Equity: “Every student has access to the resources and educational rigor they need at the right moment in their education regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, language, disability, family background, or family income (Council of Chief State School Officers)." Striving for equity means examining biases and interrupting inequitable practices to create inclusive, multicultural school environments that reveal and cultivate the interests and talents of children, youth, and adults from diverse backgrounds.
In addition to driving overall schoolwide SEL implementation, PDSA improvement cycles also provide a powerful structure for quickly testing specific innovative strategies to support SEL.
An important part of building staff skills around SEL is modeling by school leaders. These strategies can provide ideas for administrators and leadership teams to build relationships and show staff they are cared for and appreciated.
Teacher stress has been found to affect teachers’ health and well-being, job satisfaction, turnover, and even student outcomes (Greenberg, Brown, & Abenavoli, 2016). For this reason, it’s essential that educators take time to prevent burnout, promote health, and protect themselves from the negative effects of stress.
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.
Professional Learning About SEL
As staff use shared agreements to guide their interactions, it’s essential that they also reflect on their own social and emotional growth.
Connect and Collaborate With Students
Professional learning communities provide an important opportunity to integrate SEL into existing practices, work collaboratively on the goals of schoolwide SEL, and cultivate their own social and emotional competencies.
Connect and Collaborate With Families
Mentoring programs can help teachers improve their professional relationships while enhancing their SEL and instructional practice.
Continuously Improve Schoolwide SEL Implementation
Use the PDSA cycle to drive high-quality schoolwide SEL implementation.
Create meaningful partnership opportunities and two-way communication that invites families to understand, experience, inform, and support the social and emotional development of their students.