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January 2006
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
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In
order to learn more about you, our readers, and visitors to our
website, we invite you to complete a 5-question
survey. In
This Issue: Focus
on School-Family-Community Partnerships
From
CASEL's Leadership This issue continues our
practice of providing information around a specific important theme
in SEL work, as well as featuring timely news items on a range of
topics connected to school-based SEL. Our focus this month is the
burgeoning area of school-family-community partnerships to (1)
promote healthy student development and academic success, and (2)
support the long-term viability of SEL programming in schools. Many
of the items do not feature SEL specifically, but rather report on
the powerful positive impacts of schools and families working
together, as partners, to support children’s social, emotional,
and academic success. This issue is also packed with how-to’s,
examples of great practice, and resources to help educators engage
families and communities in collaborative efforts. Even
as schools and parents are encouraged to partner, both need ideas,
tools and supports to do so in meaningful ways. In broad
strokes, adults can foster children’s learning of
self-awareness, social awareness, self-management, relationship
building, and responsible decision-making by:
We
close this brief note with a quote from one of CASEL’s many
friends known to us only via the internet. Kerry Bird describes
herself as the Social and Emotional Learning Education Officer at
Catholic Education Services in Cairns, Australia. After thanking us
for our web resources, which she uses frequently in her work, she
writes: “Underpinning
our goals for young people is the solid evidence that student
social-emotional well-being is profoundly linked to parent
and staff social-emotional well-being. Therefore the movement
towards sustainability must make provision for (a) professionally
developing staff and parent SEL capabilities to strengthen young
people’s capabilities and (b) providing development for the
personal and social development of staff and parents as people.”
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves! Mary Utne
O’Brien Evidence
Shows High Impact of Family Involvement As
schools work to address the mandates of NCLB (see POLICY, below) and
improve academic achievement, enlisting parents is essential. A
new
wave of
evidence: The
impact of
school,
family, and
community
connections on
student
achievement,
by Anne T. Henderson and Karen L. Mapp, is an outstanding
summary of studies on the value of parent involvement in the process
of education. The authors not only share ways parents can help their
children do well in school (talk to them about school, expect them
to do well, help them plan for college, and make sure that
out-of-school activities are constructive), but also point out
subtleties from the research, e.g.:
To
learn more about the collaborative power within learning communities
and ways to put research into action, see Henderson, Anne T., &
Mapp, Karen L. (2002). A new wave of evidence: The impact of
school, family, and community connections on student achievement,
Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, http://www.sedl.org/connections/resources/evidence.pdf. Learning
from Communities Experienced
educators are aware that the success of long-term SEL and other
prevention efforts depends on knowledgeable and consistent community
involvement. Recent research backs up these observations and
underscores the importance of avoiding top-down programming that
does not respond to specific needs and build from resources already
present in the community. Robin
Miller and Marybeth Shinn examine models of dissemination of
programs in their article, Learning from communities: Overcoming
difficulties in dissemination of prevention and promotion efforts
(2005), American Journal of Community Psychology, 35 (Nos.
3-4), 169-183. Although adoption of research-based programs
is a requirement of most federal funding for prevention
interventions, such programs are often seriously compromised in
community practice because they are seldom adopted with complete
fidelity. To align theory and practice and improve implementation,
Miller and Shinn advise respecting and incorporating community
values, local problem solving, and recognition of what already works
when implementing programs developed and shown effective in other
contexts. (The challenge, of course, is to maintain the essential
mechanisms of action of the original programming while respecting
local conditions.) Keys
to the Sustainability of Community Coalitions How
can community coalitions to support local educational efforts be sustained? Brendan Gomez, Mark
Greenberg, and Mark Feinberg studied the development of Communities
that Care Coalitions in Pennsylvania beyond their initial three-year
implementation period. They conclude that factors important in
creating and maintaining community coalitions are:
The
presence of a board is key to the community attachment and support
needed for sustainability and engagement, as well as to obtaining
funding beyond the initial start-up period. This study has
implications for any community or schoolwide SEL initiative. Source:
Gomez, Brendan J., Greenberg, Mark T., & Feinberg, Mark E.
(2005, August). Sustainability of community coalitions: An
evaluation of communities that care. Prevention Science, 1-4.
Parents
as Partners in an African-Centered School Building
on the culture, strengths, and goals of its students and families,
the Sankofa Shule, a Michigan charter school, has adopted an
African-centered cultural theme with parent involvement as one of
its core tenets. Reading scores have improved, major discipline
problems are negligible, and the school’s reputation for
excellence is growing. See Davenport, Elizabeth K., & Bogan,
Yolanda K. H. (2005), It takes a village to teach a child: An
analysis of an African-centered parent involvement program,” Journal
of Scholarship and Practice, Fall, pp. 34-45 at: http://aasa.files.cms-plus.com/PDFs/Publications/JSP/Fall_2005_FINAL.pdf. First
National Mental Health Survey Identifies Needs and Services Findings
from the first National Mental Health Survey of school-supported
mental health needs and services, released recently by the Substance
Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), indicate
that one-fifth of students receive some type of school-supported
mental health services during the school year. School nurses spend
one-third of their time providing mental health services; funding
for such services is either static or dwindling even as the demand
increases. To
address mental health needs, more and more schools are responding
with both treatment and programs that promote social and emotional
learning for all students. The SAMHSA survey included questions
about early intervention, prevention, and SEL promotion programs.
Based on 2002-2003 data, 59% of schools report using
curriculum-based programs to enhance social and emotional
functioning, and 78% using school-wide strategies to promote safe
and drug-free schools. A wide range of programs is used, both
evidence-based and not. Among those frequently mentioned are Responsive
Classroom and Second Step. See School mental health services
in the United States, 2002-2003, (2005), U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration, at http://www.mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/media/ken/pdf/SMA05-4068/SMA05-4068.pdf. Good
News and Bad News Regarding Teens’ Substance Abuse The latest (2005) Monitoring the Future survey of 8th, 10th and 12th graders about their use of cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs indicated some good news, particularly an almost 19% decline from 2001 to 2005 in past-month use of any illicit drug by students in grades 8, 10, and 12 combined. At the same time, there are continued higher rates of the non-medical use of prescription medications, especially opioid painkillers (i.e. Vicodin, Oxycontin, etc.). http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/; http://www.nida.nih.gov/newsroom/05/NR12-19.html; http://www.nida.nih.gov/students.html. The
influence of culture on drinking behavior was the focus of a study
that considered the relationship between seeing alcohol ads and
alcohol consumption. Leslie Snyder and colleagues conclude that
youth across America consistently see and hear more alcohol
advertising per capita than adults on TV, radio, and in print, and
that these ads are a contributing factor in youth drinking. The
analysis found that, for underage drinkers, a 1% increase in
drinking occurred for each additional ad seen beyond the average.
Source: Snyder, Leslie B., Milici, Frances Fleming, Slater, Michael,
Sun, Helen, & Strizhakova, Yuliya (2006). Effects of alcohol
advertising exposure on drinking among youth. Archives of
Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 160 (1), 18-24. Numerous studies show that parental disapproval is a powerful deterrent to substance abuse. Parents can provide accurate information about the risks of substance abuse and encourage participation in sports and other extracurricular activities that are incompatible with substance abuse. Academic achievement is also a significant protective factor, so the more parents support their children’s academic success, the less likely those children are to use drugs. See http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/2k3/school/school.htm; http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/2k2/academics/academics.htm; http://www.health.org/research/DocumentView.aspx?DocID=87633; http://family.samhsa.gov/.
Beyond
Being Involved: Schools, Families, and Communities as Learning
Partners By
sharing goals, resources, and responsibilities for the learning of
children, schools and families move from involvement to partnership
and produce outcomes such as improved academic achievement, greater
school completion, and improved self-esteem. Sandra Christenson,
Yvonne Godber, and Amy R. Anderson write that these partnerships are
based on:
Synchronizing
home and school practice, in SEL as well as academics, is key to
these partnerships and the improvement of educational outcomes.
Refer to Critical Issues Facing Families and Educators in School-Family
Partnerships: Fostering Children’s School Success, edited by
Evanthia N. Patrikakou, CASEL President Roger P. Weissberg, and
CASEL leaders Sam Redding and Herbert
Walberg (Teachers College Press, 2005). Ways
to engage families and the community in student learning and to
address barriers to family involvement are described in numerous
recent articles. Meeting
the Challenge: Getting Parents Involved in Schools, the August 2005
Newsletter from the Center for Comprehensive School Reform and
Improvement (www.centerforcsri.org/index.php?%20option=com_content&task=view&id=130&Itemid=5),
presents definitions, barriers, programs, and how-to’s with
examples and supporting research. Building
Relationships for Student Success: School-Family-Community
Partnerships and Student Achievement in the Northwest, by Diane
Dorfman and Amy Fisher (2002), Northwest Regional Laboratory,
includes a review of the literature, practical suggestions, and
examples of practices to enlist families in the successful learning
of their children. http://www.nwrel.org/partnerships/cloak/booklet2.pdf. A
12-page strategy brief from the Southwest Educational Development
Laboratory recommends that schools adopt plans for parent
involvement that:
www.sedl.org/connections/resources/rb/rb5-diverse.pdf Beyond
PTAs, PTOs, and even school boards, some districts and states are
encouraging a range of community engagement activities, including
focus groups, advisory boards, and community education programs.
Read about them at the Center for Public Education’s Community
Engagement page: www.nsba.org/site/sec_peac.asp?TRACKID=&CID=1706&DID=36613. How many ways can family and
community partnerships support the learning of children from
preschool through high school?
86 stories of partnerships that build on the resources of
communities are in the eighth annual collection of Promising
Partnership Practices, published by the National Network of
Partnership Schools at Johns Hopkins University. A Good Start for Family Involvement Eases Transitions and Establishes Long-lasting Relationships We often
hear that families are actively involved with their children’s
preschool experiences, but that once children begin their formal
education the connection between schools and parents is not
fostered. An excellent strategy brief produced by the National
Center for Family and Community Connections with Schools at the
Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL) presents
examples and methods to build the school-family partnership as
students make the transition from preschool to kindergarten. Direct
contact and home visits before the children enter the school are
specifically recommended as ways to create relationships and enhance
readiness. Research and resources are included in this practical
publication. http://www.sedl.org/connections/research-briefs.html. Children
Are to Be Seen and Heard Schools
that actively give students a voice find this practice positively
affects student engagement, academics, and understanding of
democratic processes. Two recent articles provide examples and
methods to facilitate students’ involvement with their own
learning and school governance. Susan
Black, writing in the American School Board Journal,
Listening to Students (http://www.asbj.com/2005/11/1105research.html),
describes ways to negotiate student voice, tap into experiences with
surveys, and listen to the stories of students. Hudson (MA) High School supports
student leadership and the day-to-day practice of democracy as a
means to develop active learners and effective citizens who
appreciate diverse perspectives. Roberta Fulger, reporting in Edutopia,
describes the vision of CASEL Leadership Team member and Hudson
Superintendent Sheldon Berman and the role of the Hudson Community
Council, which gives students and teachers equal voices to effect
changes around issues not covered by school board policies, state
policies, and administrative regulations. Read about this model
school plan at: www.edutopia.org/1431. Bringing
Parents Along for No Child Left Behind The
No Child Left Behind legislation is not just about testing and
accountability. With the goal of raising students’ academic skills
and closing achievement gaps, it mandates
the involvement of parents in the “process of school review and
improvement.” Read
about ways that parents are becoming partners in the collaborative
learning community as a result of the NCLB legislation: http://www.edutopia.org/magazine/ed1article.php?id=art_1394&issue=nov_05. According
to the law, all schools receiving Title 1 funds must:
See Section 1118 of the law: http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/pg2.html#sec1118
State-by-State Policies for Parent Involvement
Most states have specific policies about school-family involvement. For example, seventeen states require parent involvement policies in the schools. Fifteen states have legislated that employers allow time for parents to attend school meetings and functions. Parental involvement in education, an ECS publication, includes an extensive listing of states with dates and summaries of policies that support the school-family partnership. http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/59/11/5911.pdf.
Engaging
families requires lots of creativity. Here are some more resources
to spark your imagination and support your efforts. CASEL’s
SEL Parent Packet:
Ideas and Tools for Working with Parents and Families
contains research, examples of practice, parent handouts, tips,
books, interviews, and SEL resources. Go to: http://www.casel.org/downloads/parentpacketLSS.pdf
for the packet, and to: http://www.casel.org/downloads/parentresourcespanish.pdf
for the handouts in Spanish. Academic
Development Institute:
www.adi.org.
Led by CASEL Illinois Advisory Council member Sam Redding, ADI works
with families, schools, and communities so that all children may
become self-directed learners, avid readers, and responsible
citizens, respecting themselves and those around them. Through
research, publishing, and technical assistance, ADI translates
theory into practice. See The School Community Journal,
especially Redding’s inspiring editorial, Rallying the Troops, at:
http://www.adi.org/pubinfo/RallyingtheTroops.pdf.
Edutopia.org:
This rich website from the George Lucas Educational Foundation (GLEF)
documents and disseminates information about exemplary programs and
practices in K-12 schools through the use of multimedia. For
articles and information specific to the involvement of parents,
families, and communities, see: www.edutopia.org/getstarted/parents.php
and www.edutopia.org/php/keyword.php?id=225. National
PTA:
In 1997, National Standards for Parent/Family Involvement Programs
were created. This work was done in collaboration with researchers
and reflects more than 30 years of research and practice. See http://www.pta.org/archive_article_details_1118251710359.html
to read about the six standards that include:
The
National PTA also will be offering a Parent Involvement Schools of
Excellence Certification program in April 2006. This method of
assessment gauges a school’s development of parent involvement in
a systematic way. http://www.pta.org/local_leadership_subprogram_1116958590625.html Harvard
Family Research Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education
(www.hfrp.org): As a research and
professional development organization, HFRP provides strategies for
evaluating child and family services to strengthen family, school,
and community partnerships, early childhood care and education. Its
newsletter, The Evaluation Exchange
(www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/eval.html),
addresses many aspects of the evaluative process and presents new
research in the area of family-school-community partnerships. In a
recent article, Co-constructing
Family Involvement, M. Elena Lopez, Holly Kreider, and Margaret
Caspe describe five dimensions that add value to parent
participation in the educational process of children and lead to a
co-constructed family-school approach:
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/content/eval/issue28/winter2004-2005.pdf.
National
Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education (NCPIE):
http://www.ncpie.org/.
NCPIE is a coalition of major education, community, public service,
and advocacy organizations working to create meaningful
family-school partnerships in every school in America. Talaris
Research Institute
works to improve the social, emotional and cognitive development of
children from the prenatal period through age five by providing
parents with tools to raise their children effectively. Resources on
the website center on the role of parents as emotion coaches. John
Gottman’s research and writings are featured and are very
pertinent to SEL theory in their explicit methods of teaching
children to acknowledge and recognize their feelings. Talaris has
produced a series on parenting for PBS as a part of its Parenting
Counts program. http://www.talaris.org/index.htm.
Laboratory
for Student Success (LSS) Partnerships Series:
www.temple.edu/lss/partnerships.htm These
brochures are aimed at teachers and parents and focus on topics such
as the experience of adolescence, homework, resiliency, and working
with teachers to increase the chances of academic success and the
healthy development of children and youth. Yardsticks
Child Development Pamphlets
help parents and teachers understand child development so they can
support children’s learning at home and school. Each level lists
common social, physical, and cognitive characteristics. Purchasable
in packets of 30 or a sample set of K-8 pamphlets from Responsive
Classroom at: http://www.responsiveclassroom.org/bookstore/pamphletcc.html. For Educators: Parents
and Teachers Working Together,
by Carol Davis and Alice Yang (Northeast Foundation for Children,
2005). Written for teachers, this book provides a collection of
successful strategies to improve communication with parents and
build bridges between home and school to support children’s
learning. It is in the Strategies for Teachers Series of the Responsive
Classroom Program. http://www.responsiveclassroom.org/bookstore/index.html. Preparing
Educators to Involve Families, from Theory to Practice, edited
by Heather Weiss, Holly Kreider, M. Elena Lopez, and Celina M.
Chatman (Sage Publications, 2005). The book prepares teachers and
other professionals to partner effectively with families of children
in elementary school, with an emphasis on building relationships
across cultural and socioeconomic differences. It also includes
helpful descriptions of developmental stages. For more information,
go to: www.sagepub.com/book.aspx?pid=10625. Resiliency:
What We Have Learned, by Bonnie Benard (Wested, 2004). The key
to resiliency, reports Benard, is the role played by families,
schools, and communities in supporting the biological drive for
normal human development. These arenas of support are essential to
youth and provide protective factors that can increase young
people’s experiences of caring relationships, high expectations,
and opportunities for participation. To read sample chapters of this
positive view of prevention, see: www.wested.org/cs/we/view/rs/712?x-t=we.chap.view. School-Family
Partnerships: Fostering Children’s School Success, edited by
Evanthia N. Patrikakou, Roger P. Weissberg, Sam Redding, and Herbert
J. Walberg (Teachers College Press, 2005). With social and emotional
learning at its core, this book provides a wealth of information
about the issues influencing school-family partnerships. Conceptual
frameworks of partnerships, cultural and empirical perspectives, and
policy issues around school-family involvement are addressed in the
writings of numerous experts. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0807746002/102-7084502-6960112?n=283155.
To read a recent review, see: http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentID=12265. For
Parents: Emotionally
Intelligent Parenting: How to Raise a Self-Disciplined, Responsible,
Socially Skilled Child, by Maurice J. Elias, Steven E. Tobias,
and Brian S. Friedlander (Harmony
Books, 1999). Parents are guided by this book to use researched
strategies in the context of the family in order to provide children
with skills to understand emotions, solve problems, and set goals.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0609804839/qid=1079733726/102-7084502-6960112?n=283155. The
Heart of Parenting: Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child,
by John Gottman and Joan De Claire (Simon & Schuster, 1997).
This parenting classic focuses on the technique called “emotion
coaching,” a key to helping others become emotionally self-aware.
Gottman offers reasons and methods for attending to one’s
child’s emotional growth. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/1559274352/casel/102-7084502-6960112. Raising
a Thinking Child: Help Your Young Child to Resolve Everyday
Conflicts and Get Along with Others, by Myrna Shure. (Pocket
Books, 1996) Using her I Can Problem Solve Program as the basis for
this parenting book, Shure describes a process parents can teach
their children in order to identify problems and emotions, consider
options, and try the best solutions.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/0671534637/casel/102-7084502-6960112. National
After School Association,
February 23-25, Louisville, KY http://www.naaconference.org Working
with Children and Adolescents: Nurturing Resilience and Managing
Resistance.
March 16, Tyngsboro, MA. Http://www.communityprograminnovations.com American School Counselor Association, Chicago, IL, June 24-27. Http://www.schoolcounselor.org Educating
Minds and Hearts: Creating a Climate for Learning, Ninth Annual
Summer Institute, July
11-14, 2006 at the Graduate School and University Center, Civic
Connections Program
Pay
It Forward Foundation Mini-Grants
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. 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, problem 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 under the umbrella of school-based SEL programming. Collaborative
for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL)
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