In Massachusetts, Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Advocates Meet to Plan for Effective SEL in Every School | By: Committee for Children More than 150 mental health providers, teachers, and school administrators gathered at Wellesley College on May 22nd for the Social Emotional Learning Alliance for Massachusetts’ (SAM) third annual conference, entitled “Leveraging Social Emotional Learning (SEL) in an Era of Accountability.” SAM’s mission is to bring the educational process known as SEL into every school in Massachusetts, whether private, public or charter. Effective SEL promotes students’ academic success, health and well-being and provides them with opportunities to practice skills such as resiliency, problem-solving, and emotional management. Through evidence-based SEL programming, children become good communicators, cooperative members of a team, effective leaders, and caring concerned members of their communities. “What we hear from our members—and the wider community—is that they want SEL in their schools, but need to learn how to leverage the tremendous benefits of SEL to overcome the natural tendency of schools to be concerned with testing and compliance,” said Mitch Lyons, one of the organizers of SAM, a two-year-old nonprofit coalition of individuals who work in schools, hospitals, associations, businesses and nonprofits. “In fact, the demand for a seat at our conference is consistent each year we’ve held it, with waiting lists almost as high as the number of attendees allowed in the space,” Lyons added. Over 350 SAM members have banded together to bring SEL into the forefront of educational discussion and will be sponsoring legislation next year to make SEL training a requirement for all new teachers. “While we often hear that educators feel overwhelmed, we also hear that the schools and districts that take the necessary steps to implement SEL see that it pays off – for student achievement and well-being, and for the adult community – in a matter of months, if they focus on climate and practices,” said Rachel Poliner, this year’s conference organizer. “So we focused this year’s conference on helping administrators and teachers strategize around the obstacles.” The conference will speak to how to make SEL a focal point for schools, on equal footing with teaching content. “The evidence is in,” said Lyons, “and it states unequivocally that social-emotional learning is a powerful tool that helps students develop thinking habits that lead to their success in school, relationships and life.”