Lessons Learned From the First Year Evaluating the Collaborating District Initiative

• In Event: Multiple Perspectives on a Collaborative Initiative to Promote Systemic Social and Emotional Learning in School Districts

Abstract

The overarching goal of the evaluation is to develop proof points that it is not only possible but desirable for districts to prioritize SEL across their operations. There is already a compelling evidence base demonstrating that academic, social, and emotional learning are inextricably linked, and emotions and relationships affect how and what we learn. However, the larger, more challenging frontier in SEL involves how all of the elements of evidence-based programs fit together in the context of districtwide efforts.

In AIR’s evaluation, we are studying the eight districts participating in this initiative to establish the feasibility and value of committing to a districtwide SEL framework. We are using both qualitative (document review, interviews, focus groups) and quantitative (extant data review, surveys) methods to examine the activities that districts undertake to integrate a focus on SEL throughout their work, and eventually, to link activities to outcomes for districts, schools, and students.
In our first year of work, we have learned the following important lessons:
· Progress in integrating SEL into district functions begins with the knowledge and commitment of senior district leaders. District leaders must understand SEL and its importance in students’ learning experiences in school and out. Subsequently, this awareness must be shared across the school board, principals, teachers, unions, and families.
· There is important variation within districts in the understanding of, engagement in, and implementation of SEL activities.
· It is helpful for districts to assess their current resources, needs, and current practices in the area of supporting students’ social and emotional development. Selection of desired SEL programming is productively informed by these data.
· Professional development (PD) is always a major commitment of district resources in absolute and relative terms. In financially stressful circumstances, districts are faced with difficult decisions about PD priorities. The need for PD in SEL is unlikely to be met without taking away resources from other district priorities unless a PD approach integrating SEL and other priorities is developed and implemented.
· Districts that have established standards for what student should know and be able to do in the social and emotional domain and have built a scope and sequence for SEL are at an advantage in the vertical integration of SEL programs and practices from PK through grade 12.
· Findings also suggest that unless the social emotional competence of adults is enhanced, it will be hard to accrue many of the benefits of SEL programming, as adults must model the skills that are being taught and reinforced.
· Districts’ data infrastructures need to support both the monitoring of the implementation of SEL programming as well as students’ social and emotional competencies. In this way, decision making about SEL at the classroom, school, and district levels can be informed by SEL-relevant data.
We will expand and deepen our findings as the evaluation proceeds, and hope to support a dramatic increase in the number of students benefiting from SEL by virtue of its being incorporated into their education experience.

Authors

• Kimberly Trumbull Kendziora, American Institutes for Research

• David M. Osher, American Institutes for Research

• Lawrence B. Friedman, Learning Point Associates