Getting SEL Implementation Right

On September 17, RAND and CASEL jointly released the results of an important study about the implementation of social-emotional learning. Entitled Social and Emotional Learning in U.S. Schools and based on a national sample of principals and teachers, the study reveals the continued strong growth in incorporation of social-emotional learning into students’ educational experiences across nearly all states.

Expanding on a 2021-22 study of implementation by RAND, this new study indicates that by 2023-24, 83 percent of school principals reported that their school used an SEL program. It also reveals that principals and teachers working in states with more supportive SEL policies and conditions are more likely to report implementation of SEL programs. In addition, teachers and principals who use SEL continue to report its positive impact on school climate and student learning.

Given its survey-based design, the study was not able to assess the depth of implementation or the lessons learned about effective implementation. However, it does point to implementation-related challenges as:

• lack of adequate time for implementation;
• insufficient training or professional learning; and
• lack of dedicated funding.

In search of deeper insights, AASA conducted a comprehensive study during the 2021-22 school year, examining six diverse districts. The findings were published in Implementing Social-Emotional Learning: Insights from School Districts’ Successes and Setbacks.

"Reflecting on the classroom and school environments, on teacher practice, and on alignment with systems of instruction and discipline is essential to support social and emotional growth."

In addition to the AASA study, the Wallace Foundation studied implementation of SEL in six school districts and in their out-of-school-time programs. These case studies focused on: 

• Tulsa (OK), 
• Palm Beach County (FL), 
• Tacoma (WA), 
• Denver (CO),
• Dallas (TX) and
• Boston (MA).
  

Although the AASA and the Wallace Foundation case studies surfaced numerous insights into effective implementation, several stand out as critical.

Uppermost is the realization that SEL is not a thirty-minute lesson you check off on a weekly schedule and assume it has accomplished its purpose. Rather, SEL is about creating environments that foster personal and academic growth. It requires deep listening and building authentic relationships with and among students. It requires reflecting on the classroom and school environments, on teacher practice, and on alignment with systems of instruction and discipline to best support social and emotional growth and development.

"SEL is not a thirty-minute lesson you check off; it’s about creating environments that foster personal and academic growth."

The essential lever for effective implementation—the one that has perhaps the greatest impact—is building the understanding and capacity of staff with respect to SEL. In  an era when time and funding for professional learning are already scarce, addressing this need is particularly challenging. In fact, 53 percent of principals in the just released RAND study report that insufficient training is a significant stumbling block. Still, despite the fact that teachers and administrators are generally imbued with a love of children and a commitment to teaching, we must not assume they automatically have the interpersonal and intrapersonal skills to foster children’s social and emotional development.

SEL is far more complex than we may assume. To effectively promote social and emotional skill development among young people, teachers and other adults need to:

• Continually listen and observe as they assess students’ existing levels of social and emotional skill development;
• Support students in developing emotional recognition and self-regulation skills;
• Help resolve conflicts in constructive and instructive ways; and
• Assist in restoring relationships when transgressions occur

Teachers must reflect on the language they use in the classroom to:

• Ensure students feel known and valued;
• Facilitate classroom community-building;
• Enable students to have voice and agency and build on each other’s thinking; and
• Honor the diversity of students' cultures and lived experience.

Even a cursory review of state SEL standards will reveal the complexity of the building blocks for what students need to understand and be able to do socially and emotionally. These include finely woven instructional and community-building strategies that serve to achieve those results.

This point is well made by Harvard Graduate School of Education’s EASEL Lab in their study of elementary and secondary social and emotional learning programs entitled Navigating SEL from the Inside Out. Not only does this Wallace Foundation supported study point to the complexity of skills and approaches among SEL programs, but also to the essential need for quality professional development to execute programs effectively.

So, quality professional development in SEL must go far beyond the traditional two-hour introductory workshop that charts the sequence of lessons and explains the delivery models for those lessons. The districts involved in the AASA case studies found valuable pathways to building professional capacity.

• Virginia Beach offered four-day summer institutes in Responsive Classroom strategies that were both enlightening and compelling to teachers and then followed up with embedded coaching through a district-sponsored Responsive Classroom Academy.
• Corvallis provided ongoing embedded professional development in the Caring Schools Community program and employed walk-throughs with administrators and teachers to continue refining teacher practice.
• Naperville spent three years in preparatory professional development as teachers explored ways to integrate social-emotional learning targets into each individual lesson.
• Cleveland provided extensive training for all elementary staff as well as annual intensive training for all new teachers and administrators.

"When districts provided teachers with professional learning time and ongoing support across multiple years, the programs achieved greater depth, longevity, and teacher ownership."

These districts found creative ways to support summer institutes, release time, SEL coaches, professional learning communities, teacher leaders, learning rounds, and embedded professional learning. When districts provided teachers with professional learning time and ongoing support across multiple years, the programs achieved greater depth, longevity, and teacher ownership.

The importance of building professional capacity to the effective implementation of SEL may come as a surprise to no one. However, a second insight uncovered in these case studies was both unexpected and deeply profound. The AASA study found that in districts where SEL was well implemented, the very focus of the schools’ approach to SEL underwent a fundamental shift.

Instead of viewing SEL as a programming tool designed to fix broken kids or supplement lagging skills, administrators and teachers realized that children best learn, demonstrate, and actually embody these skills by spending their days within environments that are caring and collaborative communities.

By focusing on cultivating a positive sense of community in classrooms and schools, teachers and administrators create the spaces and conditions that best support and facilitate social and emotional development. 

At the elementary level, community-building strategies such as morning meetings, closing meetings, class meetings, partnering, and buddy programs serve to create a responsive, equitable, and inclusive culture. At the secondary level, quality advisory programs fulfill a similar purpose. Integrating collaborative and cooperative activities into daily instruction with specific directions around particular social skills not only enhances social and emotional skill development but improves learning.

Integrating collaborative and cooperative activities into daily instruction, with specific directions around particular social skills, not only enhances social and emotional skill development but also improves learning.

Fostering community in classrooms provides students with a sense of social and emotional safety. It also enables students to feel known, acknowledged, and valued so that they can take learning risks, learn from their mistakes, and feel good about themselves. Through their everyday engagement with peers, students feel connected to others. Because of the interconnectedness within a community, they develop empathy as well as a sense of responsibility for their actions.

This second insight necessitates an important change in preparing teachers to support SEL in their classrooms. Professional growth opportunities must help them see that they are not just instructors of social skills; rather, they are facilitators of a living, breathing community. School leaders must work with teachers to surface, develop, and refine these community-building skills.

Peter Drucker is often quoted for his statement that culture eats strategy for breakfast. This axiom is clearly true for social-emotional learning. Creating a positive and responsive community culture in classrooms and schools is a prerequisite to the effective implementation of any SEL program. The experience that adults and children live each day will dictate whether educators deliver on the promise of SEL.

"Districts can constructively create caring, inclusive, culturally responsive, and healthful learning environments for children and adults."

The need to consciously plan for the ongoing development of professional capacity and the need to focus on the creation of caring and inclusive classroom environments are two critical lessons from the implementation research. The AASA and Wallace Foundation case studies reveal other important insights that will help support effective SEL program implementation, from leadership strategies to program quality to the use of data to track progress.

What the AASA and Wallace Foundation case studies demonstrate is that districts can be effective agents of quality social-emotional learning. They can constructively create caring, inclusive, culturally responsive, and healthful learning environments for children and adults so that students can become compassionate and responsible members of their community. That vision is both worthy and attainable.