Social-emotional learning can be a powerful tool for boosting student engagement, improving behavior, and raising test scores, according to research.
But implementing an SEL program well is critical for achieving the outcomes that research promises. It’s a challenge that bedevils even the most experienced administrators and educators.
It was also the focus of several well-attended panel discussions at the annual conference of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, or CASEL, which took place online Feb. 18-19, illustrating just how tricky delivering SEL can be for schools, even though the concept has been around for decades.
Following are four best practices for implementing social-emotional learning programming in schools highlighted by experts who presented during the conference.
The big takeaways? Clearly define SEL and invest the social-emotional learning of adults, not just students.
1. Be clear about the why
This is the first thing educators should do when deploying a new SEL curriculum or even trying to shore up support for an existing initiative, say experts.
Schools must tell their communities—teachers, students, parents, and taxpayers—why they are investing in social-emotional learning, said Sheldon Berman, CASEL’s interim president and CEO and a former superintendent.
Learning is ultimately a social and emotional exercise, he said. SEL can’t be divorced from learning because skills such as self-awareness, self-management, and responsible decision-making are essential to acquiring knowledge.
“One of the things that we have to be very clear about, and we’re often not so clear about, is the why that we’re doing this work,” he said. “That’s where we can get the most support for this work, is when we’re clear about the value and our own core principals, the reason we support this.”
SEL has broad, popular support from parents, Berman said, pointing to surveys by Gallup, the National PTA, and McGraw Hill, from 2022.
2. Explain what SEL is
Successfully educating communities on why a district or school is investing in SEL hinges on whether everyone—teachers, staff, parents, and students alike—is using the same definition for SEL. Pushback against SEL is often related to a misunderstanding of what, exactly, it is, Berman said.
“How can we be clear, how can we communicate to others the value of the work and how can we inoculate against the misinformation and misunderstanding?” he said. “It’s about reclaiming that narrative. It’s about protecting good teaching and students’ sense of belonging.”
For messaging around SEL to resonate, it must be linked to the local community’s needs and aspirations, experts say.
“There’s a lot of noise around SEL some places,” said Heather Schwartz, a practice adviser for CASEL. “Just bringing that clarity about what we’re talking about, what we’re trying to do in service of young people and their daily experience in school, I think that goes a really long way.”
3. Invest in professional development
Once everyone is on the same page with the why and the what, successful SEL implementation depends on the teachers, staff, and administrators in the school building. A common refrain in SEL circles is “start with the adults.” But what does that mean and why is it important?
Educators not only need training on how to teach students social-emotional skills, they may need to shore up their own social-emotional competencies to ensure they’re modeling good behavior.
Teaching social-emotional competencies and creating a classroom environment that supports that skill development is difficult, said Berman. That’s why SEL requires high-quality professional development over time.
Many teachers do not feel prepared to teach social-emotional skills, he said.
“Programs are not the solution, people are,” Berman said. “What we’ve neglected oftentimes is the kind of professional development necessary to make it work.”
Beyond formal professional development, there are other ways to support teachers, such as forming groups of educators—communities of practice or convening spaces, for example—that can reflect, share best practices, and support one another.
SEL4MA, a Massachusetts-based SEL advocacy organization, hosts convening spaces for educators with SEL or equity-related jobs, said Kamilah Drummond-Forrester, the president of SEL4MA’s board and the founder and principal consultant at KDRUMM Consulting, which serves districts and organizations that provide before- and after-school programming.
“Sometimes there’s not necessarily a problem to fix,” she said. “It’s just being able to be in space with folks who you don’t have to overexplain things with because they get it. You start a sentence and they can finish it. It’s being able to be in a space that feels supportive.”
But providing ongoing training is easier said than done. That’s why Los Angeles Unified School District’s SEL team created a written guide for teachers who haven’t had professional development yet, so they can get up to date on the necessities on their own, said Karla Lopez, the social-emotional learning adviser at LAUSD.
“When we put everything on the laps of teachers, that’s where measures can fall short because teachers don’t have enough time. It has to be a schoolwide approach,” she said.
4. Integrate SEL throughout the school day
To be most effective, SEL can’t begin and end in the classroom, say experts. It must be infused into a school’s culture, which means all adults in the school building should adopt SEL practices, even if they’re not directly teaching those skills to students.
Beyond training teachers, SEL practices, such as warm, personal greetings or checking in on how people are feeling, must be infused throughout the school building, say experts.
For example, leaders in every department at LAUSD now use social-emotional practices, Lopez said.
“We are amazed to see even people from the office of data and accountability starting their meetings with inclusive welcomes and check-ins. This has really taken off,” she said.
This is where schools’ SEL implementation can stumble, said Drummond-Forrester. The day-to-day interactions adults have with students and one another must showcase best social-emotional practices. Students will notice the disconnect if that’s not happening, and it will undermine the entire endeavor.
“You can’t deliver an SEL lesson on empathy and active listening, and then a few minutes later in a staff meeting, people are feeling unheard,” she said, “or teach students about relationship skills and belonging and then interact with families with a lack of warmth and humanity. So, the audio has to match the visual.”
However, incorporating SEL across an entire school system creates tension, Schwartz said. To be systemic, SEL needs strong district leadership. To be meaningful, it needs to be tailored to individual school community needs.
“We’ve seen the way SEL, if it’s just coming from the district, it’s mandated, that’s when it becomes a check box, and it becomes very shallow,” she said.
Teachers must be given ownership of SEL, too, which can be tricky, Schwartz said. She points to schools that have had success allowing teachers to lead professional learning around SEL.
In sum, teaching students social-emotional skills, modeling them, and infusing them into a school’s culture are hard work. So, it’s important for educators to remember that social-emotional learning is an ongoing, lifelong effort, said Drummond-Forrester.
“When you’re a lawyer, when you’re a doctor, you say, ‘I have a medical practice.’ You say, ‘I have a legal practice.’ That word practice is always at the end of those two fields,” she said. “And so that’s the same attitude we need to have: being SEL practitioners. That’s the work. That’s how you embody it.”