Effective Social Emotional Learning Implementation: SEAD Starts With You

Introduction

To implement a Social, Emotional, and Academic Development (SEAD) program, also known widely as Social Emotional Learning (SEL), effectively and with fidelity, a school, district, charter management organization, or other educational institution must examine what it means for their organization to live and breathe the skills highlighted in social emotional learning frameworks. According to the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), social emotional competencies include self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making (CASEL, 2021). It is essential that adults on school campuses embody these skills in order to appropriately model them for children. In the most successful SEL programs, implementation starts with adults long before administrators, teachers, and support staff are expected to engage students in social emotional learning. According to the Aspen Institute, the success of a social, emotional, and academic program “depends upon consistent implementation, modeling by adults and peers, and professional development that deepens school staff’s social and emotional skills” (Berman, Chaffee, & Sarmiento, 2018).

In a 2008 exploration of implementation barriers and facilitators, researchers identified several key factors that influence the success of these programs. The majority of these factors involve the adults on school campuses. First and foremost, the availability and training of leaders and administrators is identified as a critical need in the implementation process. Once that foundation has been established, the support and buy-in of school staff, particularly the educators responsible for the student-facing phase of implementation is emphasized. Other important adult-centered factors include ongoing, consistent training and coaching, collaboration with teammates to align on goals related to the implementation, and communication with stakeholders including school teammates (Forman, Olin, Hoagwood, Crowe, & Saka, 2008).

In a report entitled, “To Reach the Students, Teach the Teachers, prepared for CASEL in 2017, the authors observe that while graduate level and credentialing programs in education consistently incorporate social emotional learning into their curriculum, educators continually struggle to apply these principles to their classrooms. Teachers do not feel appropriately prepared to engage students in social emotional learning and consistently advocate for additional professional development and coaching (Schonert-Reichl, K.A., Kitil, M.J., Hanson-Peterson, J., 2017). By dedicating six months to a year to purposeful practice with adults, educators have an opportunity to experience this training and coaching. Collaboration facilitates buy-in and support for implementing SEL programs with fidelity. Staff on campuses are better equipped to understand how to integrate SEL tools into their daily lessons and how to lead SEL lessons in their classrooms. After all, a school leader should not and would not expect an English teacher to walk in and successfully lead an Algebra II course with no exposure to the material or preparation. In the same way, teachers and support staff should not be expected to teach students social emotional skills without appropriate preparation and support to do so.

Year after year educational institutions introduce new initiatives to integrate the newest research and adapt to best support students. With ongoing updates to curriculum, the push to meet state and national standards, and continuous additions of new strategies and models, schools and staff regularly report feeling overwhelmed. In fact, according to Gallup’s report on American schools (2014), “Nearly half of K-12 teachers (46%) report high daily stress during the school year. That figure matches those from other highly demanding professions, such as nurses (46%) and physicians (45%), for the highest stress levels among all occupational groups surveyed” (p. 24). For these reasons, SEAD may seem like “just another thing on my plate” for staff and schools.