SEL
Successful implementation
Implementing school-wide
social and emotional learning
Peter Ji and Roger Weissberg explain how schools can
committee, consisting of teachers, support
successfully implement social and emotional learning
staff, administrators, and parents.
programs, and assess their progress with a specialist ‘toolkit’
The rubric and procedure
The rubric consists of 16 items, each
SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING (SEL) Health Partnership, and Regional Offi ces of of which corresponds to one of the ten
programs are designed to help students Education to assist Illinois schools as part implementation steps and six sustainability
develop the competencies they need to of a state funded three-year pilot initiative factors. Each item is rated on a 4-point scale:
manage their emotions, develop caring to implement SEL programs. In 2007, 84 1 = Little or no development and
for others, make responsible decisions, schools were selected to receive resources, implementation.
establish positive relationships, and handle training, and coaching to implement SEL. 2 = Limited development or partial
challenging situations effectively. Schools Schools submitted rubric ratings to document implementation.
that effectively implement evidence-based the status of their implementation. This brief 3 = Mostly functional level of development
SEL programs do achieve successful paper presents the rubric data and describes and implementation.
outcomes. However, implementing SEL how schools use the rubric to help them 4 = Fully functional level of development
programs is challenging for many schools. implement SEL programs. and implementation.
Reasons for this include: lack of support Each participant in the school committee
from school leadership, limited professional The schools rated their school’s level of implementation on
development for staff, failure to adopt Participating schools were located each of the items. The committee then arrived
evidence-based programming, and the throughout Illinois. There were 50 at a consensus rating for each item. An SEL
inability to integrate SEL into school elementary, 17 middle, and 17 high schools coach who visited the school once a month
operations. Understandably, educators need spread across urban, suburban, and rural assisted the committee with their ratings.
models and strategies to guide their efforts areas. Regarding the racial background of Data collection began in the fall of 2007.
to implement SEL with quality. the students – in 18 schools, 90% of the A total of six waves of data will be collected,
students were Caucasian, in ten schools, twice per school year for three years. Thus
An SEL toolkit 90% of students were African-American, in far, fi ve waves have been collected, with
The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) 12 schools, 50% of students were Latino/ wave 1 collected in the fall of 2007, and most
and the Collaborative for Academic, Social, Hispanic, in two schools, 20% of students recently wave 5 collected in the fall of 2009.
and Emotional Learning (CASEL) have were Asian, and the remaining 42 schools
developed a model and toolkit to guide had varying proportions of students from Results and discussion
schools in implementing and sustaining different racial/ethnic backgrounds. The fi ndings indicate that after 2½ years,
SEL programming. The toolkit is based on The participants who completed the rubric schools made considerable progress in
an implementation model that comprises were members of their school’s SEL steering their SEL implementation. At wave 5, for the
ten implementation steps grouped into
three stages (Readiness, Planning, and
Implementation stage Steps in implementation model
Implementation), and six sustainability
Readiness 1. Principal commits to school-wide SEL
factors (see Figure 1).
(steps 1 and 2)
2. Engage stakeholders and form steering committee
It provides schools with tools that assist
them with implementing SEL. One such
Planning 3. Develop and articulate shared vision
tool is a rubric that is based on the SEL
(steps 3 to 6)
4. Conduct needs and resources assessment
implementation model ( www.casel.org/ 5. Develop action plan
downloads/Rubric.pdf ). Schools use the
6. Select evidence-based program
rubric to rate the current quality of their
Implementation 7. Conduct initial staff development
implementation on each of the steps and
(steps 7 to 10)
factors. Based on the ratings, schools then
8. Launch SEL teaching in classrooms
use other tools that suggest activities taken
9. Expand teaching and integrate SEL school-wide
from literature reviews and expert educators’
10. Revisit activities and adjust for improvement
and researchers’ experiences with school-
Sustainability Factors A. Provide ongoing professional development
wide SEL. The activities were designed to help
(factors A to F)
B. Evaluate practices and outcomes for improvement
schools achieve quality SEL implementation.
C. Develop infrastructure to support SEL
Piloting the initiative
D. Integrate SEL framework school-wide
Using this model, UIC and CASEL are
E. Nurture partnerships with families and communities
collaborating with the Illinois State Board
F. Communicate with stakeholders
of Education, the Illinois Children’s Mental Figure 1
12 Better: Evidence-based Education winter 2010
Better(US)Win10 pp12-13 Implemetation.indd 12 23/2/10 17:04:17
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