| By: Committee for Children Safe Children Thriving in a Peaceful World: The Committee for Children Story Maurice J. Elias, director of Rutgers University’s Social-Emotional Learning Lab and longtime proponent of social-emotional learning and supporter of Committee for Children, describes his thoughts on CFC’s impact on the community at large. Read More
| By: Committee for Children Everything You Need to Know About ESSA: Part 1 of 3 The bipartisan Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which replaces the outdated No Child Left Behind Act, includes flexible funding that can be used for SEL and prevention programs. However, the flexibility given to each state could put some programs at risk. This first blog post in a series of three explains key provisions in the bill and how it impacts our work. Read More
| By: Kim Gulbrandson Ten Things District Leaders Can Do This Year to Plan for Student Success So you're a district leader, and you're convinced: SEL should be part of our strategic plan. Now what? Blogger Kim Gulbrandson concludes her three-part series with 10 tips you can start using today to plan for social skills instruction across your district. Read More
| By: Kim Gulbrandson How and Why Social Skills Instruction Fits With Your Strategic Plan Blogger Kim Gulbrandson posts the second part in a series of three on why SEL is needed and how to incorporate it within strategic plans. To achieve outcomes like “graduate every student,” and “ensure all students are college- and career-ready,” districts must teach students specific skills, give them opportunities to practice those skills, and reinforce through ongoing social-emotional skills instruction. Read More
| By: Kim Gulbrandson A Closer Look at Strategic Plans: Laying the Foundation for Student Success After talking with district administrators around the nation and reviewing strategic plans from rural, urban, and suburban districts across 26 states, our blogger Kim Gulbrandson spotted some trends: all plans referenced “student success” as a goal; one-fourth included SEL elements as part of the mission; of those that included SEL, personal responsibility was emphasized; few plans included action steps. Read More
| By: Kim Gulbrandson It’s Here! The Amazing Principal Toolkit How can you tell if an SEL curriculum is going to be successful? Look at the principal! Our new Second Step Principal Toolkit was developed due to this insight and gives school leaders ready-made resources such as meeting agendas, activities, and handouts for staff orientation, monthly staff kick-off meetings, and weekly staff meetings. Blogger Kim Gulbrandson reviews. Read More
| By: Kim Gulbrandson How Environment Can Foster Social-Emotional Well-Being Environment can be just as important as skill development in fostering social-emotional well-being. Blogger Kim Gulbrandson provides real-life tips to connect the natural world to teaching skills such as empathy, emotion management, and executive function. Read More
| By: Kim Gulbrandson Expand Your Bullying Prevention Toolkit with Social-Emotional Learning Every year schools and communities across the country unite in their bullying prevention efforts during the month of October for National Bullying Prevention Month. Does this mean that if you focus on bullying prevention for one month you’re done? Not at all! This month is meant to jump-start continued efforts to prevent bullying. And social-emotional learning can make a great addition to the toolkit that helps you do this.Read More
| By: Kim Gulbrandson Time to Get Excited about Social-Emotional Learning! As we gear up for the upcoming school year and continue planning to lay the foundation for children to become knowledgeable, responsible, and caring adults, I wanted to share a few SEL highlights to energize you as you begin 2015–2016: Read More
| By: Committee for Children Three Misperceptions about SEL The potential inclusion of an amendment to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) that incorporates both a definition and a specified funding source for social-emotional learning (SEL) has me thinking about SEL often. Foremost in my mind is how to clear up misconceptions about what SEL really is. Talking with senatorial staff on the Hill, friends, and family members about the hopes for federal legislation changes and the importance of SEL for social and academic success both in school and in life, I learned that SEL is not widely understood.Read More