Advancing Social and Emotional Learning

Learning should be inherently joyous. It should be a joyous pursuit, enabling all students to have fun and find their passions. It's the purpose of learning.

Learning is a relational process. We are not simply cognitive. We are not simply emotional. We are not simply social. We are all those things simultaneously.

The CASEL Weissberg Scholars Program is the most meaningful honor of my professional life. I am excited that my colleagues and I will provide learning experiences and supports to early career scholars who will advance evidence-based practices and policies to improve the positive development and life opportunities of millions of young people.

I love having this community of people and access to [CASEL]. I don't know how I would have even dreamed of doing even the small pieces that I'm doing right now. I just really keep thinking as I'm going through this fellowship of how many other people there are like me out there.

The truth is emotion drives attention and attention drives learning. Our country needs social and emotional learning tools now more than ever.

For me leading and teaching through the lens of SEL means supporting students to learn with and from each other and to take charge of their own learning.

If we really want all students to leave school having developed certain academic, social, personal, and cultural capacities, we need to think really carefully about whether we as educators are creating the types of experiences that we know from research will help develop those capacities.

Our SEL is strategically placed as a universal strategy to build resilience, cultivate protective factors, like strong relationships with peers and adults, and reduce stigma around mental health help-seeking.

Our young people already have greatness inside of them. SEL creates the conditions for that greatness to shine.

I want [my daughter] to be supported socially. I want her to be supported academically. I want her to be supported emotionally. And I want to know that there is cultural competency or cultural humility in the staff, that there is an awareness that they know the demographics they are dealing with.

...Analytical thinking remains the top core skill for employers...followed by resilience, flexibility and agility, along with leadership and social influence...Creative thinking and motivation and self-awareness rank fourth and fifth, respectively. This combination of cognitive, self-efficacy and interpersonal skills within the top five emphasizes the importance ascribed by respondents to having an agile, innovative and collaborative workforce, where both problem-solving abilities and personal resilience are critical for success.

The first thing that I would suggest to any district is if you care about outcomes. you need to care about SEL. It is the pathway to get the outcomes that we all desire.

A student is not going to care how much you know until they know how much you care.

The vast majority of teachers agree that they can’t teach their students effectively unless they also consider their SEL needs.

Articulate the value and importance of social and emotional learning in every space. Social-emotional learning is the pathway towards equity, access, and social justice.

Learning should be inherently joyous. It should be a joyous pursuit, enabling all students to have fun and find their passions. It's the purpose of learning.

SEL and academics cannot be separated, so when we ignore part, we build more gaps.

If you care about outcomes, you need to care about SEL. It is the pathway to get the outcomes that we all desire.

The handing of ownership over to the students means that students can move from dependent learners to independent learners. They are advocating for their social and emotional as well as academic needs. This also means that they are increasing their student voice in the classroom.

In partnership with our SEL Fellows, we can bring social and emotional learning to more communities nationwide so all young people receive the education they deserve.

There was a time when our future in the district was uncertain. It was the community and it was the families and community partners who came forth and strongly advocated for SEL to continue and to be part of the learning journey.

We need to address inequities in education and we need better pathways to success… [which requires recognizing that students’ social and emotional learning] is just as important as their academic growth.

We often say that we can't jump over the adults to get to the students. And so we really are building up adult capacities so that we can support the development of children and youth.

Students are more engaged and learning outcomes are much more equitable when every student has affirming developmental experiences, like psychological safety, caring relationships, personally relevant content, and a sense of personal agency.

There's an 11 to 1 return on investment, so for every dollar invested in programming around social and emotional learning, we see that they're saving 11 dollars. There are lots of reasons people are coming to the conclusion that this is something that we need to be prioritizing.