Regardless of the efficacy of a social and emotional learning program, it is only as good as its implementation. Our website provides guidance, resources, and practical examples from schools and districts that are actively implementing social and emotional learning programming.

Assessing school-based social and emotional learning is critical to building the field and sustaining high-quality social and emotional learning. It involves reviewing assessment methods, documenting high-quality assessment tools, developing guidelines for effective assessment of school-based SEL programming, creating compendia of available SEL assessment tools, and finally creating a Social and Emotional Learning Assessment Toolkit—a work currently in progress. See CASEL’s progress in some of these areas as well as recommended tools for various purposes.

It’s often said that the child’s first school is the home, and so it is with social and emotional learning. In our families, what we say, how we express ourselves, and how we monitor children, go a long way in supporting their social and emotional development. Schools and families that work together to provide consistent messages about social and emotional learning can often reduce problem behaviors and increase school attendance by improving relationships, expectations, and social skills.