October 2005

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. 

We encourage you to share this information with others on your e-mail list. If your e-mail does not support HTML formatting, you can read this issue on our web site at: www.CASEL.org/listservs/enewsletters/e-news-oct05.htm or request a text-only version from Cynthia Coleman at: colemanc@uic.edu.    

In This Issue: A Focus on Leadership    

  • Spotlight on Research: Educational leadership: What we know about what matters; Principal preparation looks to the evidence; Teacher initiative matters too: Instructional and emotional support in first grade makes a difference for children at risk
  • Spotlight on Practice: Seven reasons for investing in SEL; Getting clear about confusion; Public education leadership project at Harvard University; Understanding the perspectives of stakeholders during change; Now is the time to address school adjustment problems; Reaping the benefits of student leadership
  • Spotlight on Policy: Student leadership adds voices to state policy on bullying
  • Conferences:  National Staff Development Council Conference, Dec. 2-7, 2005
  • Grants:  National Schools of Character Awards Program
  • Resources You Can Use: National College for School Leadership website; Learning First Alliance; Great books on school leadership
  • Announcements: New publications by CASEL staff and friends of CASEL; Adieu to Elizabeth Devaney

From CASEL's Leadership  

Those of you familiar with CASEL and this newsletter know that the science and practice of high-quality implementation has been a central strand of our work for a long time. Our latest effort in this area is the soon-to-be-published Implementing Schoolwide Social and Emotional Learning: Guide and Toolkit. In reviewing the research and practice knowledge bases for successful and sustainable SEL and school improvement more broadly, we have found that all roads lead to the school leader­-usually the principal­-as a key change agent. Principal leadership is not a sufficient ingredient, but it is an absolutely necessary one, if major school change is to take root, grow, and positively affect children.

Over the last few years, and especially in the past six months, publications on the relationship between school leadership and student achievement and on the quality of leadership preparation have proliferated. We now know a great deal about the school leadership practices that optimize student learning (see, for example, the work of Waters, Marzano, and their colleagues, in Resources). We also know that the building principal is second only to the classroom teacher as a school-based source of influence on student learning, and that a primary means of exercising this influence is to put forth a galvanizing vision­-a Big Idea, if you will-­that brings coherence and focus to daily work. With such a vision, instructional and support staff know what they are working toward and how their efforts help to accomplish it (see the work of Leithwood & Riehl, below). Schoolwide SEL to develop all students socially, emotionally, and academically is just such a visionary Big Idea.

Another thing these recent articles tell us is that we know very little about how to develop within principals the ability to put into place "the Big Idea" and related practices that support learning. A number of highly critical reviews of university-based leadership professional development efforts have appeared in recent months (See Levine, A., 2005, Educating School Leaders at http://www.edschools.org/pdf/Final313.pdf; and Davis, S. et al., 2005, Developing Successful Principals: Review of Research at http://www.wallacefoundation.org/WF/KnowledgeCenter/KnowledgeTopics/EducationLeadership/
DevelopingSuccessfulPrincipals.htm). They note that such efforts are disconnected from real-world complexities, use a weak and outdated knowledge base, and are characterized by curricula that fail to provide effective grounding in teaching and learning or opportunities to test leadership skills in real situations (Smylie & Bennett, 2006, referenced below).

CASEL is committed to empirically-based and SEL-infused professional development of school leaders as a major area of focus in the years ahead. In this issue we share with you some of the best of the school leadership literature, describe some of the key findings in it, connect it to schoolwide SEL work, and share our "must read" school leadership reference list with you. Enjoy!

Mary Utne O’Brien
Executive Director                                   

Spotlight on Research 

Educational Leadership: What We Know about What Matters

In implementing school-wide SEL, as described in CASEL’s forthcoming guide, the first step is for the educational leader to commit to the process. Without leadership, the effort may well founder. As summarized by Kenneth Leithwood, Carolyn Riehl and their colleagues, in increasingly complex school environments leaders have two crucial functions: providing direction and exercising influence. In providing direction they do not dictate a course of action but work with others toward shared vision and purpose—a big idea that gives coherence to everything that happens in the school. Social and emotional learning can be that big idea, the umbrella that covers not just prevention programming but the entire curriculum and life of the school.

Successful leaders rise to challenges and motivate everyone around them to give more than lip service to the shared vision. They create high performance expectations, communicate well with staff, and provide professional development, intellectual stimulation, individualized support, and modeling—all within an environment that encourages both creativity and accountability.

Leadership matters. “It is second only to good teaching among school-related factors in its impact on student learning.” But there is still much to be learned about which practices make the decisive difference in successful schools and districts. Professional development efforts will benefit from “more robust understandings of how successful leaders make sense of and productively respond to both external policy initiatives and local needs and priorities.”

Sources:   Leithwood, K., & Reihl, C. (2003), What we know about successful school leadership, available in brief at: http://www.cepa.gse.rutgers.edu/whatweknow.pdf.

Leithwood, K., Louis, K. S., Anderson, S., & Wahlstrom, K. (2004). How leadership influences student learning at: http://www.wallacefoundation.org/WF/KnowledgeCenter/KnowledgeTopics/EducationLeadership/
HowLeadershipInfluencesStudentLearning.htm). 

Leithwood, K. (2005). Educational Leadership, Review of the Research at http://www.temple.edu/lss/pdf/Leithwood.pdf.

(The Wallace Foundation has been a major funder of research on educational leadership.)

“Leading for Learning,” an Education Week supplement on school district leadership, poses the question: “What strategies should district leaders pursue to influence the quality of teaching and learning?” There is mounting evidence, both from case studies of the profiled school districts and from a national survey of 813 top district officials, that effective schools are most often found in districts where there is strong system-wide guidance, including a common curriculum, training, and monitoring systems, and frequent use of student-performance data to inform educational decisions. http://www.edweek.org/media/wallace.pdf.

Tim Waters and Sally Grubb also assessed leadership traits that impact second-order school change, the term used to describe most school reform. By surveying principals, the researchers identified 11 responsibilities most closely correlated with second-order change. Given the findings, they recommend distributing leadership, focusing goals on a “vibrant core” that will improve student learning, being aware of the magnitude of change that a school is undergoing, and distinguishing and staying focused on what is most essential. See Leading Schools: Distinquishing the Essential from the Important at http://www.mcrel.org/topics/productDetail.asp?topicsID=7&productID=200.

Principal Preparation Looks to the Evidence

While the data are now clear about the leadership practices most likely to result in student learning, professional development for educators often falls short when it comes to growing leaders. As Mark Smylie and Albert Bennett contend in a new book chapter, “knowledge of effective leadership practices is not the same thing as knowledge of the capacities required for enactment.” Smylie, M.A., & Bennett, A., with Konkol, P. & Fendt, C.R. (2006). Developing school leaders: A look at existing research and next steps for new study. In W. A. Firestone & C. Reihl (Eds.), A new agenda for research in educational leadership. New York: Teachers College Press.

Stanford’s Stephen Davis, Linda Darling-Hammond, Michele LaPointe and Debra Meyerson support the observations of Smylie and his colleagues. They observe that consensus has developed around the elements of effective principal preparation programs: they are research-based, have curricular coherence, provide experience in authentic contexts, use cohort groupings and mentors, and are structured to enable collaborative activity between the program and area schools. Despite this consensus, however, they point out that there is little empirical evidence for the impact of these features. See Developing Successful Principals: Review of Research (2005), at http://www.wallacefoundation.org/WF/KnowledgeCenter/KnowledgeTopics/EducationLeadership/
DevelopingSuccessfulPrincipals.htm.

Smylie and Bennett’s contentions are also confirmed by a study of a national sample of 31 principal-preparation programs and more than 200 course syllabi conducted by Frederick Hess and Andrew Kelly from the American Enterprise Institute. They found a substantial lack of coursework on results-oriented management or accountability, even in the era of NCLB. Read their report in The Accidental Principal at: http://www.educationnext.org/20053/34.html.

Teacher Initiative Matters Too: Instructional and Emotional Support in First Grade Makes a Difference for Children at Risk

A University of Virginia study of 910  5-6-year-olds in 1st grade reports that at-risk children (in terms of socioeconomics, behavior, and/or academics) benefit substantially from high-quality emotional and instructional support from their teacher. A warm and caring environment was found to be as important as high-quality instructional support (frequent and effective use of literacy instructions, evaluative feedback, instructional conversations, and encouragement of child responsibility) in improving at-risk students’ academic achievement. High-quality teaching that includes attention to the emotional needs of the child at the first grade level could help to close the achievement gap between at-risk and low-risk students.

Source:  Hamre, B. K., & Pianta, R. C. (2005). Can instructional and emotional support in the first-grade classroom make a difference for children at risk of school failure? Child Development, 76 (Issue 5), 949-967.

Spotlight on Practice

Seven Reasons for Investing in SEL

Here are some examples that may help you bring your school leader on board with the Big Idea of SEL, from CASEL’s forthcoming Implementing Schoolwide Social and Emotional Learning: Guide and Toolkit.

 

 

Seven Reasons Every Leader Should Invest in SEL

1. It will make you a better leader.

When asked how SEL has affected her own sense of herself as a professional, Principal Mary Tavegia of Cossitt Elementary School in LaGrange, IL is unequivocal.  “As far as how my skills and effectiveness have been affected,” she says, “I would say it has been the single biggest influence in everything I’ve done.  It has colored everything I do in this role – relationship among kids, teachers, and parents, and how we organize everything in the school.  It has been a major influence."

2. It will make your teachers more effective educators

Karol DeFalco, a 6th grade teacher in the New Haven public school system felt that SEL programming made a huge difference in her classroom.  The biggest change was in stress management. There was much less negative interaction between the kids.” 

3. It will make your students better learners.

Students in 5th and 6th grade classrooms in Washington, D.C. talk about the impact participating in the Responsive Classroom program had on them.  “I think it helps everything.  If you are socially happy, then everything is sort of happy for you.  If you don’t know anyone, it probably will affect your schoolwork and your family at home.  But if you have a good morning meeting and you are happy and you get that good sharing attention, it really lifts your spirits.  You are nicer to everyone around you, you concentrate on your schoolwork, you are nicer to your family.  I think being happy helps everything.”

4. It will connect you to the community.

Before SEL programming came to the Hudson, Massachusetts public schools, there was a tension between the older residents of the town and those families who had children in the school.  Each year, when the town proposed passing a tax increase to raise more money for the school, it was always defeated.  Then SEL came into the school system and brought an intensive service learning component with it.  Students worked directly with the elderly in town by visiting nursing homes, but also contributed to the town in other ways (e.g., environmental clean-ups).  Today, when the town meeting comes around, the increases are always passed unanimously.

5. Social and emotional competence is demanded by employers.

The U.S. Department of Labor has identified skills needed for the workforce in the 21st century.  Of the 16 skills identified, 8 involve social and emotional learning: sociability, decision-making, problem-solving, personal responsibility, self-esteem, listening, self-management, and integrity/honesty. 

6. It will improve the adult community – everyone will want to work and STAY at your school!

Recent research shows that teachers who use SEL strategies and programming in their classrooms or who are members of a school community using SEL practices schoolwide are generally happier and more likely to stay in the teaching profession. 

7. It will reduce discipline problems in your school.

At Mill Street Elementary School, bus referrals were at an all-time high.  The principal was receiving discipline referrals daily from various incidents of bullying on the bus.  Then the school began implementing the SEL program, I Can Problem Solve, which teaches children to manage conflict with peers and come up with solutions that are reasonable and appropriate to the situation.  After several years of engaging in this program, bus referrals are down from dozens each year to just one or two.  

 

 

Getting Clear about Confusion

In what promises to be a seminal article,  “Embracing Confusion: What Leaders Do When They Don’t Know What To Do,” Barry C. Jentz and Jerome T. Murphy describe a method by which the confusion that accompanies organizations undergoing rapid change can be harnessed for real learning and effective action. The key is reflection and the identification of feelings so that confusion becomes part of the process and leads to action and growth. This article, in Phi Delta Kappan, January 2005, Vol. 86, No. 5, is available to Phi Delta Kappa members for free and non-members for a $3 fee at http://www.pdkmembers.org/CGI-BIN/LANSAWEB?procfun+CE_BUILD+ARCHIV1+pdk. Type in the first author’s last name and click search; order form follows.

Public Education Leadership Project at Harvard University

Putting theory into practice in schools is a challenge being addressed by several universities on multiple fronts. Joint efforts from business and education schools are bringing together best practices with the goal of achieving large-scale improvement in student learning. Harvard, Stanford and the University of Virginia offer programs for school leaders that access business principles. To learn more, find Jeff Archer’s article,  “Leaders go to School on Business Practices”, Education Week, Aug. 31, 2005 by entering it on the following search page: http://www.edweek.org/search/

Understanding the Perspectives of Stakeholders during Change

School leaders who understand the differences of belief that characterize their constituents are a step closer to effectively promoting change and growth in their schools. Men and women, and people from various religious backgrounds, educational levels, and political perspectives tend to operate according to different moral imperatives. The skillful leader is aware of these differences and uses them appropriately in communications. Evonne Hedgepeth writes of the subtleties of our systems of belief and incorporates Lawrence Kohlberg’s work on moral development to encourage leaders to address their audiences sensitively when advocating for change. Read “Different Lenses, Different Visions” in The School Administrator, April 2005 at http://www.aasa.org/publications/saarticledetail.cfm?ItemNumber=1294&snItemNumber=950&tnItemNumber=951.

Now Is the Time to Address School Adjustment Problems

The Center for Mental Health in Schools at UCLA has provided great resources for schools and teachers who have welcomed students from areas stricken by hurricanes Katrina and Rita (www.smhp.psych.ucla.edu). Their researchers also remind us that this is the time to proactively address the problems that some students exhibit as they struggle to adjust to the new school year. As difficulties continue, fatigue increases, motivation decreases, and behavior problems rise. School leaders should plan staff development that focuses on strategies and allow time for student support staff to work with teachers in the classroom. To read “Guidance Notes” at http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/, click on Ideas for Enhancing Support at Your School This Month, October.

Reaping the Benefits of Student Leadership

What does it look like to teach leadership to high school students? And what happens when you do? At Kennebunk (Maine) High School, students oversee parent-teacher conferences, assist in staff hiring and pursue independent study projects. They are encouraged to solve school problems, such as bullying, and run Wellness Fairs. In so doing, these students learn leadership skills. Most important, students’ enthusiasm for learning has increased from 26% to 75% since data were first collected in 2002. http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2005/09/01/01vocal.h17.html.

Spotlight on Policy 

Student Leadership Adds Voices to State Policy on Bullying

Three high school freshmen added their voices to the call for support of the Safe Schools Act, which would require schools in Massachusetts to formalize policies to detect bullying more effectively and designate one staff member per school to implement a plan that would be filed with the state. Read about the testimonies of students whose school experiences have been profoundly affected by abusive peers and the ways that one state plans to institute change. http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/09/16/teens_lawmakers_push_antibully_bill/.

Conferences

The National Staff Development Council sponsors its annual conference Dec. 2-7 with the theme of “A Declaration of Professional Learning: The Revolution Begins!” Four major aspects of professional learning will be addressed:  leadership, high-performance culture, race and class culture, and advocacy. For more information, go to: http://www.nsdc.org/conference05/welcome/hostletter.cfm.

 Grants

The National Schools of Character (NSOC) Awards Program supports exemplary schools and districts by helping them improve their efforts in effective character education with awards of a maximum of $2000. To be eligible a school must have been engaged in character education for a minimum of three full years.  Districts have to have been engaged in character education for a minimum of four full years. The deadline for the 2006 awards is December 5, 2005. Please read more details at: http://www.character.org/site/c.gwKUJhNYJrF/b.993295/k.4970/National_Schools_of_Character_Awards.htm.

Resources You Can Use  

National College for School Leadership (www.ncsl.org.uk). This outstanding web site is based in England, but its hundreds of brief, concise, research summary briefs are directly relevant to educators in the US. From the home page, go to Research and Development, then to Research Publications. Then, explore!

The Learning First Alliance, a partnership of 11 leading education associations, has updated and expanded its Practical Guide to Promoting America’s Public Schools: Values, Vision and Performance, August 2005, http://www.learningfirst.org/publications/pubschools/. Aimed to school leaders, the guide shows how when principals incorporate the values and vision the public holds about schools into their messages to their communities, the messages can inspire strong community support.

Great Books on School Leadership 

Here is a list of the CASEL staff’s favorite books on SEL and school leadership:

  • EQ + IQ = Best Leadership Practices for Caring and Successful Schools, Maurice J. Elias, Harriet Arnold, and Cynthia Steiger Hussey, editors. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corvin Press: 2003.
  • Leadership and Sustainability: System Thinkers in Action, Michael Fullan. Thousand Oaks, CA:  Corvin Press, 2005
  • Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive through the Dangers of Leading, Ronald A. Heifetz and Marty Linsky. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2002.
  • Leadership without Easy Answers, Ronald Heifetz. Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press (Belknap Press), 1994.
  • Leading for Results: Transforming Teaching, Learning, and Relationships in Schools, Dennis Sparks. National Assoc. of Secondary School Principals and Corvin Press, 2005.
  • School Leadership that Works: From Research to Results, Robert Marzano, Timothy Waters, and Brian A. McNulty. Alexandria, Virginia: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2005.
  • Smart School Leaders: Leading with Emotional Intelligence, Janet Patti, and James Tobin, James. Dubuque: Kendall Hunt Publishing Co., 2003.

Announcements

New Publications by CASEL Staff and Friends

McCabe, M, Tollerud, T., and Axelrod, J. (2006).  A state mandate for social-emotional literacy: Implications for school counselors.  In  J. Pellitteri, R. Stern, C. Shelton, & B. Muller-Ackerman (Eds.), Emotionally intelligent school counseling, (pp. 239-251). Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Patrikakou, E.N., Weissberg, R.P., Redding, S., & Walberg, H.J. (Eds.) (2005). School-family partnerships: Fostering children’s school success. New York: Teachers College Press.

Adieu to Elizabeth Devaney

With this issue we bid a very fond and appreciative "Adieu!" to treasured colleague Elizabeth Devaney, who has moved with her husband Tom to Rhode Island, where Tom is pursuing a doctorate in history at Brown University. Elizabeth is a tireless and upbeat colleague, inspiring us at CASEL to walk our talk in all we do. She is also the brilliant lead author of our forthcoming Implementing Schoolwide Social and Emotional Learning: Guide and Toolkit. While we will continue our professional collaborations with Elizabeth, her cheerful and energetic presence in the halls of CASEL will be sorely missed. Best of luck, Elizabeth!

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)
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