Education Week - September 8, 2021 - 9

Parents Like Social-Emotional Learning,
But Not the Name
By Arianna Prothero
Parents are strongly in favor of
schools teaching the skills promoted
in social-emotional learning. Things
like setting goals, controlling emotions,
and being informed citizens.
However, if you ask parents what
they think of " social-emotional
learning, " they may react negatively.
That's because while the idea of
social-emotional learning is popular
with parents, the name isn't, according
to a nationally representative
survey of parents by polling firm
YouGov and commissioned by the
Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
This disconnect-and other findings
in the survey-have implications
for the future of SEL, says the Fordham
report based on the polling data.
Social-emotional learning is having
a bit of a moment. Its reach has
expanded significantly over the past
decade. The number of states that
have adopted standards or guidelines
for SEL has grown from one in 2011
to 18 today.
Interest in building students' social
and emotional skills-especially
around things like coping, responsible
decisionmaking, and relationship-building-has
only intensified
with the pandemic. Educators and
policymakers alike see SEL as a crucial
means to help students recover
from the trauma and disrupted
schooling caused by the pandemic.
Even some federal COVID-19 relief
aid requires states to dedicate
a certain amount of money toward
responding to students' social, emotional,
and mental health needs.
But SEL is also facing some headwinds.
Some people in conservative
education circles believe that it's
imparting a more liberal set of ideals
and that its benefits are oversold.
More recently, SEL is being brought
up in the political sphere and even
linked to the fights over critical race
theory, the academic concept that
racism is embedded in legal systems
and policies.
Idaho education leaders were rebuffed
by some Republican state
lawmakers in the House Education
Committee last year over a socialemotional
proposal, with one lawmaker
comparing it to the dystopian
novel Brave New World. Others
walked out of the hearing.
More recently, the Virginia Department
of Education faced pushback
from some Republicans over draft
state standards for SEL, with critics
calling the proposal indoctrination
and critical race theory by another
name.
All that aside, though, large majorities
of parents, regardless of background
or political party, agreed in
the YouGov poll: They are strongly
in favor of schools teaching students
skills such as how to set goals, approach
challenges with optimism,
believe in themselves and their abiliAmong
parents
89% 75%
Democrats
Republicans
agreed that in order for
students to reach their full
academic potential, their
social and emotional needs
must be met.
ties, and control their emotions.
When asked in the survey to rank
in order of importance academic and
social-emotional skills, a mix of the
two came up in the top. Along with
math, career and technical education,
reading, science, and computer
science, these SEL-related skills were
also ranked among the 10 most important
by parents: reasoning and
problem-solving, responsibility for
actions, communication and interpersonal
skills, self-confidence, and
self-motivation.
Among parents, 89 percent of
Democrats and 75 percent of Republicans
agreed that in order for
students to reach their full academic
potential, their social and emotional
needs must be met.
But about that name, social-emotional
learning.
It was ranked second to last out
of 12 different terms related to SEL,
coming only above soft skills. The
favorite term, by a long shot, was life
skills. A distant second was socialemotional
and academic learning.
Republican parents in particular
disliked the term social-emotional
learning.
What's in a name? A lot, at least
when it comes to education policy
This disconnect over substance
and terminology is not unique to
social-emotional learning. Previous
polling on the Common Core State
Standards, charter schools, and private
school vouchers has shown that
people's attitudes toward a word is
often different than their feelings toward
the thing the word represents.
" If the 'Common Core wars'
taught us anything, it's that mishandling
communication about education
reforms can derail good intentions, "
Fordham's Amber Northern
and Michael Petrilli wrote in the
foreward.
While there were differences in
attitudes toward social-emotional
learning based on race, ethnicity,
and religion, the most significant
were produced by political affiliation
and educational attainment.
Parents with high levels of education
tended to rate various SEL skills
with more priority than parents with
less education.
Democratic parents were more
OK with the term social-emotional
learning than Republican parents.
They were also more supportive of
schools setting aside time and resources
for SEL.
Republicans were more concerned
than Democrats that socialemotional
learning in schools might
conflict with their values-although
that was not flagged as an issue
among majorities from either party.
A quarter of Republicans indicated
that was a concern of theirs, along
with 18 percent of Democrats.
Of note: Black parents reported
more social-emotional education
happening in their children's schools
than white or Hispanic parents.
Regardless of party or background,
parents see families more
than schools as playing the most
important role in teaching children
social and emotional skills.
What's next for the term socialemotional
learning?
All of the above boils down to four
takeaways for educators and policymakers
looking to build support for
social-emotional learning, according
to the Fordham report.
One, educators and policymakers
advocating for SEL would do well to
use less jargon when talking about
social-emotional learning. Parents
understand and are supportive of
teaching sensitivity to different cultures.
They are not as understanding
and supportive of SEL.
As the report's author, Adam
Tyner wrote: " If advocates can emphasize
the practical uses of SEL, regardless
of the name attached to it,
they may help defuse concerns that
it constitutes some sort of indoctrination
program-or, as one of the
surveyed parents put it, 'just a fad of
a woke culture.' "
Two, parents respond better to
the idea of schools teaching very
specific SEL-related skills such as
goal- setting, rather than more abstract
pursuits.
Three, with large shares of parents
expressing concern that SEL takes
time and resources away from traditional
academic subjects, it's important
to focus on indirect ways of
teaching and developing students'
social and emotional skills through
school policy, reading assignments,
and good modeling. (Note that SEL
advocates and researchers already
promote teaching SEL through these
means, but many say that explicit
teaching of social-emotional skills
is also important.)
Four, many parents see the home
as where students will learn and
develop most of their social and
emotional skills. Therefore, family
and community members, as well as
coaches, peers, and youth leaders,
should be leveraged in building children's
social and emotional skills.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Write a letter to the editor!
Visit: edw.link/SubmitALetter
Letters should be no longer than 300 words.
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Education Week - September 8, 2021

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