Newsletter Archive: October 2020

Registered users of the District Resource Center and the Guide to Schoolwide SEL receive quarterly newsletters from CASEL with featured tools and learning opportunities. This issue focuses on sustaining SEL efforts throughout the school year.

TAGS newsletter

Technology and Districtwide SEL: Making SEL a Priority

CASEL collaborated with CoSN (the Consortium for School Networking) to describe ways school districts can leverage technology resources to implement districtwide SEL. Find more about how technology can support learning and district decision making at https://www.cosn.org/focus-areas/understanding-educational-environment

TAGS distance learning communications data dashboards

Fostering Mental Health and Wellness with Universal Social-Emotional and Behavioral Supports

A concise document describing how SEL supports mental health and academic performance, featuring the work of CASEL partner the School District of Palm Beach county to develop a Tier 1 approach to SEL to support the mental health of all students and staff. Includes links to the resources and tools the district provided to all schools.

TAGS mental health MTSS

Guiding Questions for Educators: Promoting Equity Using SEL in your School

When social and emotional learning (SEL) is implemented with a culturally responsive lens, educators can use SEL to cultivate equitable learning opportunities, responsive relationships, and inclusive practices. This resources features reflection questions for school-level educators to explore the CASEL core competencies through an equity lens.

See also: Guiding Questions for Educators: Promote Equity Using SEL in your District

TAGS cultural competence Adult SEL equity culturally responsive

Leading with SEL Advocacy Tools

This site provides resources for SEL advocates, including toolkits for parents and school board members. There is guidance for conversations, communications, engaging media outlets, and reaching out to policymakers.

TAGS parenting family partnerships reading lists - parents parent leadership building buy-in for SEL family and community engagement

Playbook to Leverage the Power of Communities of Practice

Developed with state policy teams, this resource is designed to support anyone who is working to build a community of practice across multiple schools or districts. Describes 6 steps for building a high quality CoP with tools and examples for each step.

TAGS implementation support district SEL expertise SEL leadership

Plan SEL Foundational Learning for your School District

This tool can help SEL leaders prepare a broad plan to provide learning experiences for all stakeholders in the school district community, and access resources to support foundational learning about SEL.

TAGS teacher training professional learning family and community engagement

School Strengths Inventory

This strengths inventory will help a school-based SEL team determine which strategies are being used at all levels of schoolwide SEL: SEL curriculum & instruction, schoolwide practice & policies, and family & community-level partnerships.

TAGS needs and resources assessment conducting local SEL research continuous improvement PK-12 implementation monitoring implementation evaluation instructional practices classroom level culture and climate MTSS out of school student discipline youth voice

CASEL’s Wheel of SEL Competencies (Spanish)

CASEL's handout in Spanish showing the 5 core SEL competencies and definitions and examples of each.

TAGS spanish language resources social awareness self awareness self management relationship skills responsible decision making SEL competence SEL overview

Districtwide Professional Learning Audit

This is an example of a third-party audit of a district's SEL professional learning offerings and practices, shared by Sacramento City. This level of analysis may be a helpful model for districts in which SEL work is distributed across many departments.

TAGS needs and resources assessment implementation plan professional learning