Implementing Social-Emotional Learning: Insights from Districts’ Successes and Setbacks provides essential insights into the strategies that have enabled districts to effectively provide the benefits of social-emotional learning to their students. Building on case studies of six school districts that vary in size, geographic region, demographic diversity, per-pupil spending, staff capacity, and leadership style, this book offers indispensable observations about the factors that facilitate the deep integration of SEL into daily instruction and school culture. While the approaches these districts have taken vary in type and degree, clear-cut themes emerge that are common to the most successful strategies. Building upon these case studies, Implementing Social-Emotional Learning: Insights from Districts’ Successes and Setbacks offers clear guidance so districts can avoid the errors that compromise implementation and can, instead, support district leaders in building successful and sustainable approaches that reach all students, including those at the challenging middle and high school levels.
Our nation is rocked by ideological divisions threatening both the work of educators and the core of our democracy. Individuals and groups are attacking public education and implementing policies antithetical to education in a democratic society. They seek to impose their own beliefs upon students and educational institutions by censoring materials, ideas, and practices they find objectionable. They promote intolerance through exclusionary and discriminatory policies and practices concerning persons of different racial, ethnic, religious, national origin, gender, or political identities. They advocate abandoning discussion of culture and identity—despite their importance to student success—to ensure that preferential consideration continues for the prevailing culture. And they close off open dialogue and scrutiny of factual evidence, instead imposing their own agendas. In doing so, they politicize education, bring partisanship into the classroom, promote indoctrination, and undermine education’s democratic goals. At their best, public schools are an anathema to indoctrination and authoritarianism because they bring a wide range of perspectives into the classroom and teach students to think independently. A democratic and pluralistic society requires that individuals honor and respect differences in identities and beliefs, endorse the pursuit of truth through examination of factual evidence, and participate in open dialogue to resolve issues of difference. Education in a democratic society must support the development of these attitudes, skills, and values in young people. Yet our nation’s culture wars are being fomented by those who have a contradictory vision of American education. The current times call on each of us to understand what is at risk and to summon the courage to stand up for the pursuit of justice, equity, and a meaningful democracy. But how do we develop and express that personal courage to support schools in promoting respect for diversity and inclusivity, enhancing children’s well-being and social-emotional development, affirming the goals of equitable access and opportunity for all, and providing students with the knowledge and skills to sustain and strengthen our democratic society? At the state and local levels, how do we change the culture of educational endeavors from divisive to collaborative? This book is a clarion call to parents, educators, students, community members, and education leaders to take courageous action in response to the current threats. To support these individuals in bravely choosing to stand up and speak out, The Call to Courage shares the stories and strategies of others who are boldly and publicly embracing that very challenge.
Implementing Social-Emotional Learning: Insights from Districts’ Successes and Setbacks provides essential insights into the strategies that have enabled districts to effectively provide the benefits of social-emotional learning to their students. Building on case studies of six school districts that vary in size, geographic region, demographic diversity, per-pupil spending, staff capacity, and leadership style, this book offers indispensable observations about the factors that facilitate the deep integration of SEL into daily instruction and school culture. While the approaches these districts have taken vary in type and degree, clear-cut themes emerge that are common to the most successful strategies. Building upon these case studies, Implementing Social-Emotional Learning: Insights from Districts’ Successes and Setbacks offers clear guidance so districts can avoid the errors that compromise implementation and can, instead, support district leaders in building successful and sustainable approaches that reach all students, including those at the challenging middle and high school levels.
The Ethical Educator: Pointers & Pitfalls for School Administrators is an accessible, nuts-and-bolts resource for education leaders at the school and district levels as they confront difficult ethical situations in their day-to-day work. The book features 100 real-life cases drawn from School Administrator magazine’s Ethical Educator column over the past ten years. The dilemmas encompass numerous aspects of administration, from First Amendment and religious liberty issues to personnel and board relations. Every case provides an opportunity for the reader to consider how they might handle a similar situation and to reflect on the perspectives of experienced administrators who explain how they would address the dilemma. Each chapter begins with a down-to-earth introduction by a nationally recognized school district attorney, who touches on relevant legal parameters and case law. Making ethical decisions tests us as administrators, for those decisions set precedents that shape how others perceive our ethical judgment and, in turn, the ethical identity of the school or district. The Ethical Educator: Pointers & Pitfalls for School Administrators will help the reader become a more effective education administrator, a more courageous leader of a school organization, and simply a human being with a greater sense of ethical alignment and purpose.
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