(Joanne Oshel) Hello, everyone.
Welcome to today's webinar session entitled
"Social Emotional Learning Tools in Schools."
I am Joanne Oshel.
I am the webinar coordinator for today.
But with that, I will pass the controls over
to Meagan O'Malley
who is with the TA Center to get the webinar started.
(Meagan O'Malley) Thanks, Joanne.
Very good, so I welcome you all to the webinar today.
We're very glad to be hosting Blessing Uchendu's presentation
on social emotional learning.
I see many folks already have joined us throughout the country
and glad to have you here.
As an introduction to today's topic,
just broad overview again.
I know many of you already know this but--
so the Technical Assistance supports and resources
available to you.
Our TA Center provides training, resources, and support
to grantees from SAMHSA's Now Is The Time initiatives
including three projects:
Healthy Transitions, which focuses on effective
mental health services and systems
for youth and young adults;
Project AWARE, which focuses on
K-12 student mental health in schools and community;
and our newest project is ReCAST,
which focuses on promoting resilience and equity
in communities that have recently faced civil unrest.
So today we have Blessing Uchendu
who's going to be presenting on social emotional learning
and I am going to pass it off to Blessing
to introduce herself and to get going.
(Blessing Uchendu) Hello, everyone.
As Meagan mentioned, my name is Blessing Uchendu
and I'm a licensed clinical social worker
and school social worker based in Chicago.
I'm someone who is incredibly passionate
about working with young people as a practitioner.
And I'm glad to be here today to talk about
this important topic in schools.
I would say that one of the things that I care most about
is equipping students with the supports needed
for them to access their education
and be successful in the future.
And so, I'm excited to be part of this conversation
with you all today.
As a facilitator, I do wanna mention upfront
that one of the things that's really important to me
is having a conversation that includes everyone.
I see myself as the facilitator of this conversation,
but definitely feel that that is deepened
by your participation and insight.
So as Joanne mentioned upfront, please feel free to make use
of the chat box throughout to share comments
or information that may augment what I'm already discussing.
To start out with our first polling question:
"Are you currently using social emotional learning
in your school or district?"
And then next, "What is social emotional learning?"
Now, I recognize that this is
a fairly straightforward question,
so do bear with me, but as someone who's new
to joining the Project AWARE initiative,
I do find it helpful to have a sense as a presenter
of where folks are at in the work.
Also, in doing this work in schools,
I've encountered a variety of definitions
of social emotional learning and also maintain some level
of curiosity about what definitions may be framing
or guiding work in your districts and states.
I think one of the things I'll share as we move forward
is that, well, I'll be using one definition
that will guide our conversation for today.
I think I'm loathe to say that social emotional learning
looks like just one particular thing.
I've found in my work with families,
I'm most focused on making social emotional learning
be something that is accessible to families
and sometimes I find that some of those definitions,
while useful for those of us who are educators or academics,
it may not be as engaging to our families.
So now we have on the screen our responses.
We have almost half who are saying that they are currently
using social emotional learning in their schools and districts,
and about 14% who say no.
And so, that's helpful to just-- for us to keep in mind
as I'll be sharing some information that some
may be aware of and then some
that's new to other folks so, as I said, if there are things
that you're curious about that I don't go over,
feel free to bring those questions to light
as we continue with our conversation today.
So for today's objective,
participants will be able to identify
developmentally appropriate social emotional milestones.
Participants will be able to apply natural supports
in the classroom that assist students
in meeting social emotional milestones.
Participants will be able to assess students'
social emotional needs and gaps.
Participants will be guided to identify key questions
for assessing the fit of evidence-based programs
for their settings.
So now for the definition that will be guiding us
in our conversation today, and I've chosen to use
the definition from CASEL which is
the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning.
I've used this definition because many of you
may already be aware that CASEL is preeminent
in the field of social emotional learning.
And an aspect that I do appreciate about this definition
is how thorough it is and how it includes
both children and adults as needing these skills.
As someone who's very much focused on youth empowerment
in my work, I think the idea of including adults
as also being ongoing learners who need these skills
and have not arrived yet,
is something that really resonates with me.
So as I mentioned, this definition
will be guiding our conversation.
While it's really academic and youthful in nature,
when I think about talking to my families about SEL,
a lot of times I sort of boil it down
to whatever their child needs to be successful in life.
And I think I found, at least in my context,
that sometimes the overly academic language
can sort of hold our families at bay,
but in sort of trying to invite them in
and make it relevant to what matters to them
and for our parents and guardians,
ensuring that their children will have what they need
to be successful, is something that is really--
what strikes a chord.
So I've chosen this quote here because I think it speaks
to where we're at currently in the understanding
of how essential social emotional learning is
to our work of educating students
and helping them engage their academics.
I think historically in schools, you know,
we've emphasized academics above all else.
But given the legislation that's embodied
in the Every Student Succeeds Act,
it's incredibly encouraging that it's helped to make room
to emphasize SEL, given really key elements of the law.
These are elements such as defining student success
more broadly to include non-academic factors.
This is also inclusive of language that encourages schools
to enhance students' learning skills essential
for school readiness and academic success.
And it also includes recommendations for activities
that promote safe and healthy students.
We've been given a great opportunity to maximize
social emotional learning in school.
Want to start off with developmental milestones
because it's understanding how our students develop,
what healthy development looks like,
allows us to know when their development
has actually gone awry.
And I believe that when we're talking about instituting
social emotional learning, we're better equipped
to institute practices that are appropriately aligned
to ensure the optimal goodness of fit when we know
what those developmental milestones of our youth are.
This quote from Denham:
"Social emotional learning does not take place in a vacuum
"but is substantially affected
by a child's rearing environment."
I wanted to start off our conversation
with this aspect because I think we would be remiss
to talk about social emotional learning
and not include families
and a child's context outside of school
from the very beginning.
This is a reminder to me and something that I'm sure
many of you are already aware of that our parents
and caregivers are essential.
Given the fact that our young people are spending time
primarily at school and at home, when we think about
these developmental milestones, I think it's important
to bring into our conversations within schools and districts
what's happening with our young people outside of school.
So this is just a bit of information.
The impact of parenting on social emotional development.
The impact of limit setting, warmth and affection
are things that are associated
with positive social emotional development.
I think one area that I really wanna emphasize briefly
is attachment.
So this is defined as the deep connection
that's established between a caregiver and child
during their first few years of life.
This piece of attachment, the theory of psychology,
came about through John Bowlby, a psychiatrist,
who posited that healthy attachment
is really developed as a result of adults responding sensitively
and appropriately to their children's needs
and this is something that appears universally
across all cultures.
So secure attachment is what serves as the foundation
to form all subsequent close and healthy relationships.
So then, conversely, more insecure attachment styles
can impede the formation of healthy relationships.
So, I've worked in a variety of school contexts
but I'm presently working
in a high-needs community context
and it's been really key for me
to think about our families' context
and their ability to parent optimally.
I think it's really a temptation sometimes
to have a more deficit-based understanding
of why certain things aren't happening
and why certain young people are not functioning optimally.
And when we think about a parent's ability
to be responsive to their child's needs,
it says a whole lot.
It says that this parent themselves, first of all,
if they're a teen parent, may not be in a position
where they're able to be equipped psychologically
and emotionally to be able to care for a young person.
Or if their context is one of high poverty,
lack of employment, community violence,
all of these things are factors that can impede an individual's
ability to provide the caregiving that's required
for optimal attachment to occur.
I mention these things upfront because I think knowing
the larger context of where our young people are coming from
and also viewing the parents within a more nuanced context
allows us to understand attachment
and where it's gone awry without demonizing
or solely viewing our families from a deficit-based model.
I think also being part of a marginalized group
is another strain that is put on parenting.
And I think from a school perspective,
a way to sort of ameliorate some of these areas
where attachment has been impeded--
workshops on relevant parenting practices
or for me and my relationship with families I've have been able
to offer supportive suggestions on helpful communication
and parenting practices that may ensure optimal growth.
I wanna take a moment to highlight
a few parenting practices.
So reasoning and inductive discipline.
Sort of authoritative parenting
where parents are the authority figure,
but they're open to conversation and equipping their young people
with the tools to be able to think critically
about why they should make certain decisions over another.
Power assertive and punitive discipline.
These are practices that can include corporal punishment
and withdrawal of privileges.
And I wanted to camp out on these couple
of parenting practices because they're another area
that I think are hugely impacted by culture
in context of parents.
And then the literature had indicated that parenting styles
do influence outcomes
and cultures should be considered in particular
for the power assertive practices
because research has shown that the link between
physical discipline and externalizing behaviors
is actually culturally specific, with more white students
experiencing internalizing behavior than black students.
I believe it's important to recognize the strengths
in our parents' and caregiving practices,
even if they do culturally differ from our own.
And I think coming from that place
of recognizing those strengths allows us to be able
to better connect with families when we find opportunities
to introduce alternate strategies
that may move beyond power assertive practices
and practices that also take into account
a child's developmental stage and encourage growth.
So in pre-K, this is
a significant time of development
where many aspects of social emotional learning
begin to emerge and blossom.
Our young ones are tasked with the need to begin to learn
how to manage their emotions in an age appropriate manner.
Then they get to learn how to develop peer relationships,
be able to sit still, focus, and attend all of the things
that are foundational to their ability
to be able to be successful in future grades and years.
Now, in elementary school, this is where our little ones
begin to sort of hit their stride
and become increasingly successful
at navigating peer relationships,
even independent of adult support.
This is where they begin to share emotions appropriately
and with appropriate people and, just when it feels like
they're getting a grasp on this,
they are thrust into the turmoil of middle school.
So middle school, as many of you may be aware,
can be a really challenging time where we have children
who are no longer elementary school age
and aren't quite high school age and are beginning puberty
and tasked with a lot of the hormones
that come with that.
And so, not only is there a lot going on biologically,
I think being tasked developmentally,
they're beginning to understand complex emotions
and regulate them.
And then also that transition from primarily being concerned
with their parents or caregiver,
they're now beginning to become more concerned
with what their peers have to say about them.
And I do believe that this is why things
such as the fact that peer inclusion, acceptance,
and friendship are so important at this time,
bullying and present-day cyber bullying
can be so devastating on middle school development.
Now, in high school, this is where young people
are beginning to prepare for adult roles
and achieve emotional independence
from parents and adults.
I see this as a time of really increased autonomy,
and an opportunity to exercise independent thinking
is really essential at this age.
I've witnessed this transition from elementary or middle school
be a bit tricky for families as young people move
from relying on adult support and parental validation
to being independent.
And in my work with parents and families, you know,
I've had parents ask,
"It's almost like I have a stranger in my house."
They don't even recognize their young people anymore.
And so, I've noticed that it seems at times
that the increased desire for autonomy and testing limits
which is developmentally appropriate at this time,
can appear as defiant.
But it's helpful to consider how your schools and districts
can provide positive opportunities
for students to practice independence in having
their voice heard, both at school and at home.
Universal classroom supports.
Just wanna open up this section and just mention that I think
that this is a great opportunity for you all to highlight
what you may be doing in your districts
that include good teaching, good discipline structures
that are good SEL practice,
even aside from specific programs themselves.
So if within your districts there are things
that you feel particularly proud of,
feel free to share them with the chat box
so that folks can get an idea of some of the things that we do
that aren't social emotional learning program specific
but instead actually represent
good classroom structures and models
and also policies that reinforce social emotional learning.
I think because I define social emotional learning
as more than just programs,
this is why I think that this is a really key piece
to highlight things that you may already be doing
to be successful in your schools.
So, I included this quote,
"All learning is understanding relationships,"
because to me, it represented
that the process of social and emotional learning,
it cannot occur in the absence
of healthy staff and student relationships.
It's these healthy relationships that are actually
the ultimate driver for social emotional learning.
So this pyramid model
which is Response To Intervention,
many of you may already be aware and using RTI in your school.
Just to mention briefly, for those who may be unaware,
Response To Intervention is essentially the structures
and supports we put in place
for our young people who may be struggling academically
and behaviorally in the general education setting
and these are the things that we employ
prior to referrals for special education support.
And I thought that this was a helpful structure
to think about social emotional learning for today
because we wanna begin by focusing our attention
on the universal promotion that exists at Tier 1 support.
So these are the things that we can do in our schools
that give all children social emotional learning support
before focusing our efforts on more targeted interventions
at Tier II and the Tier III level.
We really come into the Tier II and Tier III level
when we know a smaller percentage of students
who are not responsive to the universal supports.
Pre-K classroom supports.
This is an excellent time, once again,
because social emotional learning
is really burgeoning and blossoming at this point.
So some of the things in the classroom
that I would point out are things that are helpful
like promote--teachers who provide emotional labels
as students experience different affective states.
And so, for our young people who are still developing language,
developing their vocabulary around feelings and at times
externalize behavior as a result of being able--
unable to communicate effectively,
that labeling of different affective states is super-key.
Also engaging our parents is an essential piece
to ensure the educational success of our young children.
I think that this is super-important at all levels
and it can include things like assisting a teacher
as a classroom helper.
I think it's really important, rather than tasking our parents
with initiatives that we've decided at school
are the best for their young people,
I think engaging families from the ground floor
and saying, "What do you think is best for your young person?"
Or our school community in context
is something that is very helpful.
So I think it's important for parents to feel
like they're partners in the shared goal
of healthy development of children.
I think it becomes much more difficult to engage our families
and I can speak from experience with this when a lot of times
we can be more quick to note the negative things,
the struggles that our students are having.
And it comes from a well-intentioned place
of wanting to catch things that are difficult
and be able to help our students be ultimately successful.
But if our parents are only hearing from us
when the struggles are happening,
it can be difficult to engage them
around more supportive structures.
In our elementary and middle school classroom supports,
wanted to highlight the Morning Meetings.
This is an initiative that's actually a part
of Responsive Classroom,
which is an evidence-based approach to learning
that links academic success to social emotional learning.
So Morning Meetings are this vehicle
that are set aside at the beginning of classes
and that helps engage conversation
and activities that builds respectful learning.
A couple of components in Morning Meetings
are greeting and sharing, so where students get to share
about themselves or their lives, an activity,
and a morning message.
And an aspect related to parent volunteers
that I wanted to highlight because it's particular
to my context here in Chicago.
It's something that's called
the Logan Square Neighborhood Association.
It's nationally recognized and so some of you
may already have been familiar with this program,
but it's a parents' mentor program,
using a parent engagement model.
So in the community there are organizations
that partner with low-income schools,
recruiting about ten teachers per school
who assist a teacher for about 2 hours a day.
Prior to even beginning this, parents are invested in
by allowing them to attend a week-long leadership training.
Parents are then assigned to a classroom
that's not their child's.
They're mentored by a teacher and then work one-on-one
and in a small group with children.
And after committing about 100 volunteer hours,
they're able to receive a stipend.
So I highlight this not only because
it's nationally recognized,
but I can't think of a better way
of bringing parents into the school
and helping them feel that not only is school
about their child, but other children
and being able to have our parents be involved
reminds me of this notion that it does take a village
to raise a child and I think that given
that schools influence and are involved
in bringing up the development of children,
having parents involved in a program like this
is really key.
Also, in continuation of elementary
and middle school classroom supports,
one thing that I would like to highlight
amongst all of these other practices
like a Parent Teacher Organization
which a lot of schools currently employ is this piece around
using conflict as an opportunity for teachable SEL moments.
So I think this is something that's a strategy
and I think that teachers
who have excellent classroom management
also have this as an aspect, but I highlight this because,
depending on the situation and the environment,
conflict in the classroom can be seen as an opportunity
for a discipline referral.
And I think rather than opting for that right away,
it's possible to first try and solve for this
within the classroom because there's no better way
to teach this than students living this out
and practicing it in real life.
And so, I think the young people are still developing
how to handle conflict appropriately
so guiding students to give voice to their feelings
and then being able to model respectful ways to communicate
in the midst of frustration and anger is really huge.
So with our high school classroom supports,
these are initiatives that I think are in a lot
of different districts and ones that I can speak to
even a little bit more personally
as I work in a school that employs both practices.
So Advisory Structure is a structure
that's a regularly scheduled time.
It could be in the morning or afternoon or even midday
for the same group of students to meet with a teacher
to advance their academic and social emotional goals.
So I think the really key thing that I've experienced
being in a school with Advisory, that same group of students
with their advisory teacher fosters the development
of really deep relationships.
I've seen Advisory become somewhat
like students' in-school families.
They look to their advisory teacher
almost like an in-school parent or coach.
And so, I think that piece of continuity,
particularly across the years because we, in my school,
have Advisory all 4 years for students.
I think that's a great foundational place
for social emotional learning to be built off of.
So if you are a school or a district
that decides to use social emotional learning programs,
I think the Advisory structure
is a natural place within the school
to do those social emotional learning programs or lessons.
I think another key thing is the way
that tracking academic progress towards grade promotion
is also aligned and intertwined with social emotional learning,
so that they're not seen as separate vehicles,
but things that are inextricably linked
and build upon one another.
The Restorative Justice piece.
This is something that also is, I think, gaining more popularity
and more preeminence, both in schools
and the criminal justice environment.
And one thing I would mention is that it actually originates
from indigenous traditions,
and it's about "repairing the harm."
It's an approach to discipline that includes all parties
and moves away from the model of simply punishing.
So I've seen this grow more in popularity,
particularly in the research as schools have moved away
from the zero tolerance policies
and exclusionary discipline practices.
So one element of Restorative Justice
that I've seen in schools are peace circles.
So peace circles can be used to deal with conflict
or deal with building community within the school structure.
Another aspect of Restorative Justice
are restorative conversations.
In my school, we use this as a practice
when students are removed from the classroom
for disciplinary infractions.
We see that as a form of harm to the relationship
between teachers and students.
And so, it helps facilitate restorative conversations
where not only giving the young person language
and an opportunity to practice voicing their frustrations
because they need to as part of their development
and also giving them practice to do that
in an appropriate context.
I'm able to see the way
that adults, teachers, and students
are given an opportunity to really hear one another
versus making assumptions about the other person
based off of the negative interaction.
And so, this is something that I have seen result
in a decrease in suspension and expulsions
in my school in particular.
And so, using this model indicates a desire
to move beyond simply punishing
as we know that punishment alone does not teach behaviors.
And then high school classroom supports continued.
One thing that I wanna highlight that I honestly do think
could be spoken to at any level of schooling
is this piece around meeting basic needs,
so food, shelter, and health.
And I think at risk of this seeming really basic,
I go back to this.
Because I'm working in a context of high needs,
I realize it's caused me to think a lot about
Maslow's hierarchy of needs and the fact that it's hard
to attend to our higher order social emotional learning needs
if our basic needs aren't addressed
through some extent, through school directly.
In my work, I have found students distracted
by legitimate concerns about housing, safety,
caring for siblings.
And I primarily am able to respond by providing
community-based referrals for families.
While I've been amazed by how much resiliency I see
manifested in students, understandably it is
really difficult for some to engage
in school-based supports
when more of their basic needs are not met.
So assessing social emotional needs and gaps.
So this is the piece where, after providing
robust Tier I universal supports for all students,
schools will find that some students
require a higher level of support.
This is where the Tier II and Tier III supports come in.
So this is also where experiences of trauma
can heavily influence the development
of the social emotional gaps.
So if you could just take a moment
to answer the following question:
"How much is trauma given consideration
"in the planning of social emotional learning
in your school or district?"
So in the same way that I mentioned
that our attachment experiences early on,
they serve as the blueprint for our future relationships,
trauma also greatly influences
our social and emotional trajectory.
So I think depending on where you are at in your districts
with social emotional learning, you may or may not be having
that conversation around trauma, but I do wanna emphasize
this is a judgment-free zone, so if it's not a consideration
at this point, that's okay.
But it is simply worth acknowledging
that this is a really key area in terms of the planning
of social emotional learning.
One of the things that has struck me through the years
as I've really been immersed in the work
of understanding trauma and its impact,
the young people in my school and district,
this idea of asking the question of what happened to you
versus what's wrong with you has been really instrumental.
I think that the piece around asking what's happened to you
allows us to approach our students in a way
that allows it to be a bit more strength-based.
I think when considering the work--or the ways
in which trauma can sometimes manifest in behaviors
that are really difficult, to be quite honest
that school providers-- they don't endear
young people to us, particularly the more flagrant behaviors
but I think asking, "What happened to you?"
allows us to consider them in a more holistic way.
And so, right now, we have about 11% of you all saying
that trauma is very much a consideration in planning SEL,
18% say about somewhat, 4% were undecided,
14% say not much, and none say not at all.
So I think it's encouraging to note that this is at least
something that's on the radar of everyone, while it looks like
it's still an area of growth for some.
So I wanna take a moment
to speak about the impact of trauma
and adverse childhood experiences
which is also developing a lot.
It's getting increased press and I'm really thankful for it
because I think we can't really understand our youth fully
and serve them fully
without understanding how trauma
and adverse childhood experiences impacts them.
So adverse childhood experiences are the stressful
or traumatic events that occur in a person's childhood.
Some of these include things such as
childhood abuse and neglect, parental incarceration,
and parental separation or divorce, to name just a few.
The more trauma one encounters as a child, the worse his or her
future health outcome across the lifespan.
And this includes an increased potential for substance abuse.
Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, a pediatrician in San Francisco,
has done a TED Talk
that illustrates this really powerfully.
Within this talk she explains that when met with a stressor
like a bear in the forest,
our body naturally jumps into fight or flight mode,
where we're ready to either fight the bear or run away.
And in that moment, that is evidence
of an adaptive or a protective trauma response.
But if the bear comes home every night,
activating the fight or flight response,
this results in a toxic stress reaction in which
what was once adaptive and protective now becomes
maladaptive and has detrimental impact on brain development.
While I don't believe
that trauma explains every behavior,
I do think it's significant enough to be the lens
through which we examine everything
that's affecting our young people.
One's experience of trauma necessarily impacts
social emotional development.
I do think it's important to note
that while we're discussing the risk or vulnerability
that can come as a result of trauma,
it's also important to make note of the resiliency
that is present in our students.
I think about this when I'm relating with students
and in hearing really difficult stories
that have framed their life experience.
And oftentimes, my reaction and I think--my reaction
that's framed in the resiliency model is,
"I can't believe that this happened to you
"and you still come to school willing and wanting
"to learn and be successful.
You are truly amazing."
And I think on a person-to-person level,
the ability for us to communicate that to students
and also systemically communicate that to students
is truly transformative.
In identifying social emotional needs and gaps,
problem solving teams which are often formed
as a part of response to interventions
are great means of identifying and supporting students
at the general education level.
I think one thing to highlight once again
is involving our parents and, when appropriate,
youth of high school level.
This is a great strategy for encouraging buy-in.
Youth of this age, as we mentioned before,
especially benefit from strategies to empower them
to be the expert on their own experience.
And that's in particular for the young people
who may be part of marginalized groups or young people
who have struggled in school.
I think parents and caregivers should be sought out as experts
who can provide insight on how to best meet their child's needs
through social emotional learning practices or programs.
So some of the assessments that can sort of help guide
identifying any gaps present as well as any resiliencies
are the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment.
That's for pre-K.
So one thing that I wanna mention from the beginning,
and this informed why I included certain assessments
as part of this presentation,
is I think it's incredibly important to think about
what population that assessments have been normed on.
So you wanna make sure that these assessments
are normed on populations, excuse me, that are inclusive
of the communities that you're serving
and what I'll mention
is that this one is a behavior rating scale
completed by parents and/or teachers.
This one is nationally normed and it evaluates
within child sectors associated with social emotional health
in pre-school children.
The assessment standardization sample
closely approximated the population of young children
in the United States with respect to age,
gender, race, and socioeconomic status.
This is available in both English and Spanish.
For elementary, middle, and high school,
I'll mention from the beginning,
behavioral and emotional rating scale's one that can be used
on elementary age and high school students.
And this is one that helps measure personal strengths
and competency of the students ages 5 through 18.
Youth behavior is measured through the following:
youth rating scale, parental rating scale,
and teaching rating scale,
focused on domains such as interpersonal strength,
involvement with family, school functioning,
affective strength, and career strength.
So this parent rating scale's another really key
way to get parents involved in this process.
It's a really thorough rating scale.
And this one was standardized on a sample
of about a little over 2000 youth and this was spread
across different communities including white, black, Latinx,
and others represented.
The Devereux Student Strengths Assessment
that's particular to youth K through 8
measures eight competencies:
self-awareness, social awareness,
self-management, relationship skills,
goal-directed behavior, personal responsibility,
decision making, and optimistic thinking.
This one was standardized on a sample size
of about 2500 children that are representative
of the US population with respect to gender, race,
Latinx ethnicity, region of residence,
and socioeconomic status.
Selecting evidence-based programs.
So, for those who are new to the world
of evidence-based programs, these are typically programs
whose effectiveness is demonstrated
through rigorous scientific evaluation
so they are using ideally randomized control trials
or time-series control trials.
They're proven effective with large diverse populations
and shown to have significant and sustained effects
demonstrated through longitudinal studies.
So, it's one of those things where you tend to get,
sort of, more out of programming
and using evidence-based programs,
at least ones that have been proven to be effective.
So the programs through CASEL,
so the Collaborative of Academic Social Emotional Learning,
they use quasi-experimental designs
in addition to randomized.
So it's also important to note the same way
that I mentioned with assessments
that if a program has been evaluated
with students only from a limited number of grades
and racial groups, you wanna think about that
in terms of assessing goodness of fit,
in terms of programs that have been evaluated
in a variety of settings, like rural, urban, and suburban,
with different racial groups.
So another question for everyone:
"Are you currently using CASEL reviewed programs
"in your school or district?
Yes or no."
So, I'm not really here to specifically
promote CASEL programs.
I really do think that that is to the discretion
of individual schools and districts and states
as to what works best for their community context.
I really do stand behind
the idea of each district and state
being the expert, along with families,
about what works best for their environment.
But the truth around CASEL that I think is very useful
is because they're so preeminent in the field,
they've done a lot of work and put a lot of data out there
to make this information more accessible to schools.
You know, as folks working in schools and districts,
I think one less thing to have to attend to
is deeply having to go out and research these programs
and CASEL does attempt to make this process
a bit easier for schools and districts.
So I think their work in terms of selecting
or reviewing programs could be useful,
but as I mentioned earlier, as experts in your districts,
you have to determine what works best for you
and there may be programs that you have found success with
that aren't CASEL reviewed
because of the different criteria they use to determine
what they'll put in their elementary and high school guide
as far as programs.
But they might still work for your district and schools.
The one thing that I would also add
in addition to that related to CASEL programs
is that they do a lot to also remove the guess work
of understanding what's needed
to implement the programs in schools
and that was something that in doing my research
I really appreciated about how accessible
they need programming for schools.
And so, right now, it looks like
about 14% are using CASEL reviewed programs
and 25% who say "No."
And so, this is something I think I'll,
at the end of the presentation,
be highlighting a few CASEL reviewed programs
as something for you to explore should you determine
that that may work well for your school.
So a key thing to consider in terms of questions
for consideration related to selecting programs
is what skills does the intervention target?
Are the skills developmentally aligned?
Was there evidence of program effectiveness?
What student population was studied
to validate the intervention?
Does it align with your school's population?
Does it require staff training?
And what is the cost?
These are questions that I think
are certainly worth reflecting on.
There are plenty of programs that may, in fact,
be good programs, but remaining grounded
in these questions may help determine
goodness of fit between the program and schools.
So some barriers to implementation.
So one of the things that's difficult is that a program
is not conceptualized clearly
and does not effectively translate
its conceptual underpinnings into program components.
So some of these barriers can stop a program in its tracks.
These barriers are an important reason to have
a diversity of stakeholders involved in determining
whether a program actually addresses needs
that are central to the focus
of a particular school or district.
For me as a social worker, I always say that, you know,
of course I'm gonna support social emotional effort
because I'm bought in, but I do realize the importance
of investing staffing programs directly tied
to their professional goals and standards.
So related to lack of parent buy-in,
we wanna address that there may be SEL programs and practices
unfamiliar to families from diverse backgrounds
or programs that may be regarded with suspicion.
Mindfulness is a practice that I think is
really popular nowadays and it has its origins
out of eastern or Buddhist practice,
and it's the practice of attending
to one's thoughts and feelings, regarding them without judgment,
is increasingly popular in schools.
This is one that could present some discomfort from families
of diverse religious or non-religious background.
So it's important to consider how to educate
and engage families across such differences
for the ultimate success of the programming.
In selecting programs, want to think about things
such as assessing the cultural and language fit.
So research shows that our youth learn best
when education and materials are most relevant to them
and their cultural context.
This is a great time
to engage the parents and students as experts
of goodness of cultural and linguistic fit of programs.
So it's important to consider how does the program ensure
that language, content, and activities are appropriate
for the community that the school is serving.
How about the program evaluation?
Was it evaluated with programs
similar to the one in your school?
Any program evals that might speak to the cultural
and linguistic fit for various cultural groups?
A couple of programs I'd like to highlight are ones
that embody school and district teams engaging families.
Lions Quest Middle School Version Skills for Adolescents
is a program focused on skills promotion
in the areas of social awareness and self-awareness,
relationship skills, and responsible decision making.
This one was pretty highly reviewed in CASEL
because it engaged parents and guardians
with shared homework, workshops for parents,
instructions for family involvement
in program activities,
and a service learning component
that allowed students to engage with their community.
The EL program,
or Expeditionary Learning Education,
offers open source English language/arts curriculum
that focuses on building cultural sensitivity
and appreciation for diversity.
This one was also highly rated for family engagement
because it kept families abreast
of students' progress and accomplishments,
had an annual calendar of events that includes families,
and develops action plans to maximize family involvement.
This one also includes a service learning component
that allows students to put a newly developed skill to use
within their community.
So, CASEL programs are ones, as I mentioned earlier,
that meet a certain level of rigor and those are the ones
that are eligible to be included.
I've chosen to highlight a few programs
that were piloted in diverse environments.
First for pre-K, want to mention Al's PALS
and High Scope Educational Approach for Preschool.
So Al's PALS promotes resiliency in early childhood
with explicit instructions to develop social competence,
autonomy, and problem solving.
This one was evaluated in three quasi-experimental studies
with black and white student populations.
The outcomes included increased positive social behavior,
reduced conduct problems, and reduced emotional distress.
High Scope is a program that includes
comprehensive teaching practices
and educational structures designed to support
developmentally appropriate instruction in pre-K.
The outcome included increased academic performance,
increased positive social behavior,
reduced conduct problems, reduced emotional distress,
improved adult economic stability over time,
and reduced adult criminal activity.
At the elementary and middle school level,
want to highlight Caring School Community,
which is organized around four core educational practices:
classroom meetings,
which are scheduled lessons to be implemented,
cross age buddies which is--allows for bonding
between older and younger students,
home site activities,
which are once-a-month take-home activities,
and then school-wide community building activities.
This program resulted in improved academic performance,
increased positive social behavior,
reduced conduct problems, and reduced emotional distress.
Second Step is a program that provides
social emotional skill instruction on units
such as learning, empathy, emotional management,
friendship skills, and problem solving.
It resulted in outcomes
such as an increased positive social behavior,
reduced conduct problems, and reduced emotional distress.
And Responsive Classroom is designed to create classrooms
responsive to children's physical, emotional, social,
and intellectual needs through developmentally appropriate
educational experiences.
A high level of engagement with parents is encouraged
to keep parents abreast
of student development and progress.
And the primary outcome for Responsive Classroom
is improved academic performance.
And lastly for our high schoolers,
a couple of programs are Facing History and Ourselves.
So it's an educational program that uses teaching practices
to promote student social and emotional learning.
It's infused in history, English, and social studies.
This program promotes a respect and diversity
in both teachers and students.
The program resulted in improved academic performance,
improved social emotional learning skills and attitudes,
and improved teaching practices.
Wyman's Teen Outreach Program uses freestanding
social emotional learning lessons and community service
to promote students' social and emotional development.
The outcomes are improved academic performance.
Now, one thing I would like to mention
in regards to selecting programs
is that it's important to also continue assessing
students' social emotional learning competencies annually
along with including multiple data sources such as grades,
attendance, discipline referrals, and test scores,
because in this way while you're progress monitoring
and collecting data on whether or not
the program actually works,
you can have a more robust data collection
in addition to any surveys or assessments
you may be using in your environment.
And that brings us to the end of the webinar for today
and our portion related to questions.
(Meagan) Thanks so much, Blessing.
This is Meagan.
I'm very impressed with how much information you were able to get
in such a short period of time.
Does anyone in the audience have a question?
You can hit star 6, to make yourself audible
or you can put questions in the chat box.
Questions or comments are always appreciated.
Okay, seems like everyone got what they needed today,
Blessing, thank you.
All right, well, thank you, everyone.
I hope you have a really nice day.
Thanks for joining about this important topic
and thanks so much to Blessing for her excellent presentation.
Have a nice afternoon. Bye, bye.
(Blessing) Thank you; bye, bye.
For more infomation >> K팝스타 출신 소희-가린의 엘리스, '볼케이노춤'으로 컴백: 18 - Duration: 7:34. 
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