The Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) launched The CASEL Guide to Schoolwide SEL that provides an interactive planner, step-by-step guidance, field-tested tools, and continuous improvement processes to help educators implement social and emotional learning (SEL) in their schools. The free, online resource helps school teams coordinate and build on their evidence-based practices and programs to implement SEL systemically.
The publication comes as demand for practical, how-to advice grows. The National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development at the Aspen Institute recently released a report with recommendations on how to integrate SEL into the mainstream of American education – and the School Guide is one place you can go for help in addressing those recommendations. Recent surveys of teachers, principals, students, and employers shows they want schools to do a better job of promoting students’ social and emotional skills such as teamwork, empathy, and responsible decision-making. Research [https://casel.org/impact/] shows that SEL improves students’ academic achievement, behavior, and life outcomes.
The school guide is organized around four Focus Areas for engaging in high-quality schoolwide SEL implementation:
- Build foundational support and plan for SEL.
- Strengthen adult SEL competencies and capacity: Cultivating supportive, caring adults who model and practice their own SEL.
- Promote SEL for Students: Providing all students with frequent, well-designed, and consistent opportunities to engage in and practice developmentally-appropriate and culturally-relevant SEL.
- Practice continuous improvement: Using continuous improvement cycles to facilitate high-quality implementation every step of the way.
CASEL’s schoolwide SEL implementation process was developed more than a decade ago and has been field-tested and refined since. The new online Guide was developed over the past two years with input from leading school districts that are part of CASEL’s Collaborating Districts Initiative.
For more, see https://schoolguide.casel.org/
