Highlights and Insights From The 2024 SEL Exchange

Key Points:

• At this year’s Exchange, we focused on how SEL supports academic learning and helps build a curiosity and eagerness for learning that lasts a lifetime.
• From math to science to literacy to civic education to the arts, we explored how integrating SEL into academic instruction supports students in their growth and development.
• Youth voice took center stage through sessions and performances, and we got a global perspective of SEL implementation.

“Learning” is an implicit part of SEL. That was the inspiration for this year’s Exchange theme: ACCELERATE: Academic Thriving and Lifelong Learning. We focused on how SEL supports academic learning and helps build a curiosity and eagerness for learning that lasts a lifetime. We also explored how SEL opens us up to the idea that learning can happen in many different places and in many different ways. Students can be our teachers. Families shape how we teach. Communities beyond the school walls offer a place to learn and grow.

Here are some of the big topics and memorable moments from this year’s conference:

Integrating SEL and Academics to Support Student Achievement

What does SEL look like in the classroom? How can we integrate SEL and academic instruction so that they are mutually supportive? Our education experts explored practical strategies to accelerate academic learning while offering students opportunities to practice and advance their social and emotional skills.

“There is lots of data showing that SEL is important for academic gains. When kids have self-organization skills, they turn in quality work on time. When kids can communicate, they turn in better work in writing and oral communication.”—Matinga Ragatz, PBLWorks and U.S. National Teacher Hall of Fame inductee

“We need to build trust and know and value students. If you do not see students, they won’t trust you and be able to open up in the classroom.”—Dr. Dawn Brooks DeCosta, Harlem Community School District

“Project-based learning (PBL) is a framework for student-centered learning. It starts with a challenging problem or driving question, something students will try to figure out and solve. It involves student voice and choice, reflection, critique, and revision. Social and emotional skills are the final product of PBL.”—Mike Kaechele, PBLWorks/High school math teacher

SEL and Academic Disciplines

STEM, literacy, civic education, and the arts: social and emotional skills are essential in the teaching of all these disciplines. Here are some of the insights experts shared about how SEL can support instruction in these fields:

“We need to continue to push math past memorization and get to understanding. … Take real-life situations and have our students investigate. Use data to support that. Do some group collaboration to develop a good solid understanding of math. And the teacher can help with a little bit of processing—how did your group interact today? Did everybody have a voice? … We need to be working with our students to develop these skills that are so necessary to be engaged human beings in society today.”—Kevin Dykema, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

“We have lost the art of listening. We need to be teaching listening. Listening is integral to creating good scientific arguments, discussing those arguments with others, and changing your argument based on what other perspectives and views are.”—Dr. Sara Rimm-Kaufman, University of Virginia

“Literacy is reading, writing, thinking. It is the world around us. When we think about literacy and academics, SEL, and cultural responsiveness, we have to stop seeing those as three separate things. This is education done well and done together. … Learning to have conversations with others and to have respect, love, and care for each other—it becomes not just a strategy or lesson plan but an experience.”—Dr. Gholdy Muhammad, University of Illinois Chicago

“The best way to learn about democracy is to participate in democracy.”—Jill Bass, Mikva Challenge

And as we heard from panelists in the business community, the same social and emotional skills that support students across academic disciplines are essential in the workplace, too!

“We’re all here because we share a common goal: to ensure the next generation is future ready. This doesn’t just mean academically prepared; this is really talking about being emotionally resilient, capable of empathy, empowered to collaborate, and prepared to solve the challenges of tomorrow. We want students to walk out of our schools not just with diplomas, but with the emotional intelligence to navigate the complex issues that will face them in the world after education.”—Bill Miller, KPMG

Support Youth in Making Themselves Heard! 

A powerful way to leverage SEL to accelerate student success is promoting agency in young people. This can mean giving them opportunities to lead, speak up, and participate in decision-making. At the Exchange, we explored various ways that students can lift their voices, and students joined us to present at sessions, perform music, and even win awards for their leadership in SEL.

“What is youth voice? It’s how you take your experience and passion and communicate it to a larger audience.”—Jill Bass, Mikva Challenge

“[SEL] is community resilience, and the way you build community resilience is welcoming everyone to a seat at the table. … If I think of a challenge, it’s that we were slow in inviting youth voice to the work. And when we did, we went not just for honor students, but also for students at the margins who feel less connected, protected, and respected in our learning spaces.”—Dr. Teri Lawler, Delaware Department of Education

“SEL helps me stay happy, more focused, and calm. We also learn to be helpful and not mean!”—Cordelia Dubois, second grade student in New Hampshire

“What makes [young people] feel valuable is me actually appreciating what they have to say. … I am in the room for them, so I’m in the room with them. Our young people are fabulous; they have fabulous minds. We need to listen.”—Karen Lynn Morton, POWER-PAC IL and Austin Peace Center

Around the World With Global SEL

SEL is not one-size-fits-all! Indeed, part of the power of SEL is that it encourages different communities to focus on their local needs and priorities to enhance the learning experiences of their students. In fact, education leaders from 47 U.S. states and 30 countries joined us at the Exchange.

But as our international presenters demonstrated, students worldwide share many of the same needs and benefit from SEL practices. For example, Dr. Kimberly Schonert-Reichl noted that the data from Colombia about areas of vulnerability for students mirrors the data from British Columbia. Throughout the Exchange, we were excited to hear from presenters from around the world who shared how they have incorporated SEL into their classrooms, including: 

• Students in Colombia were quoted as saying that SEL is valuable “because it helps us manage our emotions and recognize when they are good or bad or benefit society.”
• Dr. Yaqing Mao of China noted that SEL played a big role in boosting academic performance for Chinese students across the board, while Wenrong Wang described how SEL in their work is treated as “not a special project but part of the normal work.” 
• Maria Giuliani outlined the issues with teacher retention facing Argentina and reported about the outcomes from an SEL intervention for teachers, including reductions in teacher anxiety and improvements in mindfulness, self-compassion, and well-being.
• Session leaders from Mexico described a systemic, culturally responsive SEL intervention for middle and high school students, noting, “When you’re working with teens, only developing skills doesn’t work anymore. The first iteration of the program was very focused on skill development, and it didn’t work so well. So, we updated our program to focus more on mindsets, belonging, classroom climate, and so forth.”

We also brought global SEL home with an announcement that CASEL is launching its first ever International SEL Fellows Program!

What Are Your Favorite Exchange Memories?

Did you attend the 2024 Exchange? Add your memories in the comments below, or share this blog on social media and with your most memorable moments. 

Miss the Exchange this year? Sign up to receive alerts so you don’t miss out next year! 

Related Posts:

• Your SEL Questions … Answered!
• Powerful Ways to Integrate SEL With Academics
• Mathematics and SEL Are a Natural Pair

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