SEL ensures the overall health and future success of students.
Recognizing the crucial role social and emotional learning (SEL) plays in ensuring the overall health and academic and future success of students, KYOSA is committed to creating and sharing widely SEL tools, research, and resources that allow out-of-school time providers to better serve their youth. These resources help explain what SEL is, how SEL connects to the afterschool field, and how to make the case to support SEL.
The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), an organization dedicated to advancing the evidence base, practical strategies, and implementation of SEL, defines it as “the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.”
CASEL’s framework classifies SEL competencies into five areas: self-awareness, social awareness, responsible decision-making, self-management, and relationship skills.
Afterschool and summer learning programs are already doing a lot to help students develop social and emotional skills. Many afterschool and summer learning programs have broad learning objectives for youth that include social, emotional, and character development. Afterschool and summer learning programs are a unique setting where youth can connect to positive adult mentors, feel safe to try new things, and have the opportunity to acquire new skills and develop mastery in an area.
Available evidence suggests that academic learning is inextricably connected to social and emotional development. It’s critical that both in-school and out-of-school educators ensure that youth are developing the social and emotional skills that they need to succeed in school and in life. Evidence shows that youth in high-quality, evidence-based afterschool programs targeting SEL outcomes see a wide range of positive effects in the short term:
- improved self-confidence and grades
- increased positive attitudes toward school, positive social behavior, standardized test scores, and attendance rates
- reduced aggression and drug use rates
And even more positive effects in the long term:
- increased rates of high school graduation, college enrollment, college completion, and employment
- higher average wages
- decreased rates of teen pregnancy and criminal behavior
Research even indicates that quality, SEL-focused afterschool programs can have an even larger impact on standardized test scores than programs that have a heavy academic focus! Afterschool and summer programs are key partners in young people’s learning. They help to develop the critical social and emotional skills that help create happier, more engaged, and more productive citizens.
Together with families and schools, afterschool and summer learning programs can work to ensure that all children and youth are given the supports they need to build their social and emotional skills and competencies, paving a clear pathway to a healthy and fulfilling future.
Resources
9 Tips to Boost Social & Emotional Learning in Schools and OST Programs
Aperture Education strives to bring the whole child into focus. There’s a ton of resources to be found on their site. Some of our favorites are the white papers and on-demand webinars and podcasts that can help inform SEL education in your program.
The Afterschool Guide to Social and Emotional Learning is a comprehensive toolkit developed by the National Afterschool Association.
Strengthening Students’ Social and Emotional Skills: Lessons from Six Case Studies of Schools and Their Out-of-School-Time Program Partners is a report that presents cross-cutting lessons from a set of case studies detailing how schools and out-of-school-time (OST) programs in six communities have worked together to build students’ social and emotional (SEL) skills.
Resource Guide for Developing Integrated Strategies to Support the Social and Emotional Wellness of Children highlights promising strategies and provides information about how some child care centers have already leveraged partnerships and funding to support implementation success.
Navigating Social and Emotional Learning from the Inside Out – practitioners from schools, early childhood education (ECE) providers and out-of-school time (OST) can use this resource to look “inside and across” programs to better understand program content and assess program fit with their district or community needs.
Skills for Success: Developing Social and Emotional Competencies in Out-of-School-Time Programs – This report provides tips and recommendations for incorporating high-quality SEL instruction and practices into OST programming for children and youth. The lessons are derived from the RAND Corporation’s study over four years of more than 100 afterschool programs across six communities — Boston, Dallas, Denver, Palm Beach County, Tacoma, and Tulsa — participating in The Wallace Foundation’s Partnerships for Social and Emotional Learning Initiative.