Developing Safe and Civil Schools (DSACS) Initiative

1
Developing Safe and Civil Schools (DSACS)
Initiative Putting the Pieces Together Improving
Academic Outcomes and School Climate, Safety and
Civility Presented by Maurice J. Elias, Ph.D.
Rutgers University and CASEL, Collaborative for
Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning and
Members of the DSACS Team A Program of the
Rutgers Social-Emotional Learning Lab
(www.rci.rutgers.edu/melias/) and the Center
for Applied Psychology, Graduate School of
Applied and Professional Psychology

2
Vision for Students Success

• That every student live a satisfying life and
  meet lifes challenges by
• Achieving personal goals
• Fulfilling family responsibilities
• Enjoying good health
• Producing high-quality work
• Contributing to their community

3
the new challenges facing children

• Increased pace of life
• Greater economic demands on parents
• Alterations in family composition and stability
• Breakdown of neighborhoods and extended families
• Weakening of community institutions
• Unraveling of parent-child bonds due to work,
  school demands, time, drugs, mental health, and
  economic burdens
• Ongoing exposure to an array of digital media and
  pervasive advertising that encourage violence as
  a problem-solving tool and other health-damaging
  behaviors and unrealistic lifestyles

4
If You Had a Magic Wand, What Values Would You
Wish for Children?

• Friendship
• Peace
• Wisdom
• Beauty

• Long Life
• Riches
• Popularity
• Family

5
Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)A
Coordinated Framework Provides Synergy
School-Wide Efforts
Violence Ed
Sex Ed
Prevention Programs without a Common Framework
Academic Skills
Families
Drug Ed
Service Learning
Health Ed
Community Involvement
SEL
Violence Ed
A Common Framework Provides Synergy
Sex Ed
Academic Skills
Drug Ed
Character Ed
Service Learning
SCHOOL-FAMILY-COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS
6
Much is Already Being Done

• Schools are already engaged in a variety of
  SEL-related efforts, including character
  education, bully/violence prevention, substance
  abuse prevention, counseling and related
  services, SEL curriculum programs such as Social
  Decision Making/Social Problem Solving,
  Responsive Classroom, Second Step, Quest, or
  Resolving Conflicts Creatively, positive behavior
  supports and similar efforts at school-wide
  positive recognition of students, and service
  learning.

7
Most Efforts Are Not Coordinated

• This has two major results, especially in
  low-performing settings
• 1. The whole is less than the sum of its parts
  you do not get benefit in proportion to effort
  and expenditure.
• 2. Students emotional, behavioral, and
  attitudinal skills are not affected to the point
  where they can direct sufficient energy to
  academic learning to make real progress.
  Therefore, you also do not get benefit in
  proportion to your effort in academics.

8
What SEL Facilitates

• SEL refers to the skills, structure, and content
  necessary for all children to optimize their
  potential to be caring, competent, committed
  individuals.
• SEL is necessary because it promotes success
  behaviors, reduces safety concerns, positively
  impacts on academics, builds caring communities,
  prepares students to be ethical leaders, and
  provides resources and political capital in the
  community.

9
Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Scope and
Fundamental Principles

• Successful academic performance by students
  depends on
• students social-emotional skills,
• their approaching education with a sense of
  positive purpose, and
• the presence of a safe, supportive school climate
  that fosters a respectful, challenging, and
  engaging learning community
• These conditions are referred to collectively as
  social-emotional learning, or SEL

10

• Students
• Inconsistent messages with little
• reinforcement of them
• Confusion about expectations
• Decreased sense of common purpose
• Fewer connections to one another,
• to teachers, to schoolless bonding

Across Grades

• Teachers
• Decreased sense of common purpose
• Frustration w/ inconsistent messages
• and eroded quality of teaching
• Decreased communication, less
• connected to staff and students
• Less holistic teaching

Fragmented, Uncoordinated Services
Within Grades

• School
• No unified mission
• Little sense of community
• Decreased cooperation and
• competition for resources
• Inefficient use of resources
• Duplication of services

Across Schools
11
Outcomes of Fragmented, Uncoordinated Services

• Less engagement and attachment to school lower
  participation in class and activities
• Higher disciplinary, drop-out, suspension, and
  expulsion rates lower academic achievement
• Less satisfaction with teaching and higher levels
  of stress
• More confrontational means of resolving disputes
  less empathy and caring behaviors
• Fewer student-teacher interactions

12
Paths to Success in School and in Life Role of
Evidence-Based SEL Programming
Evidence- Based SEL Programming
Teach SEL Competencies
Less Risky Behavior, More Assets,
Positive Development
Better Academic Performance and Success in
School and Life
Provide Opportunities for Positive Contributions,
Recognition, and A Sense of Purpose And Pride in
Being Part of the School
Safe, Caring, Cooperative, Well-Managed
Learning Environments
Greater Attachment, Engagement, Commitment to
School
13
Fundamental Principles of SEL

• Caring relationships provide the foundation for
  all lasting learning.
• Emotions affect how and what we learn.
• Goal setting and problem solving provide
  direction and energy for learning.

14
SEL Skill Competencies

• Recognize and manage own emotions
• Be aware of feelings and circumstances of others
• Organize and manage oneself and ones time
  effectively
• Develop positive relationships in school, family,
  community, team, and leadership roles
• Communicate appropriately and effectively
• Make responsible decisions, solve problems
  thoughtfully, and resolve conflicts non-violently
• Show empathy, active caring and compassion for
  others
• Behave ethically, responsibly, and respectfully
• Avoid negative, high-risk, unhealthy behaviors

15
Examples of Research Support for Effectiveness of
SEL

• School Preventive Intervention Studies
• Mental Health and Positive Youth Development
  Studies
• Substance Abuse Prevention Studies
• Academic Performance and Learning Studies

16
Academic Performance and Learning Studies

• Wang et al. (1997) examined 28 categories of
  influences on learning based on 179 handbook
  chapters, 91 research syntheses, and surveys of
  61 national experts

17
Findings

• Among top 11 most influential categories, 8
  involved SEL (e.g., student-teacher social
  interactions, classroom climate, peer group)
• Conclusion direct intervention in the
  psychological determinants of learning promise
  the most effective avenues of reform (p. 210)

18
Durlak, Weissberg et al. (2005) Meta-analysis
Inclusion Criteria

• School, family, or community programs that
  promote SEL assets and influence behavior
• Target a school-aged population (5 18 years
  old)
• Promotion or prevention, but not treatment
• Employ a control group design
• Report by the end of 2004 in English
• Present sufficient data to calculate effect sizes
• Excluded
• Interventions whose exclusive purpose was to
  prevent drug use, pregnancy, and HIV/AIDS or
  promote physical health
• Interventions whose exclusive purpose was to
  improve academic functioning

CASEL at UIC
19
Durlak, Weissberg et
al (2005) Meta-analysis of 665 School, Family,
and Community PYD Interventions
n 65
Universal Interventions
n 42
n 179
n 486
n 379
Total Interventions 665
20
School UniversalOverall Findings
21
School UniversalSocial and Emotional Learning
(SEL) Assets
22
School Universal School Outcomes
23
Outcomes of Integrated and Coordinated Services

• More empathy and social awareness
• Higher engagement and participation in classroom
  and school activities including community service
• Better attendance, fewer drop-outs increased
  requests for assistance higher achievement
• Higher teacher retention and satisfaction
• Greater attachment and commitment improved care
  for facilities
• Fewer disruptive behaviors greater sense of
  safety

24
Short-Term, Measurable Outcomes of SEL
Interventions

• Fewer decreases in student academic performance
• More interactions/more inclusion among diverse
  groups including special education
• Improved understanding on the part of students of
  expectations and of their value as members of the
  community
• More involvement in community service efforts
  (e.g., Katrina)
• Better care of the building and books
• Additional volunteering by parents
• Fewer teacher absences
• Reduced time spent on correcting negative
  behaviors
• More class time devoted to academic tasks

25
Working to put the pieces of the puzzle together
to reduce fragmentation, increase synergy, and
enhance social, emotional, and academic learning
for all children.

www.CASEL.org
26

• Students
• Improved climate view school as
• supportive and safe
• Closer connections to students,
• teachers, school greater bonding
• Consistent messages and common
• purpose mutual support

Across Grades

• Teachers
• Common sense of purpose, higher
• morale and mutual support
• More efficient use of classroom time
• Better communication among staff
• and with students and families
• Address needs of whole child

Integrated, Coordinated Services
Within Grades

• School
• Commitment to unified mission
• Greater sense of community, higher
• morale, increased cooperation
• More efficient use of resources and
• expanded roles
• Fewer marginalized services

Across Schools
27
Value Added by Coordination of SEL

• SEL Coordination adds value to schools by
  building success skills, developing character,
  and preventing harmful and hurtful behavior in
  young people

28
Success Skills

• Builds academic, career, and relationship skills
• Meets NCLB mandates
• Builds caring communities of learners with
  connections to adults in the building to peers,
  and to the school as a valued place to which to
  belong

29
Character

• Fosters good citizenship, teaches how to make
  sound choices, and develops purpose and sense of
  optimism about the future
• Increases likelihood of students making
  realistic means-ends connections
• Builds skills and values through community
  service and service learning in and out of school

30
Prevention

• Provides a safe environment free from bullying,
  intimidation, peer harassment, and victimization
• Reduces likelihood of problem behaviors such as
  violence, bullying, substance abuse,
• truancy, school dropout, depression, apathy,
  disaffection

31
Our Vision for Safe and Civil Schools Through SEL

• We envision a time when all students entering
  schools in New Jersey will feel they have a
  positive purpose in being there. They will feel
  engaged, attached, and connected and see the
  schools as a place they can learn and do things
  to contribute to the world around them, advance
  their sense of purpose, and become more literate
  in academic, media, artistic, technology, and
  civic areas. This will be accomplished in part
  because the students will experience coordinated
  and continuous efforts to build their
  social-emotional skills, positive character,
  service-learning contributions, and health, and
  to prevent substance abuse and violent/bullying
  behavior in a safe, caring, supportive, healthy,
  and ethical environment.

32
How will fragmentation get reduced?

• Ask yourself what efforts are being made in your
  schools and districts to reduce fragmentation
• Consider the financial costs of programs,
  personnel involved-- is the whole greater than
  the sum of its parts?
• Are some of your professional colleagues
  operating heroically to try to solve these
  problems?

33
Coordination Requires Coordinators

• How will coordination take place if no one is
  qualified, competent, supported, and, ultimately,
  certified to lead it and take responsibility for
  it on an everyday basis?