SEL in Illinois » Collaborating Sites

With funding from the Office of the Illinois Governor as part of the state's Safe and Drug-Free Schools grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the Illinois Collaborating Sites Project combines direct field work and consultation with action research in nine schools. Through this project CASEL has worked with the nine collaborating school sites over a five-year period to establish school-wide, evidence-based, SEL programming and document its impacts on students' healthy development and achievement.

The participating schools represent the diversity of Illinois and are located in rural, urban, and suburban areas. Among the nine schools are an inner-city African-American school, an inner-city Hispanic school, suburban schools with varying degrees of racial and economic diversity, and two downstate rural schools. A major goal of this project is to help develop a wide range of model sites of schoolwide SEL practice in IL from whose experiences other interested schools can learn.

These schools span a broad range of experience in SEL programming. Some sites have just completed the process of articulating a vision of SEL at their school, determining the needs of their students, and selecting an evidence-based SEL program. Others have been implementing a comprehensive SEL program for years and are now focused on ensuring the continued implementation of programming in a high quality manner through assessment of practices and student SEL competencies.

Click on the links below to learn more about the implementation progress at each of the schools:

• Catlin School District # 5
• Cossitt Elementary School, District #102
• Consolidated School District # 181
• Mill Street Elementary School, District #203
• Spry Community School, District #299
• Williams Elementary and Williams Preparatory Academy, District #299