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Dear Friends of CASEL and SEL: 

Happy 2008! 

Our new year's resolution is to share periodic updates with you about the science and practice of social and emotional learning. We hope 2008 will be a great year in which schools, families, and communities continue working together to promote the SEL of children. As a start, we'd like to share some new SEL issue briefs and articles with you, and exciting updates on activities within CASEL and in the field of SEL.

Best wishes from the CASEL Team!

• Education Week, December 19, 2007 featured a front-page story on the CASEL Forum in New York City on December 10. CASEL hosted this one-day gathering of national and international leaders in SEL, education, and related fields to raise awareness about social and emotional learning (SEL) and introduce important scientific findings related to SEL. The participants included CASEL Board Chair Timothy Shriver, CASEL Founders Daniel Goleman and Eileen Rockefeller Growald, Congressman George Miller, filmmaker George Lucas, neuroscientist Richard Davidson, policy and child development expert Edward Zigler, educator Linda Darling-Hammond, and prevention and positive youth-development leaders including Larry Aber, James Comer, Maurice Elias, Mark Greenberg, David Hawkins, Linda Lantieri, Karen Pittman, and many others. All expressed appreciation and enthusiasm for the event and its potential to move the field of SEL forward in significant ways. All committed to further efforts to support the work of CASEL and SEL.
  
  You can read the Education Week article, Social-Skills Programs Found to Yield Gains in Academic Subjects, at
  
  http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/12/19/16social.h27.html  
  
  

• One highlight of the forum was CASEL President Roger P. Weissberg's summary of findings on the significant positive impacts of SEL on students' social development and academic success from a recently completed meta-analysis. 
  
  A summary of his presentation is at http://casel.org/downloads/metaanalysissum.pdf. 
  (The full report of this study will be available on the CASEL web site in the spring.)
  
  
• In preparation for the Forum, CASEL produced two new issue briefs on SEL providing a basic background on SEL. The first explains what SEL is, and the value of SEL for students and schools. The second gives a broader context for understanding the challenges of youth and schools today, highlighting how SEL programming can help schools and students meet those challenges.  Please feel free to download and make extensive use of these materials.
  
  http://casel.org/downloads/SEL&CASELbackground.pdf 
  http://casel.org/downloads/Youth&Schools.pdf   
  
  
• The January, 2008 issue of O: The Oprah Magazine featured a story about SEL, the work of CASEL leaders, and the Illinois SEL standards. “The New and Improved Self-Esteem” described in compelling and non-scientific terms how learning SEL skills such as self-awareness and self-management can help to develop a personal foundation of confidence and competence.  
  
  Click here to read the article.
  
  
• The George Lucas Education Foundation has posted two wonderful new videos that bring SEL to life.  Go to http://www.edutopia.org/video and look for “Peace Helpers” (Brooklyn NY, elementary school) and “Educating Hearts” (Anchorage School District, high school).  
  
  

• The American Educational Research Association, the premier organization of its kind, has granted a Special Interest Group (SIG) designation to SEL. More than 120 people from around the world have joined the SIG, and AERA’s annual meeting in New York City will feature SEL presentations for the first time.  
  
  Find out more about this SIG at http://www.aera.net/Default.aspx?menu_id=352&id=3062 
  
  

• The New York State Assembly has voted for the development of student learning standards in SEL. Staff from the New York State Department of Education are charged with recommending guidelines for social and emotional development for voluntary implementation by October 2008. 
  
  Find out more about the NY legislation at http://casel.org/standards/policy.php 
  
  

• In December 2007, we at CASEL were thrilled to honor the memory of our beloved colleague and SEL leader Joe Zins by awarding the first Joseph E. Zins Awards for Early Career Contributions to SEL Research and Practice. Selected from an outstanding and inspiring field of young (under-40) researchers and practitioners in SEL were Sara Rimm-Kaufman of the University of Virginia (for Research) and Victoria Blakeney of the Anchorage, Alaska, School District (for Practice).  Judging from these up-and-coming stars, the future is bright for the field of SEL. 

Read more about the award and the work of the nominees and awardees at http://casel.org/news.php#zins 

• Last spring CASEL began working with UNICEF (the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund) to bring SEL to their Child Friendly Schools as a way to help operationalize the whole-child, universal-access model of schooling that UNICEF supports in many countries. One result of our work with UNICEF was a two-day January workshop on SEL that CASEL, in partnership with the American Institutes for Research, prepared for representatives of ministries of education and UNICEF from nine countries in southeast Asia. 

UNICEF's report of the workshop is available at http://www.unicef.org/eapro/media_7792.html.

• CASEL is pleased to announce two opportunities to attend our "Sustainable Schoolwide Social and Emotional Learning" Training in Chicago: July 24-25, 2008 and August 14-15, 2008. These workshops are designed to equip school administrators and their teams with the tools and skills needed to implement high quality, sustainable, evidence-based social and emotional learning programming that is integrated into all aspects of schooling. If you are interested in attending one of these workshops, please visit CASEL's website at www.casel.org to download the registration form, or contact Cynthia Coleman (colemanc@uic.edu) today.

What Is CASEL?  

CASEL— the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning— is dedicated to the development of children’s social and emotional competencies and the capacity of schools, parents, and communities to support that development. As a not-for-profit organization based at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), CASEL is working to create a world in which young people will have the academic knowledge and skills they need to achieve their goals and become caring, engaged citizens prepared to participate fully in society. CASEL’s mission is to establish integrated, evidence-based social and emotional learning (SEL) from preschool through high school.

What Is SEL?

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process of acquiring the skills to recognize and manage emotions, develop caring and concern for others, establish positive relationships, make responsible decisions, and handle challenging situations effectively. Research has shown that SEL is fundamental to children's social and emotional development— their health, ethical development, citizenship, academic learning, and motivation to achieve. Social and emotional education is a unifying concept for organizing and coordinating school-based programming that focuses on positive youth development, health promotion, prevention of problem behaviors, and student engagement in learning.

This e-newsletter is intended to keep you up-to-date on some of the latest SEL research and best practices. The FCASEL (“Friends of CASEL”) listserv manages subscriber information. To subscribe or unsubscribe, go to: http://www.casel.org/listservs/index.php or send an e-mail to Cynthia Coleman at colemanc@uic.edu with “subscribe FCASEL” or “unsubscribe FCASEL” in the subject line.  

Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL)
Department of Psychology (M/C 285)
University of Illinois at Chicago
1007 West Harrison St.
Chicago, IL 60607
312-413-1008
Fax 312-355-4480 
CASEL@uic.edu 
www.CASEL.org