Education Week - February 7, 2018 - 6

Experts to Plot Map
On Social-Emotional
Learning for Schools
A national coalition of researchers, policymakers, and educators
has forged a consensus on why
schools need to be more responsive
to students' social, emotional, and
developmental needs, and it will
now finalize recommendations for
how to carry out that vision.
The Aspen Institute National
Commission on Social, Emotional,
and Academic Development has
convened working groups and visited schools that are using strategies around social-emotional learning and student engagement.
The commission released its preliminary findings last month and
outlined questions it has yet to
answer before making final recommendations to the K-12 field in the
fall.
"It's one thing to have some re-

jr size

ally exciting local pilots in place,
but our goal is for this to go to
scale," said Gene Wilhoit, the executive director of the national
Center for Innovation in Education and the co-chair of the group's
policy subcommittee.

Dustin Franz for Education Week

By Evie Blad

A Three-Pronged Approach
The work comes as supporters of
social-emotional learning say that
the federal Every Student Succeeds
Act provides flexibility and incentives for schools to adopt the approach. Social-emotional learning
strategies center on research that
links the development of skills like
building healthy relationships and
responsible decisionmaking to success, both in and out of school.
The commission supports a threepronged approach: direct instruction
of skills, infusion of those skills into

traditional academic subjects, and
changing broader school practices
in areas like discipline to create an
environment that fosters students'
development in those areas.
"We want to think about the way
to integrate this work in the very
fabric, the practices, the culture, the
lifeblood of schooling," said Stepha-

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nie Jones, a professor of psychology
at the Harvard Graduate School
of Education, and a member of the
commission's panel of scientists.
Among the findings in the preliminary report:
* Social, emotional, cognitive, linguistic, and academic development
are "deeply intertwined" and "all are
central to learning and success."
* A variety of instructional practices can help nurture social-emotional skills, but they must be used
intentionally. And, while there are
many research-based programs for
direct instruction of social-emotional
learning, more work must be done to
learn how to integrate the approach
into traditional instruction.
* Sensitivity to students' social,
emotional, and academic development should inform all areas of
schooling, including family engagement and school climate.
* Educators need prep programs,
professional development, and
support to lead SEL efforts and to
model healthy behavior for students.
* SEL strategies must be designed at the local level to meet the
specific needs of a community.

Questions to Answer Next
Andover, Mass., Superintendent
Sheldon Berman, a member of the
commission's educator panel, said
his district designed its own SEL
work.
Leaders weave social-emotional
learning priorities into decisions
like hiring, teachers receive professional development around special
curriculum, and strategies like
morning meetings help build community. Student surveys on school
climate help guide leaders' work.
"Teachers respond incredibly well
to this work," Berman said.
Commissioners want their final
report to provide a roadmap for
schools without reading like a mandate that stifles local innovation.
A policy group will outline recommendations for areas like cooperation between schools and other
sectors, including social services.
Among the biggest questions remaining for the commission:
* What are the most pressing
questions for researchers interested
in the field?
* What kind of preparation and

Madison Reid, a student in a
combined 2nd and 3rd grade class,
leads a discussion on what is good
listening at Wade Park Elementary
in Cleveland in 2015. The exercises
are part of Cleveland's districtwide
social-emotional-learning plan.

support do teachers need to develop students' social-emotional
learning?
* What should schools do to monitor the success of their efforts and to
make improvements?
A common concern about SEL is
that it will be another trend that
schools abandon without giving it
a chance to take effect in a meaningful way. But commissioners hope
growing interest in the research
coupled with ESSA will give socialemotional learning staying power.
ESSA requires schools to report
new factors, like chronic absenteeism, in their public report cards, and
it requires states to broaden how
they measure school success.
No state included direct measures of social-emotional learning
in its accountability system, largely
because of cautions from researchers who say existing measures
shouldn't be used for such purposes.
But attention to students' relationships and development can help
schools improve in other areas covered by the law, like attendance and
achievement, commissioners said.
Dr. James Comer, a professor of
child psychiatry at the Yale University Child Study Center and honorary commission co-chair, has been
studying issues related to children's
development and education for 50
years.
"When I started, I remember
being told that the parents will
raise them and we will teach them,"
Comer said. "We've come a long way
now in understanding that child
rearing begins at home, but that it
has to be complemented every step
of the way. ... I think we are making
that progress, but it's terribly complicated and we have to learn and
grow and be flexible along the way."
Coverage of social and emotional
learning is supported in part by a grant
from the NoVo Foundation, at www.
novofoundation.org. Education Week
retains sole editorial control over the
content of this coverage.

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Education Week - February 7, 2018

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