January 23, 2004  

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In This Issue: A Focus on Leadership

  • Spotlight on Research: Principal leadership crucial for prevention efforts to succeed; specific principal leadership practices that improve student achievement.

  • Spotlight on Practice: Identifying your leadership style; reflecting on your own social-emotional intelligence; improving your school's social and emotional climate; eight principles of organizational change; building character with literature; service-learning funding opportunity.

  • CASEL Up-Close: New article on what works in SEL for positive youth development; a CASEL co-sponsored conflict resolution conference.

From the Executive Director’s Desk: A New Year, New Opportunities

As the new year gets under way, all of us have new opportunities to make a positive difference for children and youth. Schools experience powerful rhythms of change and evolution as the months unfold, and now is an ideal time for renewal.

From CASEL’s point of view, it’s a time for schools to renew their commitment to the necessary balance of social and emotional learning and academics. A growing body of research demonstrates that one doesn’t happen without the other, that it’s not a matter of “either-or” but “both-and.” Caring schools with a positive climate are more successful than schools that do not address students’ social and emotional development. Emotionally intelligent students—young people who learn and practice skills such as communication, problem-solving, and self-discipline—do better academically than students who lack these skills.

The importance of social and emotional learning to academics is underscored by a new book just published by Teachers College Press. Titled Building Academic Success on Social and Emotional Learning: What Does the Research Say? (Zins, Weissberg, Wang, & Walberg, 2004), this joint effort of numerous CASEL colleagues presents the most compelling case to date for integrating SEL into a school’s planning and programming. It can be ordered directly through the publisher’s web site [http://store.tcpress.com/0807744395.shtml]. A key chapter is available on the CASEL web site [http://www.casel.org/downloads/tcpress.doc].

Howard Adelman, Linda Taylor, and their colleagues at the Center for Mental Health in Schools at UCLA have developed an excellent resource for renewing your commitment to SEL and addressing the month-to-month patterns of change and development that characterize the typical school year. Titled Improving Teaching and Learning Supports by Addressing the Rhythm of a Year, it can be ordered or downloaded in PDF format by going to the center’s web site (http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu) and clicking on “Ideas for Enhancing Support at Your School This Month.” Every month, the authors note, “there are important opportunities for anticipating predictable problems and planning prevention and early intervention to minimize them. By pursuing such opportunities, schools enhance teachers’ ability to do their job well.”

The UCLA tool kit addresses the reality that learning is guided by subtle patterns and rhythms and that educators can be more effective when they take these factors into account. We commend our UCLA colleagues for their contribution to the field—not just this guide but the many other resources they have developed that are also accessible on their web site. We look forward to new and continued collaborations in 2004.

- Roger P. Weissberg, Ph.D.

Spotlight on Research

Support from the Principal: A Necessity for Success

The crucial role of the principal to the success of school-based social and emotional learning and prevention efforts is readily apparent to teachers and other school staff responsible for implementing new programs and practices. A study by Chi-Ming Kam, Mark Greenberg, and Carla T. Walls published in the March 2003 issue of Prevention Science investigated the impact of principal support on the success of a school-based prevention program used with elementary school students in a high-risk urban community. The results were striking. The program succeeded in reducing problem behaviors and aggression and increasing social-emotional competence in students—but only when principal support was high and if there was a high degree of program implementation in the classroom. In conditions of high levels of classroom implementation, the impact on children’s outcomes was doubled when principal support was also strong.

According to the study, in schools with “high principal support” the principal:

  • Saw the program as central to the school’s mission;
  • Supported staff effectively;
  • Spoke positively about the program;
  • Displayed program materials in the office;
  • Collaborated with the technical assistance team; and
  • Helped the program coordinator become part of the school culture.  

To read the complete article, go to: http://www.casel.org/downloads/greenbergpathsimp.pdf

Principal Leadership and Student Achievement

Educators generally acknowledge that the quality of a principal’s leadership can have a dramatic effect on student achievement. Now a meta-analysis from Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL) identifies specific leadership skills that account for this.

The authors (Tim Waters, Robert J. Marzano, and Brian McNulty) found two primary variables affecting whether the principal’s leadership had a positive or negative impact on achievement. The first was whether principals properly identified and focused on improving practices that were most likely to affect student achievement. These included social and emotional variables related to safe and orderly environments, collegiality and professionalism, parent and community involvement, classroom management, and student motivation.

Second, successful principals clearly understood whether or not the change they were leading was an extension of current practice or required a fundamental break with past practice. Principals had a positive impact on achievement when they utilized leadership practices appropriate for these different types of change.

To learn about the key leadership skills and when to use which ones, read the report at http://www.mcrel.org/topics/prouctdetail.asp?topicsid=7&productid=144

Spotlight on Practice

“Leadership that Gets Results”— A Worthwhile Article for School Leaders

One of the first steps to becoming a more effective leader is recognizing which leadership styles you use and the impact they have on individuals and overall school culture. This article by CASEL co-founder and internationally known expert on emotional intelligence Dan Goleman offers a good introduction to leading with social and emotional intelligence. Goleman discusses six common leadership styles, when to employ them, their benefits and shortcomings, and the social and emotional skills they require.

The six common leadership styles are:

  • Coercive: Demands immediate compliance

  • Authoritative: Mobilizes people toward a vision

  • Affiliative: Creates harmony and builds emotional bonds

  • Democratic: Forges consensus through participation

  • Pacesetting: Sets high standards for performance

  • Coaching: Develops people for the future

To read the full article, go to http://www.reuna.cl/central_apunte/docs/Goleman_acrobat.pdf

Leading with Emotional Intelligence

In a previous issue of “CASEL Connections” we announced the recent publication of Smart School Leaders: Leading with Emotional Intelligence, by James Tobin and Janet Patti. Each chapter focuses on a different aspect of social and emotional intelligence as an element of school leadership. The book can be ordered from the Kendall-Hunt web site at: http://www.kendallhunt.com/cgi-bin/detail.cmd?product=general&isbn=0-7575-0515-5.

The first skill-building chapter focuses on the role of the principal as a leader of educational change. The chapter includes activities to:

  • Help leaders identify their own emotional strengths and weaknesses;

  • Translate these general skills into specific examples of SEL competencies needed for school leadership;

  • Increase leaders’ self-awareness; and

  • Use a problem-based learning tool to solve a real-world problem. 

This chapter, including the activities, can be downloaded from the CASEL web site at: http://www.casel.org/downloads/pattiactivities.pdf

Building School Communities with Character  

To be an effective leader of SEL efforts, whether you’re a teacher, prevention coordinator, mental health professional, or administrator, another valuable resource is Building School Communities with Character, by Bernard Novick, Jeffrey Kress, and Maurice Elias. The book presents a nine-step problem-solving approach to help educators develop an SEL program and create a nurturing school climate. The chapter titled “Readiness: Assess Your School’s Potential for Change” is available on the ASCD web site at http://www.ascd.org/cms/objectlib/ascdframeset/index.cfm?publication=http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/101240/. It focuses on the socio-emotional culture of the school as an organization and includes tools for evaluating the school’s organizational culture.

Interested in a first-hand experience of how your own emotions can help pinpoint strengths and weaknesses in what’s happening in your school? Try this exercise from the chapter on “Recognizing Feelings” (the first step in the nine-step problem solving model):

A Feelings Walking Tour

Take a walk through your school building. Look in on classes, lunch and recess times, meetings, extracurricular activities, after-school and evening events—the gamut of what occurs on regular school days. Be aware of your feelings at different destinations on your tour. Where do you experience positive emotions such as pride, joy, and excitement? Where do you experience negative emotions such as anxiety, frustration, and anger? Where do you experience both types of emotions? What is triggering these emotions at these times and places?

Navigating Whole-District Change: Eight Principles for Moving an Organization Upward in Times of Unpredictability (American Association of School Administrators, The School Administrator Web Edition, Jan. 2004)

In this engaging article author Francis M. Duffy describes eight principles of organizational change. They include:

  • A school district’s external environment is complex and unstable.

  • The change path from the present to the future is not a straight line.

  • The capacity to anticipate the future and respond quickly to unanticipated events is partially a function of a school district’s internal social architecture.

  • Creating a web of accountabilities using networked teams does not mean that authority and control are surrendered to the networked “mob.”

  • A networked social architecture stimulates creativity and innovation.

To read the whole article, go to http://www.aasa.org/publications/sa/2004_01/Duffy.htm.

The CASEL web site includes many other resources related to educational leadership. Go to http://www.casel.org/sel_resources/leadershiprecs for additional readings and recommended web sites.  

Building Character through Literature

A recent article in the Contra Costa Times (Northern California) highlights the value of using literature as a springboard for discussions about ethical behavior and promoting self-reflection and insight. The article describes a character-based literacy program being used in 350 California schools that is helping students examine their own decisions and the value of self-control, respect, and responsibility.

You can read the article at http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/living/education/7715813.htm

For excellent teacher guides on leading ethics-based literature discussions, see the Voices web site at www.voicespublishing.com  

Funding For Social Studies Service Projects

CiviConnections- Constructing the past, creating the future

Grants of $7,500 will be awarded to 33 teams of 3 teachers each (3rd through 12th grade, social studies teachers preferred) in schools or school districts across the nation this June. CiviConnections is a new program of the National Council for the Social Studies funded by the Corporation for National and Community Service.  The grants are intended to support projects that integrate local historical inquiry around a chosen social issue with service-learning.

For more info and a downloadable application, go to http://www.socialstudies.org

For more information, contact Trevi Brown-Thomas at civiconnections@ncss.org

Sound Bite

“Effective leaders understand how to balance pushing for change while at the same time protecting aspects of culture, values, and norms worth preserving. They know which policies, practices, resources, and incentives to align and how to align them with organization priorities. They know how to gauge the magnitude of change they are calling for and how to tailor their leadership strategies accordingly. Finally, they understand and value the people in the organization. They know when, how, and why to create learning environments that support people, connect them with one another, and provide the knowledge, skills, and resources they need to succeed. This combination of knowledge and skills is the essence of balanced leadership.”—Waters, Marzano, and McNulty, Balanced Leadership, McREL 2003

CASEL Up-Close

New Publication Includes CASEL Article on School-Based SEL Programming

The latest (January 2004) issue of The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science focuses on the theme Positive Development: Realizing the Potential of Youth. CASEL Executive Director Roger P. Weissberg and Deputy Director Mary Utne O’Brien contributed an article titled “What Works in School-Based Social and Emotional Learning Programs for Positive Youth Development.” For more information about this special issue go to http://www.aapss.org/section.cfm/5/27/839.

From the editor’s notes: “These papers include innovative research topics and offer a solid framework for the idea of positive youth development including the history of positive youth development, highlights of effective positive youth programs, evaluation studies of a variety of interventions, examples of theory-based interventions, and more. Scholars, students, practitioners, and policymakers in the child and adolescent field will find this issue of The Annals a critical resource. It offers a refreshing position that emphasizes positive human development and strives toward the vision of young people who are satisfied with their life, who have identified their talents and use them in a variety of fulfilling pursuits, and who are contributing members of our society.”

CASEL Co-sponsored Conference

In early May CASEL will co-sponsor the 2004 National Conference on Conflict Resolution Education, titled “What Works! Innovations in Conflict Resolution Education: Early Childhood to Higher Education.” CASEL Leadership Team members Maurice Elias and Janet Patti will be keynote speakers. CASEL Leadership Team member Joe Zins and CASEL's Director of Illinois Initiatives Jennifer Miller will lead a workshop on using evidence-based SEL to improve academic achievement. To learn more about this conference, which will take place in Ohio May 5-8, visit our events web page at http://www.casel.org/events/index.php

What Is CASEL?  

CASEL—the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning—is dedicated to the development of children’s social-emotional competencies and the capacity of schools, parents, and communities to support that development. 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 will also be 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 developing fundamental social and emotional competencies or skills in children and creating a caring and supportive school climate. A large number of school-based programs and practices are designed to do this. Many evidence-based school programs that focus on positive youth development, prevention, service-learning, and character education can be considered SEL. They work to develop students’ social and emotional competencies and create ways to nurture and support students. The resources in this e-newsletter cover a wide range of topics that fall under the umbrella of school-based SEL programming.

About This Listserv

The FCASEL listserv is intended to keep you up-to-date on some of the latest SEL research and best practices. 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. To receive this bulletin in text format only, please send a message to Cynthia Coleman at colemanc@uic.edu with “e-news text format” in the subject line. We respect your privacy, and will not share or sell your email address with others.

Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL)
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