3-223 - The Impact of a School-Level Support Intervention for Promoting School-wide Social-Emotional Learning

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Interest in social and emotional learning (SEL) has grown significantly over the past several years (Durlak, Domitrovich, Weissberg, & Gullotta, 2015). SEL involves fostering social and emotional competencies in children through various strategies including direct instruction and student-centered practices that create supportive learning environments (CASEL, 2013; Jones & Bouffard, 2012). School-based SEL interventions have positive impacts on students’ academic and behavioral outcomes (Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor, & Schellinger, 2011) but experts in the field suggest that the strongest benefits of these programs are achieved when interventions are planned and integrated with core educational activities (Elias et al., 2015). The CASEL Guide for Social and Emotional Learning is a school-level intervention designed to facilitate this goal and help school leaders ensure high quality implementation of the evidence-based SEL programs that are implemented by staff. The impact of the CASEL Guide was tested in an RCT that was conducted in K-3 classrooms in 28 high need schools in Chicago. Three papers are presented in this symposium. The first will describe the structure of the CASEL Guide including the tools and resources included within it. It will also describe the coaching support provided to the intervention schools. The second paper will describe the independent evaluation that is being conducted by the American Institutes for Research including the research design and data collection strategy, and the implementation outcomes at the classroom level. The final paper will present intervention impact on school climate collected through staff surveys.

Sub Unit

• Prevention and Interventions

Chair

• Celene Domitrovich, Georgetown University

Discussant

• Stephanie Jones, Harvard University

Individual Presentations

• Using the CASEL Guide for Social and Emotional Learning to Integrate an Evidence-Based Program throughout a School Community - Presenting Author: Duncan Meyers, Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning; Celene Domitrovich, Georgetown University; Roger Weissberg, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Promoting Implementation Quality of an Evidence-Based SEL Program with a Schoolwide Support Model - Presenting Author: Celene Domitrovich, Georgetown University; Duncan Meyers, Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning; Mark T. Greenberg, Pennsylvania State University

• Enhancing Outcomes of an SEL Program with a Schoolwide Support Model: Impact on School Climate, Teacher Perceptions and Practices - Presenting Author: Yibing Li, American Institutes for Research; Juliette Berg, American Institutes for Research; Kimberly Kendziora, American Institutes for Research