2024 Social and Emotional Learning Year in Review

Key Points

•  As we look ahead to 2025, let’s take a moment to reflect on the big findings, key questions, and top themes of the past year in the field of SEL.
• This year, we saw a focus on the interconnectedness of SEL and academic instruction, growing SEL implementation in the U.S. and globally, and a deeper understanding of the “how” of SEL.
•  We also saw deepening work in research, convening the field, and showcasing bright spots in SEL implementation in the school and classroom.

2024 has been a year of growth and impact for the SEL field! CASEL celebrated 30 years since we first established the field, and together we’ve seen advances in research and implementation, record-breaking numbers of schools prioritizing this work, and a stronger, growing community of parents, educators, leaders, and young people making SEL a critical part of their lives. As we look ahead to 2025, let’s take a moment to commemorate the big findings, key questions, and top themes of SEL in 2024!

The Interconnectedness of SEL and Academic Instruction Took Center Stage

Nationally and globally, we saw ongoing urgency around student achievement and engagement, as young people made strides in academic recovery and educators worked to address high rates of absenteeism. SEL was a leading evidence-based strategy that schools leveraged to address these priorities. In a spring 2024 survey of school district leaders, SEL was the most frequently cited strategy to help students recover academically from COVID-19 setbacks. Increasingly, schools and districts are also embedding SEL into strategic plans, graduate profiles, and academic content.

To help deepen these strategies, CASEL spent this year focused on the connections between SEL and academics. Our 2024 SEL Exchange, “ACCELERATE: Academic Thriving and Lifelong Learning,” examined key questions: How does SEL underpin students’ capacity to learn? How can SEL support instruction in academic fields? How can academic instruction provide opportunities for promoting the social and emotional skills students need?

With a national call to action around the literacy crisis, we partnered with leading researchers across the fields of neuroscience, human development, and learning sciences to begin a deep exploration of the role of SEL in improving literacy development. Together, we synthesized the large body of research across multiple fields and put forth federal policy recommendations for supporting an evidence-based approach to literacy instruction, curricula, and teacher preparation. 

We also welcomed experts to explore what the research says  about SEL and academic integration, strategies for integrating SEL and academic learning, and policies and conditions that support this work. We shared new guidance and resources around academic integration and launched research-practice partnerships to learn deeply about academic integration and students’ experiences in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and the Cristo Rey School in Seattle, Washington.

Hear more:  Mathematics and SEL Are a Natural Pair
Read more: Building “STEMpathy”: Engineering Inclusive Classrooms Through Project-Based Learning
Learn more: Integrating SEL With Academic Instruction Workshop

New Research Expanded our Knowledge of Global SEL and Offered Promising New Directions

The release of the latest findings from the largest global initiative to gather data on the development of students’ social and emotional skills offered new insights on how adolescents develop critical competencies and the role of educational environments in shaping these outcomes. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Survey on Social and Emotional Skills also revealed disparities within and between countries in how we support social and emotional skills, and where we need to focus more of our efforts.

To better understand how SEL can support student outcomes, Yale researchers shared a new framework of five ways of teaching SEL, including modeling, providing opportunities for practicing and applying SEL to new contexts, helping students elaborate on SEL concepts, and validating emotions and perspectives. New research also added to our understanding of how social-emotional growth predicts academic success, undergirds effective schools, and can better support students across all backgrounds and learning needs.

At  CASEL, we had the opportunity to celebrate the past three decades of SEL by inviting major researchers to look back at the field’s achievements and what’s new and next in the research. As we look forward, we are continuing to cultivate the next generation of SEL research through our Weissberg Scholars and the editorially-independent Social and Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy Journal, a field-wide, peer-reviewed journal which continues to deepen our knowledge about SEL around the world.

Read more: Social and Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy
Hear more: Dr. Christina Cipriano on seven new studies from The Education Collaboratory at Yale University

Despite Challenges, SEL Implementation Hit Record Highs

Despite the end of funding provided through the American Rescue Plan (ARP) and ongoing implementation challenges, states and districts continued to prioritize SEL as an essential part of student learning and development. An analysis of findings from CASEL’s Nationwide Policy Scan and the American Teacher Panel and American School Leader Panel Surveys showed that more U.S. schools are incorporating SEL into students’ educational experiences, and nearly all U.S. states have policies that support SEL in schools. 83 percent of schools now report implementing an SEL curriculum—a record high rate of adoption that has steadily increased from 46 percent in the 2017-2018 school year. Schools are also incorporating SEL through academic integration, check-ins, and other strategies, and demonstrating that these investments have had a positive impact on teachers and student learning.

This growing demand has been met by a surge in evidence-based SEL program offerings. CASEL’s  Program Guide now features 99 programs, following this year’s rigorous review cycle that saw an 11 percent increase in program applicants focused on integrating SEL into core academic areas.

What does all this growing implementation look like in classrooms and schools across the nation? In our visits to schools this year, we have been inspired by the stories of relationship-fueled learning in action, seen how leaders have worked collaboratively to bring a vision for SEL to life, and heard about the power of SEL from teachers, student support staff,  principals, and students.

Read more: 3 Updates to Our Guidance for Advancing SEL in the Classroom
Hear more: Ally Skoog-Hoffman shares highlights from CASEL’s Nationwide Policy Scan
Learn more: Leading Schoolwide SEL Workshop

The SEL Community Built Bridges and Deepened the Work

The power of the SEL community was on full display at the 2024 SEL Exchange, which brought together more than 1,800 researchers, practitioners, and policymakers from 30 countries and nearly every U.S. state. Earlier in the year, we saw SEL champions rally behind the second-ever National SEL Week, (March 4-8), culminating in International SEL Day. With our partners in the Leading with SEL Coalition—comprised of 37 national organizations representing parents, educators, school and district leaders, and more—we visited Capitol Hill to build support for SEL. The White House issued a letter recognizing National SEL Week, and a bipartisan Senate Resolution on National SEL Week was introduced.

Washington dignitaries were joined by 7-year-old Cordelia DuBois from New Hampshire, CASEL’s student ambassador who recently became our youngest-ever SEL Leaders of the Year (SELLY) awardee. Cordelia demonstrated to a packed room of policymakers and stakeholders just what SEL means to her and how it helps her both in the classroom and at home. Through our first-ever CASEL Blog Contest, we got to hear from more educators, teachers, parents, and students from around the world about their experiences with SEL.

Throughout the year, our CASEL communities of practice brought together 475 school districts and communities across the U.S. through the launch of our fourth cohort of SEL Fellows, Community Network Partners, and collaborations with caregivers. Together, these leaders collaboratively problem solved, engaged in professional learning, and deepened their practices to impact millions of students across the country.

Read more: SEL Week 2024: What a Week it Was!

Hear more: CASEL’s Vice President of Policy Lakeisha Steele, Rose Prejean-Harris of Atlanta Public Schools, LaTrayl Adams of Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, and Jason Allen of the National Parents Union share why they were there and why SEL is so important.

Excited to see what we have in store for the 2025 SEL Exchange? Be sure to sign up to receive updates!

On the Horizon: Defining Future-Readiness and the Global Expansion of SEL

With rapid advancements in technologies and an increasingly global society, educators will be focused on how to prepare young people for an uncertain future, while employers increasingly identify social and emotional skills as the critical competencies for the next generation. Already, many districts and states are leveraging their portraits of a graduate to offer a holistic look at the skills and competencies needed to thrive in work, postsecondary educational opportunities, community, and their personal lives. In the coming years, SEL will likely play an increasingly important role in defining a future-ready graduate, and CASEL will be focused throughout 2025 on effective strategies for preparing young people for tomorrow’s world. (Sign up to be notified about our 2025 SEL Exchange, which will focus on future readiness.)

As we look to the future, we are seeing an increasingly global and connected SEL field that thrives on bringing communities together to learn from one another and share progress. The 2024 Exchange (noted above) brought together insights from SEL work in Colombia, China, Argentina, and Mexico, among others! (See our recap of the conference for more details on these international sessions.) The SEL Journal similarly showcased work in China, Uganda, and Colombia. At CASEL, we supported this work by collaborating with ICMEC to create an update to the SEL and Child Self-Protection Standards and Benchmarks for International Schools, sponsored by The Office of Overseas Schools of the U.S. Department of State.

As we look to 2025, we’re preparing to launch our inaugural cohort of International SEL Fellows, welcoming leaders from across the globe into a collaborative network dedicated to advancing SEL in diverse communities. So stay tuned as we foster a worldwide SEL community committed to collective learning and growth!

Read more: How Can States Prepare Students for the Future? The “Portrait of the Graduate” Helps Set the Vision
Hear more: Portraits of a Better High School Graduate
Read more: SEL Insights: Applying Behavioral Insights to Social and Emotional Learning Programs in Global Settings (SEL Journal)

With these achievements in mind, we’re ready to tackle 2025 and create our New Year’s vision for the future of SEL!

Related Posts:

• 30 Years In, SEL Is More Essential Than Ever—And the Field Is Ready to Meet the Moment
• Highlights and Insights From The 2024 SEL Exchange
• State of the SEL Field 2024: Dr. Aaliyah A. Samuel and Dr. Timothy P. Shriver on SEL Then, Now, & Next

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