SEL Field Notes: Keeping you informed on the latest in SEL

This newsletter is curated by the American Institutes for Research and CASEL for the MeasuringSEL Collaborator Network and aims to keep you engaged with news, research, and resources relevant to the field of social and emotional learning.

Research

Grantmakers for Education: Trends in education philanthropy
Grantmakers for Education’s Trends in Education Philanthropy: Benchmarking 2018-19 offers insights on the current and evolving priorities of the education funding community. The report, based on a survey of 91 education philanthropists, can help funders to understand their role in supporting education innovation and identify future priorities that hold the greatest promise for benefiting America’s learners.

Piccolo, L. R., Merz, E. C., & Noble, K. G. (2019). School climate is associated with cortical thickness and executive function in children. Developmental Science, 22(1).
A positive school climate has been found to support mental and physical health, academic achievement and social adjustment among youth. However, links between school climate and brain structure have not been investigated to date. In this study, we investigated whether school climate was associated with executive function (EF) and brain structure (cortical thickness and surface area) in children and adolescents. We further examined whether these links varied as a function of socioeconomic background. This work is the first to link school climate to brain structure and contributes to the growing body of evidence suggesting that academic support may be an important protective factor in the context of socioeconomic disadvantage.

Practice

Salzburg Global Seminar: The Salzburg Statement on Social and Emotional Learning
Social and emotional skills are key human capabilities that allow individuals to manage their emotions, work with others, and achieve their goals. They are crucial for the wellbeing and success of every child and adult, and for the future of our societies and economies. In a complex, fast-moving world, it is imperative that we equip all learners for new challenges and opportunities. Evidence shows multiple long-term benefits from embedding Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) opportunities in education in both formal and non-formal contexts.

Education Dive: Advisory programs reinforce academic, SEL skills  Advisory sessions, often times built into the school day, give students contact with counselors and advisors, but also their peers. While they’re often able to talk about matters relating to classes, schedules and educational choices, these sessions also provide a way to work through social and emotional questions students may be facing.

Youth Today: After-school experts encourage program directors to help teens turn passion into action
Students around the world walked out of school Friday to raise awareness for climate change. This type of collective youth action is exactly what after-school professionals said they are interested in fostering in their local communities. Leaders in after-school programming from Alaska, New Hampshire and Indiana brainstormed Sunday about how to transform youth activities into youth action at the annual National AfterSchool Association conference.

Want to Contribute?

One way a rapidly growing and diverse movement like SEL seeks to grow and improve is by creating channels for people to contribute to the field – whether by publishing articles, doing professional development, or designing and learning about new efforts. To create a strong and vibrant field, these and other efforts need people like you to contribute their perspectives, ideas, resources, and experiences – and to do so in ways that others can see and from which they can learn.  Here at MeasuringSEL we wish to encourage you to contribute in one or more of three important ways: comment, write a blog, or share a resource. For more information, click here.