Essay: Social and Emotional Learning: A Program Narrative and Analysis

October 5th, 2018
Social and Emotional Learning: A Program Narrative and Analysis
What is Social and Emotional Learning?
According to Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), a group whose focus is to bring evidence based social and emotional learning to all K-12 students through research, practice, and policy,  “Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.” (CASEL,2018) In other words, SEL is explicit instruction that will increase a student’s ability to funcional socially and emotionally in our ever changing world. At its core, SEL is about making sure students know how to manage and control their emotions and non cognitive responses and interactions with other. (Jones and Doolittle, 2017) It includes skills such as problem solving, self regulation, collaborative work, global thinking, critical thinking and inquiry, and effective communication.
It’s important to note that SEL can go by many other names, such as character education, 21st century skills, soft skills, non cognitive skills, and emotional literacy to list a fes (Jones and Doolittle, 2017). All of these programs, skills, and topics essentially narrow down to teaching students the life skills outside of traditional academic education that they need to have in order to function as productive citizens in the world outside of education.
History
SEL programs have been around since the 1990’s but only recently have become a focus in education. In fact, it has become a hot topic amongst policy makers, parents, and school and district leadership as we are seeing an increased need in these skills, largely due to the nature and demands of people in our society. (Swartz, 2017)
Presently, all 50 states in the United States have some set of SEL standards in place at the preschool level, and four states (Illinois, Kansas, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania) have standards in place for grades K-12 as well. (Jones and Doolittle, 2017). Policy makers are working hard to increase that number as research is indicating the positive effect SEL holds on students.
Much of today’s SEL comes from the research, compiled and analyzed and disseminated by CASEL and their efforts to bring SEL into the K-12 curriculum. (Swartz, 2017). Their work in the field has been a strong influence on the SEL within education and they continue to fight for all students to receive this learning.
Funding of program
One of the key factors when considering funding for SEL programs is it’s long term sustainability. Because of this, a specific plan for financing these program is crucial to the implementation success and advancement of the program. When funding this program, it is useful to consider use of multiple sources of funding to ensure continuation of the program beyond its initial years. The Handbook of Social and Emotional learning writes there are three venues schools and districts should consider when securing financing for SEL programs: public and private agencies, local, state or federal funding sources, and foundations. (Durlak, J. A., Domitrovich, C. E., & Weissberg, R. P., 2015)
Public and Private agencies are excellent sources of funding thanks to the overarching target audience of the support given. Because SEL can target many students across many grade levels and can be aligned with mental health promotion, beginning with the district budget can support a lot of the funding needed.
Searching for to local, state and even federal funding can be a solution to funding as well. Local tax bonds, grants, reaching out to state educational boards, and funds from government programs such as the Affordable Care Act, ESSA (Title IV, Part A: Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants) (Gayl, 2018), and even the Substance Mental Health Services Administration can be sources of funding.
Foundations such as private foundations, public charities, or other organizations often support programs such as these and can be considered for sources of funding. It is advisable to look locally, statewide and nationally for foundations to support funding.
No matter where the funding comes from, the Handbook of Social and Emotional Learning warns that programs should have a plan for growth and advances within the program. Executors should “adopt a flexible frame but have a frame,” understand that “more is not always better,” and understand that, “relationships matter, partnerships matter, and united fronts matter.” (Durlak, J. A., Domitrovich, C. E., & Weissberg, R. P., 2015, p 123-124)
Student population
While many SEL programs are implemented to help high-risk students, such as those at risk of dropping out, with behavior issues, emotional issues, or academic issues, research shows that all types of students have a need for SEL learning. Durlak, Dymnicki, Taylor, Weissberg, and Schellinger completed a meta analysis of a large scale research on school programs to promote students social and emotional health. Through their research it was determined that SEL programs are proven to be beneficial for all ages of students in all educational levels: elementary, middle and high school. (Durlak, Dymnicki, Taylor, Weissberg, and Schellinger, 2011). Their research also suggests that SEL programs are beneficial for urban, suburban, and rural schools alike. As a whole, it is the general belief that all students can benefit from social and emotional learning.
Curriculum and instruction
CASEL, recognized as a leader in SEL implementation, research, and professional development, identifies 5 overarching competencies related to SEL skills (CASEL, 2017):
Self-awareness: the ability to identify one’s own emotions and values, and understand how they guide behavior;
Self-management: the ability to successfully regulate one’s behavior in different situations;
Social-awareness: understanding social norms of behavior and being able to adopt the perspectives of and empathize with others;
Relationship skills: the ability to be a good listener, cooperate with others, and resist negative social pressure; and
Responsible decision making: being able to make constructive choices about behavior based on societal norms and ethical standards
SEL curriculum translates to how we research, provide, implement, and teach these competencies to students in the educational system.
The following chart from CASEL shows the different approaches to teaching SEL curriculum as well as their expected outcomes from students of all ages.
(CASEL, 2018)
Staffing
Staffing for the SEL program comes down to two elements. First, we must understand who is able to implement the SEL program. The same meta-analysis done by Durlak, Dymnicki, Taylor, Weissberg, and Schellinger the SEL implementation was done by classroom teachers and school staff. The success of these programs that were research proved “that these interventions can be incorporated into routine educational practices and do not require outside personnel for their effective delivery.“ (Durlak, Dymnicki, Taylor, Weissberg, and Schellinger, 2011, p. 417)
The second element of the staffing piece for SEL is the mindset of the teacher who is implementing. Teachers should have their own balanced well being of social and emotional competence, while maintaining a safe and comfortable classroom environment. When it comes to SEL, teacher student relationships are vital to the success and progress the program can make in a student. (Schonert-Reichl, 2017) Students and teachers much have a mutual respect for one another and there should be climate of respect among all inhabitants of the school. (Yeager, 2017)
The following chart, which depicts Jennings and Greenberg’s Prosocial Classroom Model, demonstrates how the teacher’s social and emotional state can affect their classroom. (Schonert-Reichl, 2017)
Coordination
Integrating SEL intro curriculums should have a strategic and systematic strategy put in place with multiple personnel roles and responsibilities. All should be working toward the goal of growing a successful SEL program that maintains fidelity. Influencers of the program at the district level include district administration, including the school board, the superintendent, and even learning coaches who can be dedicated to the SEL implementation. Campus level influencers would be the administration team, counselors, learning coaches and teaching staff.
Chrisanne Gayl outlines five ways influencers can coordinate a successful in her article called Student Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, from the educational digest (Gayl, 2018). They are as follows:
Articulate a well-rounded vision of student success: when creating a program, whether it be at the state level when creating standards, or at the district level when creating programs, the vision needs to center around student success–with an focus on that they should be able to “apply knowledge and skills to understand and manage emotions, set goals, build positive relationships, and make responsible decisions” (Gayl, 2018, p.18)
Provide professional development to improve educator SEL capacity: SEL must be an intentional practice, modeled daily, and strategies must be performed daily. Professional development on how to implement and teach effective SEL must be given initially and with periodic refreshers. Gayl notes that the ESSA provides opeprtunties to use funds for such training, within Title II Part A. (Gayl, 2018, p. 19)
Identify evidence-based SEL interventions as a school improvement strategy: Using the metrics used for evaluation (see Monitoring and Evaluation at the District and/or school level for further information) to show the powerful impact of SEL in the classroom demonstrate the basis for using SEL as an intervention approach. This is also an excellent way to encourage regular use within schools.
Leverage Title IV grants to implement SEL strategies: the Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants program under Title IV, Part A, are an excellent source of funding.
Make Data related to SEL transparent to the public: transparency of the program allows those involved with make valuable adjustable changes in planning and support of the program. If the goal of SEL is to help the student, remaining transparent through data and observations will help with continuous improvement.
No matter how the program is implemented, it’s important to approach it with fidelity with the idea of long term success in mind. Sustainability should be at the forefront so that students can see continuous growth. SEL competencies are an ongoing learning and cannot be conquered in a restricted amount of time.
Monitoring and Evaluation at the district and/or school level
Encouraging Social and Emotional Learning in the Context of New Accountability, a report from the Learning Policy Institute (Hanna Melnick, Channa M. Cook-Harvey, and Linda Darling-Hammond, 2017)  looked at several ways that schools and districts could look at and evaluate the implementation of SEL programs. The chart below, shared by the CASEL gives an overview of the possible measures for accountability. (CASEL, 2018)
It’s clear from the chart above there are several ways to measure, monitor, and determine success and confirm accountability. It’s important to note that the measures have varying purposes and come in a wide range of data. We can, however, categorize the data into two categories: tangible and intangible progress and results.
The tangible progress and results are the statistics growth or decline that accompany any SEL implementation. Data such as suspension rates, drop out rates, discipline referrals, absentee rates, and performance in academic class and on standardized assessments. (Hanna Melnick, Channa M. Cook-Harvey, and Linda Darling-Hammond, 2017) With proper implementation, the goal would be for these numbers to move in a direction that shows a positive outcome. All of these indicators have a direct correlation to SEL curriculum and their subsequent positive change can be attributed to the implementation on a campus.
The intangible progress measures more abstract data. While it can still be measured with surveys, observations, reviews and rubrics, it is mostly subjective data. (Hanna Melnick, Channa M. Cook-Harvey, and Linda Darling-Hammond, 2017) Even though the data is subjective to those offering and gathering it, it still holds value to measuring and monitoring the success of the program.
Measuring progress and accountability are crucial to identifying strengths and weaknesses within a program. Using the measures to adjust and adapt expectations, curriculum, teaching strategies, staff, and measures of learning is the key to a program that instills change within students.
Resources:
Collaborative for Academic Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL), 2017
Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL). (2017). Retrieved from http://www.casel.org.
Durlak, J. A., Domitrovich, C. E., & Weissberg, R. P. (Eds.). (2015). Handbook of social and emotional learning : research and practice. Retrieved from https://libproxy.library.unt.edu:2160
Durlak, J. A., Dymnicki, A. B., Taylor, R. D., Weissberg, R. P., & Schellinger, K. B. (2011). The impact of enhancing students’ social and emotional learning: A meta-analysis of school-based universal interventions. Child Development, 82(1), 405-432. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01564.x
Gayl, C. L. (2018). Student academic, social, and emotional learning. The Education Digest, 83(5), 17-24.
Jones, S., & Doolittle, E. (2017). Social and Emotional Learning: Introducing the Issue. The Future of Children, 27(1), 3-11. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/44219018
Melnick, H., Cook-Harvey,C. & Darling-Hammond, L. ( 2017). Encouraging social and emotional learning in the context of new accountability. The Learning Policy Institute, vii.
Schonert-Reichl, K. (2017). Social and Emotional Learning and Teachers. The Future of Children, 27(1), 137-155. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/44219025
Swartz, M. K. (2017). Social and emotional learning. Journal of Pediatric Health Care, 31(5), 521-522. doi:10.1016/j.pedhc.2017.06.001
Yeager, D. S. (2017, Spring). Social and emotional learning programs for adolescents. The Future of Children, 27(1), 73+. Retrieved from http://libproxy.library.unt.edu:2309/apps/doc/A503262649/HRCA?u=txshracd2679&sid=HRCA&xid=6e73c331