The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) released a new tool to help middle and high schools meet their students’ most critical needs.
The 2015 CASEL Guide: Effective Social and Emotional Learning Programs–Middle and High School Edition provides a framework for examining social and emotional learning (SEL) programs used in secondary schools and rates well-designed, evidence-based programs in a Consumer Reports-style review. CASEL published a similar guide to preschool and elementary school programs in 2013.
Nine programs earned a spot on the CASEL Guide’s “SELect list.” The programs had a range of effects on schools from improved academic outcomes to a drop in problem behaviors.
“Social and emotional learning should be an essential part of education for all of America’s children. Educators need a trusted source when selecting an evidence-based program, and the 2015 CASEL Guide provides that. This is sure to move the field forward,” said CASEL board member Tim Shriver.
Writing about the new guide in Education Week, Evie Blad noted that, “For schools, the decision to focus on the social and emotional learning of their students is just the first step. The real work kicks in when leaders try to navigate a confusing and still-developing field to select an evidence-based program that will translate the findings of researchers into actual results in the classroom.”
To read the report, see http://www.casel.org/middle-and-high-school-edition-casel-guide
