Anchorage, Alaska
District Overview
The Anchorage School District (ASD) is one of the 100 largest in the country, with approximately 50,000 highly diverse students. Anchorage has been deeply involved in implementing social and emotional learning for more than 20 years, beginning with initial implementation of the Resolving Conflict Creatively Program (now called “Connected and Respected”).
Because of the longevity of social and emotional learning in the district, in many ways Anchorage is more advanced and sophisticated in its approach than most other districts that have made social and emotional learning a priority. The district has developed standards and benchmarks for social and emotional learning and has purposefully integrated social and emotional learning into the core curriculum and other district-wide initiatives. In 2011 Anchorage established a department of social and emotional learning.
District Website
http://www.asdk12.org/index.asp
Social and Emotional Learning Highlights
- Beginning of the school year video inspiring the ASD staff and community to support social and emotional learning as a key to student success.
- “Why Do Social and Emotional Learning?”
- ASD Standards and Benchmarks for Social and Emotional Learning (PDF)
The Superintendent Says…
From an interview with Superintendent of Schools Carol Comeau.
Why is social and emotional learning important in your school district?
The most important reason we do social and emotional learning is it’s the underpinning of helping all kids be successful. If they feel good about themselves, if they feel safe in their classroom, if they feel connected to and supported by their classmates and the adults in the school, they’re going to take learning risks, they’re going to try new classes, they’re going to try new approaches. At last year’s high school graduation every speaker said how they felt in school was more important than their grades. That told me we’re making a difference.
What are your hopes and goals for the Collaborating Districts Initiative in your district?
I hope that by the end of the grant period we’ll be more strategic and systemic in our implementation of social and emotional learning. We’ll learn from the other districts, and we’ll be able to tap into the expertise of the CASEL team as we move forward. I think that will lead to a more systemic approach. We’re coming together now that we’ve established a department of social and emotional learning, but we still have a way to go.
What do you think will be the benefit of working with CASEL and the other collaborating districts as part of the CDI learning community?
Sometimes we get so close to our work that we don’t see new ways of doing things or new approaches. We think having more people to share ideas with and being able to learn how other districts are doing it will be very beneficial. We also think the evaluation will help us learn what we’re doing well and how we can do better.
What are some challenges to social and emotional learning in your district?
The competing financial and budgetary pressures are always a consideration. But an even bigger challenge now is that we’ve become so successful with social and emotional learning in the district that we’re always going at top speed to meet all the requests for extra support. That’s a good dilemma, but it can get overwhelming at times. We’re often competing with other important priorities like math and literacy to find time for training and support for social and emotional learning. Our time for training and professional development is always limited.