that meeting:

  1. Focus on equity.
  2. Be systemic. Be holistic. Be practical.
  3. Create a unified message.
  4. Spread the word.
  5. Invest in professional development.
  6. Incorporate student leadership.
  7. Involve families and the community.
  8. Identify what we know and don’t know.
  9. Improve assessment.
  10. Act quickly and strategically.
PDF icon Creating Healthy Schools: Ten Key Ideas for the SEL and School Climate Community (PDF)

Related Work

4 Oct 2016
Video

AIR Whiteboard: Keeping Social and Emotional Learning at the Center of Teaching and Learning

Have you ever wondered what social and emotional skills look like in practice? If so, watch this whiteboard animation that follows a student throughout her day and ways in which she applies her social and emotional skills.
Topic: 
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10 Jul 2015
Podcast

EdCast: Social and Emotional Learning #1 - A Head and Heart Issue

What is social-emotional learning and what does it look like in practice? David Osher and Cleveland Public Schools' CEO Eric Gordon discuss.
Topic: 
Education, Social and Emotional Learning
5 Oct 2015
Podcast

EdCast: Social and Emotional Learning #2 - A Key Ingredient to School Transformation and Success

In this podcast, Kim Kendziora talks with Melissa Schlinger of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), lead partner in an eight-district demonstration program that aims to establish whether and how large urban school districts can systematically implement social and emotional learning into their work, which AIR has been evaluating since its inception. The results provide insight on how SEL can be a key ingredient to school transformation and success.
Topic: 
Education, Social and Emotional Learning

Further Reading

  • Digging Deeper into Social and Emotional Learning (SEL): Exploring the SEL Landscape
  • Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Solutions at AIR
  • School Climate and Social and Emotional Learning: The Integration of Two Approaches
  • ESSA │School Climate and Safety
  • Building Safe, Engaging, and Equitable Schools
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Juliette Berg

Juliette Berg

Senior Researcher

Topic

Education
School Climate and Safety
Social and Emotional Learning

RESEARCH. EVALUATION. APPLICATION. IMPACT.

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