Community Partnerships (Aligned Community Partnerships): Schools and community partners aligning on common language, strategies, and communication around all SEL-related efforts and initiatives, including out-of-school time. CASEL - Indicators of Schoolwide SEL
As the school year comes to a close, it is time to determine whether SEL implementation and outcome goals were met, share and reflect on successes and challenges with the school community, compile all lessons learned and use this new knowledge to set new goals or adjust previous goals and plans to reach them.
Before launching an SEL action plan, it’s important to take stock of what is going on across your school and previous SEL-related efforts. Build on your strengths and learn from members of your school community who have seen many initiatives come and go by honoring and reflecting on the work that has come before.
Schoolwide SEL helps students excel academically, build stronger relationships, and lead happier, healthier, more fulfilling lives.
Monitoring and reflecting on your progress toward Schoolwide SEL is an important part of quality implementation. Here are three tools that can help.
Define Team Member Roles and Responsibilities
To ensure meetings are productive, it’s a good idea to define team roles and responsibilities, and strive to share work equitably.
Belonging and Emotional Safety
When teachers build the structures that support belonging and emotional safety, they lay the groundwork for students to focus on learning (Sergiovanni, 1994 in Darling-Hammond et al., 2017).
Aligning SEL and Academic Objectives
As your SEL team works with teachers to align SEL and academic objectives, it’s also important to consider how the content is delivered so that it supports the practice of social and emotional competencies.
Assess needs and resources to develop an SEL implementation plan with clear goals, action steps, and assigned ownership.
In partnership with schools and districts, CASEL has documented, field-tested, and refind a strategic, collaborative process for schoolwide SEL
Focus Area 2: Continuous Improvement Connections
A safe and supportive school climate is an important factor for improving academic, behavioral, and mental health outcomes for students (Thapa, 2013).