Parents and teachers expressed strong and widespread support for incorporating social-emotional learning in K-12 schools, despite recent efforts to politicize the practice, according to two surveys released this week. One poll found nearly all teachers (94%) said students do better in school when teachers integrate SEL into the classroom.

Two-thirds of teachers said that over the past two years, a student or parent had requested mental health or social-emotional support, according to a survey of more than 2,000 educators by Teachers Pay Teachers, an online marketplace for original educational resources. A separate survey of 1,200 parents of school-aged children found both Republicans and Democrats value SEL in schools, according to Committee for Children, a nonprofit that works with educators and families to keep children safe. 

Although there's wide support for SEL practices, more than half of teachers surveyed said they weren't prepared to serve students effectively in this area. As schools work to strengthen students' mental and social-emotional well-being, leaders should also prioritize teachers' personal health, the teacher survey recommended.

Experiences of trauma, isolation, illness and death during the pandemic have elevated the need to support students' mental health. Last fall, the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Children's Hospital Association declared a national emergency in child and adolescent mental health. 

At the same time, pockets of pushback on SEL activities in schools have created reluctance or limitations to social-emotional offerings in some areas. Other localities, however, report putting more emphasis on building skills for social engagement and self-discipline. 

Of the teachers polled by Teacher Pay Teachers, 81% said they are spending more time on SEL this school year than previously. 

Educators who reported being more connected to their school community said they were more likely to have schoolwide practices to support students' well-being, professional learning related to SEL and resources needed to teach SEL. 

Teachers' sense of school connectedness included feelings of belonging, being treated with respect and a perception that their school leader cared about them. 

Teachers were also asked about the SEL strategies they use in the classroom. Some of the most popular of the 10 strategies covered in the survey included worksheets for planning and goal setting, opportunities for building social skills, mindfulness techniques and technology teaching SEL concepts or skills.

After using SEL practices, teachers said they saw improvements in student behavior, positive relationships,  emotional regulation and other areas. 

The Committee for Children's polling, which was conducted by the Benenson Strategy Group, asked parents about their perceptions of SEL, as well as their political leanings. Results revealed during a Monday news briefing show 79% of Democrats and 81% of Republicans whose child's school teaches SEL said the schools should do more or are doing the right amount of SEL instruction.

Jordan Posamentier, vice president of policy and advocacy for the group, said while there are examples of opposition to SEL, there are likewise examples of state and local school systems working to prioritize SEL skill-building. SEL practices are also referred to as life skills, whole child, career readiness or other titles. 

The survey data shows it doesn't matter what SEL is called, Posamentier said. 

"There's broad and strong support for the concepts and tangible outcomes that come with the practices. Parents and families want these skills prioritized in their children's classrooms," he said.

The Florida Department of Education announced last week that it rejected 54 submitted math instructional textbooks after a "thorough review of submissions."  

Out of the 54 that were not included in the final list of textbooks, 42 were rejected by the department because "they incorporate prohibited topics or unsolicited strategies" including critical race theory, or both contained CRT and did not align with the state's standards. 

Overall, this year saw the largest percentage of instructional materials the department has rejected to date, with the highest percent of rejected textbooks falling in grades K-5, according to the state department.

"When it comes to education, other states continue to follow Florida’s lead as we continue to reinforce parents’ rights by focusing on providing their children with a world-class education without the fear of indoctrination or exposure to dangerous and divisive concepts in our classrooms," said Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran in a press release.

In its announcement, the department did not provide examples or excerpts of materials that it found violated CRT policies.

The department also cited a memo sent in June 2021 "advising publishers and school districts to not incorporate unsolicited strategies, such as social emotional learning and culturally responsive teaching." 

"It is unfortunate that several publishers, especially at the elementary school grade levels, have ignored this clear communication and have attempted to slip rebranded instructional materials based on Common Core Standards into Florida’s classrooms," the department said, "while others have included prohibited and divisive concepts such as the tenants of CRT or other unsolicited strategies of indoctrination – despite FDOE’s prior notification." 

The public decision to reject 41% of submitted math textbooks, a bulk of which were rejected due to CRT or other "unsolicited strategies", also comes after the state Board of Education banned critical race theory from classrooms last year.

A similar effort is being pushed by Florida lawmakers in the Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees (WOKE) Act, which would codify the CRT ban into law and would also restrict how workplaces approach diversity, equity and inclusion training. 

That bill passed the Florida legislature in late March and is strongly supported by Gov. Ron DeSantis, who proposed the legislation.

While Florida's efforts have made headlines, a slew of other conservative states have also followed suit in banning critical race theory, which is often an umbrella term used to describe discussions of systemic racism.

According to a tracker compiled by The Heritage Foundation and last updated on April 8, at least 11 states currently have legislation banning CRT. Another five states have legislation pending, and an additional eight have legislation introduced. 

 

After K-12 Dive asked the Florida Department of Education for examples of math materials that violated state restrictions and standards, department spokesperson Cassandra Palelis said, "The content is copyrighted and we are unable to release it to the public at this time, pending review."

However, the department publicized examples submitted by the public, which included graphs on racial prejudice and lessons that included social-emotional learning as part of their objective. "These examples do not represent an exhaustive list of input received by the Department," the department said in a disclaimer.

In 2011, eight large school districts formed a network to figure out how to implement research on effective social and emotional learning programming into real-life, districtwide practices.

To the surprise of several participants, not only did those districts discover it was possible to expand their SEL practices, they've also sustained high-quality programming despite changes in local leadership and budgets. The districts also saw positive student outcomes as a result of their collaborations and independent efforts.

"Because SEL did in fact infuse into the systems, that has really been key to sustaining their commitment and their implementation, regardless of who's at the helm," said Melissa Schlinger, vice president of practice and programs at the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, which organized the Collaborating Districts Initiative 10 years ago with help from the American Institutes for Research.

Although decades of research existed on effective SEL practices and the benefits of positive school climates, self regulation skills, conflict resolution and other proactive measures for school communities, Schlinger said the researchers and advocates hadn't "put it to a test" to see how large school systems could make comprehensive shifts to implement and sustain SEL. 

CASEL details the experiences of the original eight district participants, as well as 12 additional districts that joined the CDI after 2011, in a new report. In total, the participating districts serve 1.7 million students, according to CASEL. 

Here are a few of the lessons they learned.

 

Form communities of practice

When the CDI began, participating districts received grants from the NoVo Foundation and Wallace Foundation to expand their SEL work. CASEL provided tools and technical assistance. 

But the real value to the newly formed collaborative came in the connections made among district leaders who shared how their districts were promoting and managing SEL implementation, and what was and wasn't working, Schlinger said.

Even as districts expanded their SEL efforts, the exchange of information among the school systems continued. The CDI group grew from eight to 20 participating districts, in part because school leaders who transferred to other districts wanted their new school systems to participate as well, Schlinger said.

Kyla Krengel, director of SEL at Metro Nashville Public Schools in Tennessee, is one of the original participants. When the effort began, Krengel was the only staff member in the then-80,000 student school system working full time on SEL efforts. Now, she leads a team of 35.

Having feedback and support from other districts working through SEL implementation efforts helped her adjust and improve practices in MNPS, she said.

"When we would have opportunities to come together, it was just so nice to hear and to bounce ideas off of them, because again, at that time, it was just me and so you felt kind of isolated," Krengel said.

Individual districts also have created internal and external communities of practice with stakeholders to problem solve, build knowledge and momentum, organize the infrastructure for sustainable practices and determine accountability for SEL efforts. 

For example, CASEL reports that when Nevada's Washoe County School District was drafting SEL standards, the district's SEL team looked at examples from Alaska's Anchorage School District and the state of Illinois. The Washoe district then partnered with Nevada leaders to create statewide SEL standards.

 

Set goals, measure progress

Although the participating districts shared best practices and CASEL provided evidence-based guidance, each district customized its SEL approaches depending on district goals, priorities and circumstances. 

One of the first steps in implementing a comprehensive SEL program is to set goals based on data and then determine how to measure the impact of SEL efforts, Schlinger said. For example, if student engagement is low, SEL leaders can review historical data and determine how to analyze the effectiveness of interventions.

In Nashville, Krengel began by creating a definition of SEL and common language around SEL practices. Those efforts helped build community buy-in and a better understanding of SEL’s value, she said. She then worked with two schools in training their entire staffs on SEL practices.

The deeper work with the two schools helped lay the groundwork to expand SEL practices to all schools and departments. The district measures SEL effectiveness in various ways, including through individual school "walk-throughs" that follow a rubric showing school leadership areas of SEL strengths and growth. 

The district's SEL team, along with the district's research department, also conducts a districtwide evaluation, Krengel said.

When the district could quickly provide SEL support to teachers virtually as the pandemic forced a shift to remote learning, Krengel said, that was another indication the district's SEL efforts were ingrained in systemwide practices. 

 

Understand SEL is a journey

Starting with smaller, manageable goals helped the Nashville district kick-start its SEL implementation, Krengel said. 

One challenge in building a lasting, high-quality SEL program is that some people expect quick results. Both Schlinger and Krengel said that's the wrong mindset because SEL is a journey that is never complete.

Krengel said improving SEL is ongoing work."There's not one person who has nailed it and is perfect at this every day," she said.

Likewise, Schlinger said a risk to the SEL movement is that people look for short-term gains and then abandon their efforts because they don't see immediate improvements. 

"That is a really sort of dangerous approach to social-emotional learning or frankly any initiative," Schlinger said, "because we know that systems change takes a long time."

Before the pandemic, school leaders and teachers recognized the importance of providing social-emotional supports to students by increasing programming, but it took the healthcare crisis to see the bigger issues around some students’ needs.

"The pandemic underscored the importance of SEL. Teachers were able to see some symptoms through behaviors surface at students' homes," said Kathleen Walls, director of the Philadelphia-based Southwest Leadership Academy Charter School Behavioral Health Team. 

"But even more so, in underscoring the importance of SEL, it is known that if people have a predisposition for a certain condition, it often takes a life-changing event for that to show itself."

Administrators and teachers recognize there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Many have sought out creative strategies to engage students in areas outside the traditional classroom to support their mental well-being and soft skills development.

"Using resources that you have outside of the school building and getting excited about the possibilities sets the foundation," said Corie Rushman, high school psychologist at the Hoosick Falls Junior/Senior High School in Hoosick Falls, New York.

Stepping outside the classroom

Rushman's district has taken this literally, developing an off-site SEL program.

Students in the Hoosick Falls Central School District have access to a unique, hands-on SEL curriculum. They meet at the nearby Higher Ground horse farm for a program designed to teach appropriate social engagement skills, self-discipline, resilience and, at times, remind them how to be a student, explained Rushman.

"Students work individually or within small groups alongside horses and donkeys to practice recognizing and using nonverbal communication skills, empathy and responding to feedback," she said. 

"Equine-assisted therapies have had a strong historical focus on working through trauma. Trauma can look very different for everyone, but it is safe to say that the past year and a half have been very traumatic for many of our students and their families."

Classrooms of students as young as kindergarten have participated, and smaller group sessions include students in grades 6-12. An average of 20-25 students attend sessions weekly. 

"We have seen an increase in compassion and patience with the students attending, and it has been amazing to see them thrive in that setting when they may often shy away in a traditional classroom," Rushman said.

Making time for mental health practice

A decade ago, the Southwest Leadership Academy Charter School hired Walls to expand its SEL curriculum. At the time, leadership development was the focus, and the school recognized the need for mental and behavioral health learning opportunities.

"Since Southwest Leadership Academy Charter School is an inner-city school that educates children in the busiest police precinct in Philadelphia, we are faced with additional challenges regarding social-emotional learning," Walls said.

She introduced an annual Mental Health Wellness and Awareness Week, with each day structured around a theme: Mental Monday, Toolbox Tuesday, Wellness Wednesday, Transformation Thursday and Feelings Friday. Each SEL theme is woven into the corresponding day's lessons alongside leadership characteristics.

Three years ago, she introduced a new concept on Wellness Wednesday — the use of healing frequencies paired with meditation, with particular frequencies incorporated to restore the body and mind.

"We had a couple of classes within the 3rd-grade girls' class that was rambunctious and causing chaos in the classroom," Walls said. "As they were settling in, one of the students asked the teacher, 'Could you please put on that music that we listen to sometimes?' The fact that this child knew the healing frequencies with meditation was helpful to not only herself but to the class overall amazed me.”

Hosting healthy debate among students

Schools have increasingly incorporated debate teams into their SEL curriculum. For example, more than 50 schools in the Washington, D.C., area have active debate groups, according to David Trigaux, director of programming and development at the Washington Urban Debate League.

Debate helps students develop public speaking skills while also teaching them to think quickly on their feet and never give up — a correlation to the tumultuous pandemic, he explained. 

"Students care deeply about the outcome of debate rounds and develop confidence from victories, and resilience from defeats," he said. "The activity is a great training ground because the outcome of the rounds doesn't actually matter in the bigger picture of life, but since the students think they do, they get to feel accomplished or resilient without actually risking anything."

Trigaux said successful debate programs have a strong coach. Picking an enthusiastic educator who can build strong relationships with students is essential.

"Encouraging kids who need to develop different SEL skills creates more impact than simply letting students self-select," he added. 

When in doubt, get creative and look to peers

School leaders and teachers are committed to finding new ideas to enhance and support social-emotional learning, but the most impactful options may be outside the box.

"Don't be afraid to try something new," Rushman suggested. "Our district has been very creative and open to new ideas when it comes to meeting students where they need us to."

"The best resource for teachers is other teachers. There are many Facebook pages and Instagram sites to see what people are using," said Walls.

Schools and districts should not water down or eliminate social-emotional learning in reaction to pushback and criticism, panelists said during a virtual discussion Tuesday hosted by Education Development Center, a nonprofit that focuses on health and education issues.

Instead, educators should address false claims or misinformation, highlight the benefits of SEL and provide opportunities for community members to engage in a school's SEL efforts. "We need to communicate with each other and find common ground around this," said panelist Sheldon Berman, lead superintendent for social-emotional learning at AASA, The School Superintendents Association.

Criticism of SEL, which some opponents say is used as a shield to teach critical race theory in schools or for schools to control the social and emotional health of students, has increased over the last few years. This should concern school systems, the panelists said, because SEL has been shown to contribute to positive student outcomes.

The panelists said SEL opposition is coming from a small subset of parents and community members in reaction to pandemic-related frustrations and based on hidden political agendas. Still, critical voices are spread out across the country. 

Panelist Erica Buchanan-Rivera, director of equity and inclusion for the Metropolitan School District of Washington Township in Indianapolis, Indiana, said SEL has been criticized as child abuse and that ideological groups say it is used as a vehicle for conversations about race and gender identity. 

The debates around SEL and CRT in her area are occurring in predominantly White communities, she said. 

"This tells me that we have White people within our communities who have yet to reckon with the history of race and racism within this country and a lot of what is happening as far as these critiques," Buchanan-Rivera said. "So there's a lot of learning and unlearning that has to happen.”

A bill before the Oklahoma Legislature would prohibit schools from using federal, state or private funds to teach SEL. If a school is found in violation, it would be assessed a financial penalty of 5% of its state aid allocation.

In Idaho, the state education department told IDEDNEWS.org last fall it was distancing itself from the term "social-emotional learning" because of controversial overtones, but would still support the concept of SEL education.

Some of the panelists likewise suggested schools move away from SEL terminology while still embracing SEL curriculum and practices. Lara Bergthold, a principal partner at RALLY, a Los Angeles communications firm, said the firm's testing showed the word "equity" has become misunderstood, even by people who support efforts toward equity and inclusion in schools.

"Coming back to understanding and centering the conversation in places where we are in agreement is the way to move this forward, and good language can do that," Bergthold said.

Additional recommendations made by the panelists included:

• Dispel misconceptions. To respond to concerns about CRT, the Metropolitan School District of Washington Township issued a statement last year outlining what CRT is and is not. 
   
• Explain approaches and benefits of SEL. In its statement about CRT, the Metropolitan School District of Washington Township instead explained the district's approach to culturally responsive instruction and practices.
  
  Panelist Jim Vetter, associate director of health and technology at Education Development Center, recommends bringing SEL supporters together so they can "come together as champions, to be able to speak up and talk about the good work that they're doing."
  
  "This is not the time to lay back, not the time to go underground with the SEL work," he added.
  
  Bergthold said students and parents can also be powerful messengers of the benefits of SEL, as can military personnel and business leaders who can speak about the SEL skills needed in the workforce.
   
• Find agreement in disagreement. The panelists said they don't recommend engaging with people who are threatening school staff and board members or who are uninterested in learning more about a district's SEL approaches. For community members who may disagree but are willing to discuss the differences, educators should be open to having conversations about areas of common ground. 
  
  Bergthold recommends having conversations with those who seek better understanding. "There are plenty of parents who are confused, struggling, trying to understand what SEL really is," she said.