Welcome to CASEL

Our mission is to establish social and emotional learning (SEL) as an essential part of education. We envision a world where families, schools, and communities work together to promote children's success in school and life and to support the healthy development of all children. In this vision, children and adults are engaged life-long learners who are self-aware, caring and connected to others, and responsible in their decision-making. Children and adults achieve to their fullest potential, and participate constructively in a democratic society.

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 Positive Action Gets Positive Results

Researchers from Oregon State University found that Positive Action, an SEL and character development program, improved elementary school standardized [A1] test scores nearly 10 percent. A three year study in the Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness examined 20 ethnically and economically diverse public schools in Hawaii. Ten schools implemented daily 15-20 minute lessons focused on responsible self-management, relationship skills, and self-improvement. Participants outperformed the control group by 8.8% in reading and 9.8% math on the national Terra Nova test, and had 70% fewer suspensions and 15% less absenteeism. On state tests, these students did 21% better in reading and 51% better in math.

Parent Involvement in School Boosts Social Skills

A University of Pittsburgh study of more than 1300 children followed from birth to fifth grade focused on how parent involvement affects children's academic, social, and emotional well-being in elementary school. The findings in the May/June 2010 Child Development article (Parent Involvement and Children's Academic and Social Development in Elementary School) indicate that when parents increase visits to their child's elementary school and encourage educational progress at home, children's problem behaviors (including aggression, disruptiveness, and anxiety and depression) decrease and pro-social behaviors (such as cooperation and self-control) improve. While the study did not find that parent involvement affects children's achievement, it has implications for policies that encourage school involvement.

Oregon Resiliency Project Links Prevention and SEL

An 8-year project at the University of Oregon is summarized in Linking Prevention Science and Social and Emotional Learning, an article by Kenneth W. Merrell in Psychology in the Schools (2010). While prevention science has traditionally been located in public health and other wellness-related fields, SEL programs can serve as a bridge from public health to schools. The article describes how the Oregon Resiliency Project developed the Strong Kids curriculum with goals, outcomes, and measures that work according to both a prevention and SEL lens. Fifteen related studies about the program address implementation fidelity, the integration of different research approaches, special interventions, and more.

Nan Robler Award to Durlak and Weissberg

Joseph Durlak, Professor of Clinical Psychology at Loyola University Chicago, and Roger P. Weissberg, Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, were recognized by the Society for Prevention Research for their contributions to the summarization of empirical evidence Edutopia coverrelevant to prevention science. The award comes for their paper, "The Impact of Enhancing Students' Social and Emotional Learning: A Meta-analysis of School-based Universal Interventions," to be published in Child Development (in press). See the research summary.

National Data You Can Use

Large scale, comprehensive data guide policy and practice and create important backdrops for funding decisions. Recent reports provide information about a range of indicators relevant to child development and education.

* The Child Well-Being Index of 2010 measures 28 key indicators of quality-of-life. This year's report offers the first data on the impact of the "Great Recession" on children. Sources include the U.S. Census, Centers for Disease Control, and the National Center for Education Statistics.

* Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance (YRBS) monitors risk-taking and health issues like obesity and asthma among youth. It includes a national school-based survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other locally conducted surveys.

* The State of America's Children compiles recent national and state data on child poverty, health, youth at-risk, early child development, education, family income and gun violence.

* Conditions of Education 2010 includes national, regional, and state data in 5 broad categories: participation in education, learner outcomes, student effort and progress, and the context of education including costs, staffing, and the social climate.

T. Berry Brazelton on Parents as Partners in Education

Renowned pediatrician, T. Berry Brazelton, speaks about the importance of parents teaching their children SEL in
this 4-minute video. Edutopia cover Teachers need to nurture their relationships with parents, he says, so that adults can work together to benefit children's social, emotional, and academic development.

Brazelton's big ideas are foundational to a soon-to-be available volume, Nurturing Children and Families: Building on the Legacy of T. B. Brazelton, edited by Barry Lester and Joshua Sparrow, and including cutting edge research on the social and emotional basis of child development. Brazelton has influenced many disciplines, not only pediatrics and psychology, but also nursing, early childhood education, occupational therapy, and public policy. This book includes contributions from experts in these fields.

Sustaining Programs in Tough Times: A Resource and Grant Opportunity

The Challenge, a publication of the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, provides a resource for schools to use for sustaining prevention and positive youth development programs. The current issue, Program Sustainability in Challenging Economic Times, addresses the need to meet funding challenges with a long-term strategy. Recommendations include embedding programming in the objectives of the district's overall mission, cultivating strong leadership, establishing ongoing assessment systems, communicating outcomes and goals, and building capacity by leveraging relationships and funding, all strong implementation strategies. Interactive graphics aid the exploration of these strategies and more. Edutopia cover

The Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools announces the Safe and Supportive Schools Grant Competition designed for state educational agencies (SEAs) to support statewide measurement of targeted programmatic interventions that improve conditions for learning such as school safety and substance use reduction. The deadline for applications is August 9.