Student Well-Being

Social-Emotional Learning: New Resources Aid Districts’ Implementation

By Evie Blad — April 26, 2017 1 min read
Madison Reid, a student in a combined 2nd and 3rd grade classroom, leads a discussion on good listening with her classmates during a morning session at Cleveland’s Wade Park Elementary School. Such classroom exercises are part of Cleveland’s districtwide social-emotional learning plan.
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The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, or CASEL, launched a new set of online resources this week designed to help school districts implement comprehensive SEL strategies.

It includes a needs assessment, sample policies, resources, and videos from the organization’s group of collaborating districts—in cities ranging from Oakland, Calif., to Anchorage—which have spent years working to incorporate SEL into their work by changing school policies, using research-based social-emotional learning curriculum, and infusing SEL strategies into traditional classroom work.

The website opens with a flashy video that explains a big question: What exactly is SEL? And what’s the deal with these collaborating districts?

The site provides a “priority setting questionnairre” that helps districts evaluate their existing approaches to SEL and other areas to determine where to start. A breakdown provides explanations and key resources for 10 “priority areas” identified by CASEL: vision, communication, aligned resources, building expertise, needs assessment, professional development, integration, programming, standards, and continuous improvement.

For example, the section on communications includes “artifacts” like a website the Anchorage district used to explain SEL to parents. The section on building expertise includes a video of SEL in Oakland classrooms.

Check out CASEL’s District Resource Center here.


Related reading on social-emotional learning:

A version of this news article first appeared in the Rules for Engagement blog.