Creating a Rising Tide: Improving Social and Emotional Learning Across California
Abstract
Given the recent emphasis on social and emotional development, many professionals who manage, develop, or influence expanded learning systems are beginning to ask, “How do we better prepare staff to promote social and emotional development?” California has adopted a statewide professional development strategy for publicly-funded expanded learning programs that is designed to raise awareness of the importance of social and emotional learning (SEL) among practitioners and build tools for the field to support implementation. The strategy—led by a partnership among a state agency, expanded learning intermediaries, and funders—combines leadership development, field-building initiatives, and program-level supports. It also complements the current expanded learning system. In this article, we describe the statewide strategy and discuss how it addresses workforce challenges, the core levers that California used to develop the strategy, and why and how the state-level leadership prioritized social and emotional learning. We conclude the article with lessons learned about collaboration, implementation, and assessing impact.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
AASAPconnect. (2018). About Us. Retrieved from http://www.asapconnect.org/about
Berg, J., Nolan, E., Osher, D. & Mart, A. (February, 2019). Social-emotional competencies in Context: Using social-emotional learning frameworks to build educator’s understanding. (Frameworks brief comparative series #2). Retrieved from: https://measuringsel.casel.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Frameworks-C.2-.pdf
California Afterschool Network. (2014). Our work. Retrieved from http://www.afterschoolnetwork.org/our-work
California Department of Education. (2018). California’s social and emotional learning guiding principles. Retrieved from https://www.cde.ca.gov/eo/in/socialemotionallearning.asp
California Employment Development Department. (2012). 2012 After school program survey: Final report of results. Retrieved from https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5981e865f14aa16941337125/t/5a7ca3d58165f5d59b3201bd/1518117848397/AfterSchoolProgramSurvey_FinalResults.pdf
California School-Age Consortium. (2019a). What we do. Retrieved from https://www.calsac.org/about-us
California School-Age Consortium. (2019b). Leadership development institute 360°/365: Building leaders with character. Retrieved from https://www.calsac.org/ldi-360365
Catalano, R. F., Berglund, M. L., Ryan, J. A. M., Lonczak, H. S., & Hawkins, J. D. (2002). Positive youth development in the United States: Research findings on evaluations of positive youth development programs. Prevention & Treatment, 5(1), 15a.
Devaney, E. & Moroney, D. (2019). Focusing and framing SEL in OST: An introduction to the volume. In E. Devaney & D. Moroney (Eds.) Social and emotional learning in out-of-school time (pp 3-24). Charlotte, NC: Information Age.
Eccles, J., & Gootman, J. (Eds.). (2002). Community programs to promote youth development. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Expanded Learning 360°/365. (2015) Student success comes full circle. Retrieved from http://el360-365.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/0/6/110631901/pcy-fullcirclefinal.pdf
Expanded Learning 360°/365. (n.d.) Mission & purpose. Retrieved from https://el360-365.weebly.com/mission--purpose.html
Farrington, C. A., Roderick, M., Allensworth, E., Nagaoka, J., Keyes, T. S., Johnson, D. W., & Beechum, N. O. (2012). Teaching adolescents to become learners: The role of noncognitive factors in shaping school performance: A critical literature review. https://consortium.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/2018-10/Noncognitive%20Report_0.pdf
Fowlkes, E., & McWhorter, T. (2018). The leadership imperative. In H. Janc Malone & T. Donahue (Eds.), The growing out-of-school time field: Past, present, and future, (pp. 133-146). Charlotte, NC: Information Age.
Hamilton, S. F., Hamilton, M. A., & Pittman, K. (2004). Principles for youth development. The youth development handbook: Coming of age in American communities, 2, 3-22.
Hay, J. (2018). State of the state of expanded learning programs in California 2017–2018. Retrieved from the California Afterschool Network website: http://www.afterschoolnetwork.org/post/state-state-expanded-learning-california-2017-18
Jones, S. M., Bailey, R., Brush, K., Nelson, B., & Barnes, S. (2016). What is the same and what is different? Making sense of the “non-cognitive” domain. Helping Educators Translate Research into Practice. https://easel.gse.harvard.edu/files/gse-easel-lab/files/words_matter_paper.pdf
López, F., Miller, F., Houghton, S., Vance, F., Moroney, D. (2018). Expanded Learning 360/365°: Professional learning community evaluation. Washington, D.C.: American Institutes for Research.
Moroney, D. A., & Devaney, E. (2017). Ready to implement? How the out-of-school time workforce can support character development through social and emotional learning: A review of the literature and future directions. Journal of Character Education, 13(1), p.67-87.
The National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development. (2019). From a nation at risk to a nation at hope: Recommendations from the national commission on social, emotional, and academic development. http://nationathope.org/report-from-the-nation/
Oberle, E., Domitrovich, C. E., Meyers, D. C., & Weissberg, R. P. (2016). Establishing systemic social and emotional learning approaches in schools: A framework for schoolwide implementation. Cambridge Journal of Education, 46(3), 277–297.
Partnership for Children and Youth. (n.d.) About PCY. https://www.partnerforchildren.org/about-pcy-1
Starr, E., & Gannett, E. (2018). The state of professional development: Past, present and future. In H. Janc Malone & T. Donahue (Eds.), The growing out-of-school time field: Past, present, and future. (pp. 87-102). Charlotte, NC: Information Age.
Temescal Associates. (n.d.) About: What we do. https://temescalassociates.weebly.com/what-we-do.html
Vance, F., Atkins, J., & Salvaterra, E., & Newhouse, C. (2015). Professional learning communities in the expanded learning field. Oakland, CA: Public Profit. http://www.publicprofit.net/Professional-Learning-Communities-In-The-Expanded-Learning-Field
Vance, F., Salvaterra, E., Atkins-Michelsen, J., & Newhouse, C. (2016). Professional learning communities: An alternative to the one-stop workshop. In K. M. Pozzoboni & B. Kirshner (Eds.), The changing landscape of youth work, (pp. 147–165). Charlotte, NC: Information Age.
Warner, G., Ham, H., & Pearman Fenton. (2018). Core competencies for the OST field. In H. Janc Malone & T. Donahue (Eds.), The growing out-of-school time field: Past, present, and future. (pp. 103-114). Charlotte, NC: Information Age.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5195/jyd.2020.819
Copyright (c) 2020 Femi Vance, Rebecca Goldberg

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.