School Climate Survey for Families

Sacramento City Unified School District used this 2 page survey to gather family members' perspectives about school culture, equity, and the quality of interactions with school staff. It has been translated into 5 other languages at www.scusd.edu/post/2019-school-climate-survey-families.

TAGS family partnerships community relations culture and climate family and community engagement

Insights from the Caregiver Community: Building Authentic School and Family Partnerships

This brief highlights key learnings from CASEL’s pilot SEL Dialogue Series for Caregiver-School Partnerships, which took place at a high school in Chicago, Ill., during Spring, 2022. It hones in on 4 insights towards creating authentic school-family partnerships, each with a corresponding set of recommendations for school leaders.

TAGS family partnerships equity

Austin Independent School District SEL Newsletter

Samples of a bilingual newsletter distributed by the SEL department in Austin, including a school spotlight, featured SEL strategy, and family resources.

TAGS parenting reading lists - parents spanish language resources model SEL schools communications community relations 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

Enacting Social-Emotional Learning: Lessons from “Outlier Schools” in California’s CORE Districts

This research brief looks at the commonalities among California middle schools that reported stronger-than-typical social emotional learning outcomes. These 6 characteristics are elaborated into recommendations for school districts supporting SEL at scale.

TAGS model SEL schools implementation plan restorative practices advisory/homeroom community relations instructional practices culture and climate building community out of school student discipline

Austin’s MAPS Course for Freshmen (video)

MAPS (Methods for Academic and Personal Success) is a credit-bearing course for freshmen at Austin High School and other district high schools to support the transition into high school by teaching students how to organize for success, manage their emotions, resolve conflicts, build and maintain positive relationships, and other critical social and emotional learning and student success skills.

TAGS advisory/homeroom high school grades college and career readiness

Schoolwide Observation Tool for Climate, Classroom Management, and Instruction

Washoe County's 1 page tool for recording observations about how SEL is present in the school and classroom environment, instruction, and interactions, and a sample activity for debriefing observations in a circle setting.

TAGS SEL and Academic Integration classroom management model SEL schools school visit/observation tool classroom level culture and climate professional learning

School Climate Survey Compendia

The National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments maintains this list of valid and reliable surveys, assessments, and scales of school climate.

TAGS define SEL metrics assessment continuous improvement PK-12 implementation evaluation

School Climate Improvement: What do Teachers Believe, Need and Want?

A research report from the National School Climate Center shows 90% of educators believe that a positive school climate is very important, and educators wanted tools and "roadmaps" for improving school climate.

TAGS journal article SEL coaching for staff culture and climate building buy-in for SEL

Social and Emotional Learning in Out-of-School Time Settings

Brief from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Wallace Foundation providing guidelines and considerations for adapting leading SEL programs to out-of-school settings.

TAGS SEL partnerships research brief evidence-based programs out of school