Schoolwide SEL is evidenced by indicators in the classroom, school, family, and community.
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).
Build on Strengths and Experience
Schools, like the greater society, are becoming increasingly more diverse in culture, ethnicity, race, language, values, and beliefs. This diversity has countless positive benefits, but it can also present challenges.
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.
Establish structures to support consistent two-way SEL communications between the SEL team and all stakeholders.
Review your current level of implementation, identify needs and resources, set goals, and develop concrete action steps for SEL implementation.
Implement and reflect on data to continuously improve
The SEL team meets regularly to drive the action plan forward, reflect on new data, and continuously improve SEL implementation to meet established SEL goals and respond to needs that arise.
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.
Focus Area 1b: Continuous Improvement Connections
The core tool used in this guide is the Schoolwide SEL Implementation Rubric. The rubric provides an overview of a systemic approach to schoolwide SEL, and teams can review it to get a sense of what SEL looks like when it is coordinated across classrooms, the school, homes, and the community.
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.