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21 Oct 2016
Brief

When Districts Support and Integrate Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)

Findings From an Ongoing Evaluation of Districtwide Implementation of SEL

Kimberly T. Kendziora and Nick Yoder

Students need more than just academic knowledge to succeed in college, careers, and personal and public life. They need to understand their own skills and abilities, manage their emotions and behavior, communicate effectively, negotiate conflict, care about others, and make responsible decisions. Social and emotional skills undergird student success—and build better citizens. When such skills are intentionally taught, practiced, and reinforced in schools, students have better behavioral, social, and academic outcomes.

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is increasingly accepted by educators and researchers as a process to cultivate life skills that foster personal development, academic achievement, and a more empathic school climate. SEL has been integrated into classes and taught in many schools, but the challenge for educators and policymakers is to better understand the most effective strategies for districtwide implementation.

This policy brief outlines the lessons learned from a multi-year evaluation of the Collaborating Districts Initiative in Austin, TX. 

Recommendations

Although many preschool through high school teachers—as well as college faculty and administrators, employers, parents, and students themselves—understand the potential benefits of cultivating social and emotional development, few have the time or support to enable students to build social and emotional competencies.

State, district, and school leaders should consider making SEL a priority. Doing so would entail implementing policies, standards, and guidance that support teachers and administrators to integrate SEL with academic instruction. Support is also extended to fostering best practices in behavior management, discipline, and school climate that promote healthy, safe, and nurturing environments for all students. Based on findings from this study and others, even modest investments in SEL can pay off for individuals, schools, and society.

PDF icon When Districts Support and Integrate Social and Emotional Learning (PDF)

Related Work

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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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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: 
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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.
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Brief

Afterschool brief cover.jpg

Afterschool brief cover

Supporting Social and Emotional Development Through Quality Afterschool Programs

During the past 20 years, the afterschool field has been held accountable in varying ways—first, on the ability to provide safe places for young people to spend time while their parents work; then, on success in helping to improve participants’ academic achievement as a supplement to the school day. This brief provides an overview of work done to date both in afterschool and school-based settings to define social and emotional learning, shares recent research on how afterschool programs contribute to the development of these competencies, and offers some next step recommendations to both practitioners and researchers.
Topic: 
Social and Emotional Learning, Education, Afterschool and Expanded Learning

Further Reading

  • Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Solutions at AIR
  • Consensus Is Emerging on Teaching Social and Emotional Skills
  • EdCast: Social and Emotional Learning #2- A Key Ingredient to School Transformation and Success
  • Social and Emotional Learning Explained: How SEL Helps Students in College, Career, and Life
  • Social and Emotional Learning at Pasco County Schools
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Kimberly T. Kendziora

Managing Researcher

Topic

Education
District and School Improvement
Social and Emotional Learning

RESEARCH. EVALUATION. APPLICATION. IMPACT.

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