Educational Leadership » CASEL's Work

Educational leadership development to support evidence-based, schoolwide SEL is a major strategic priority area for CASEL, under both our research and practice expansion goals. CASEL is funded to carry out original program design and experimental research on professional development for educational leaders to successfully implement schoolwide SEL and improve student learning. This research is designed to address a dearth of empirical work in this area, and indeed, in all of educational leadership professional development. As we entered this arena of work, CASEL was surprised to find that at present there are no published intervention studies that show a causal relationship between leadership preparation and student learning outcomes (see Smylie and Hart, 2005). There are a number of correlational studies of leader qualities and actions associated with student learning (e.g., Marzano et al, 2005; Noyce, 2006), but none that shows impacts of leader interventions on subsequent student learning.

CASEL also conducts a variety of professional development events, including 6-hour SEL awareness-building Administrator Academies for principals and superintendents, two- and three-day trainings for principals and their school planning teams, and a two-year small-cohort professional development seminar for principals.

Research
In 2005, and in collaboration with the Fetzer Foundation, the Kirlin Foundation and the Committee for Children, CASEL convened two working meetings of distinguished educators and researchers to identify: (1) the best current educational leader preparation programs and components, (2) the features of professional development (PD) that are needed to best equip school leaders to successfully implement SEL; and (3) how that PD might be developed, tested and disseminated.

Since that time CASEL has received almost $400,000 in funding to develop and test approaches to transformational professional development for principals to lead schoolwide SEL. As part of this work CASEL has assembled two work groups: one for program design and one for research design. Initial funders for this work are the Fetzer Foundation, the UIC National Emotional Intelligence Foundation, the Kirlin Foundation and the Committee for Children.

Practice
The new CASEL book, Sustainable schoolwide social and emotional learning (SEL): Implementation guide and toolkit emphasizes the central role of school leaders in the successful implementation and sustainability of SEL initiatives. Two chapters (Six and Seven) are specifically devoted to describing the research base and necessary specific actions school leaders must enact to bring about school changes that promote healthy student development; more than three dozen tools are provided that facilitate leaders' efforts in this work. Examples include a tool for leaders’ self-assessment and reflection on their own social and emotional skills and challenges, a tool to guide development of a schoolwide vision for SEL, and tools with suggested daily leader activities to support schoolwide SEL.

CASEL conducts SEL awareness-building Administrator Academies through the Illinois Regional Offices of Education for hundreds of IL administrators.

CASEL conducts two- and three-day professional development events for school leaders and their planning teams from all over the world on implementing sustainable, schoolwide SEL. The core training document is Sustainable Schoolwide Social and Emotional Learning: Implementation Guide and Toolkit

CASEL works with nine "Collaborating Sites of Effective Schoolwide SEL Practice" from around the state of IL. The principals of each of these schools attend a series of dinners over the course of the year. The dinners are structured by CASEL to include a pre-reading (homework) and discussion component to develop and deepen leadership knowledge and skills, and provide an opportunity to share experiences and problem solve about the work of schoolwide SEL with peers in a relaxed and supportive atmosphere.

CASEL conducts an intensive two-year cohort experience with two groups of principals from Chicago Public Schools—one for elementary principals, one for high school leaders. It is designed to help participants develop their social and emotional skills and address school leadership challenges in a safe and high-trust context among their peers. As with all of its practice initiatives, CASEL is also evaluating the impacts of this professional development experience.