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How 10 "outlier" schools create strong social-emotional learning environments where students thrive
In a network of eight large, urban California school districts known as the CORE districts, 10 schools stand out as "outliers" for their strong social-emotional learning (SEL) outcomes compared to similar schools, according to a new report.
The "surprising breadth and variety" of social-emotional learning practices of these 10 schools, which serve high proportions of African American and Latinx students and had top scores on student surveys about school climate over two years, are the subject of a new
brief and technical report from the nonprofit research and policy organization, PACE. Though not specifically focused on early education, many of the best practices shared in the brief are applicable to classrooms of any age range.
Authors Heather Hough, Julie Marsh and Susan McKibben group the schools' SEL practices into six categories that are useful in identifying the many ways SEL can be promoted in a school setting:
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Strategies to promote positive climate and relationships: Examples include whole-school culture building activities such as positive messages displayed around the school and in gatherings, and inclusion strategies geared toward isolated or lonely students.
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Supporting positive behavior: Includes activities like restorative practices that mend damaged student relationships and "cooling off" areas where students can get support when problems arise.
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SEL-specific practices and curricula: This category refers to purposeful approaches to improving SEL with strategies such as coaching students to use positive mindsets, setting clear rules for how students communicate, and seating students in groups to encourage getting help from peers.
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Hiring, organizing and training personnel: Includes strategies such as creating a staff leadership team in charge of improving social and emotional learning at the school, creative use of non-instructional staff as additional trusted adults and professional development on topics like growth mindset.
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Extracurricular activities: The schools made use of PE classes, afterschool clubs and student leadership programs to help students improve group interaction skills. Some had student clubs that were specifically formed to promote kindness and conflict mediation.
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Measurement and data use: This includes more frequent feedback than is the norm, such as short student surveys about how the climate of a school is perceived, administered monthly.
The 10 "outlier" schools shared a sense of "intentionality" according to the authors. SEL and positive climate strategies were not tried out "in a spontaneous or ad hoc manner." Rather, they were implemented with a sense of purposefulness and included clear roles for staff.
Go here to download the brief, full report and infographic for
Enacting Social-Emotional Learning: Lessons from "Outlier Schools" in California's CORE Districts.
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High-quality preschool is great for kids -- but it can't make up for poor elementary-aged schooling
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Photo credit: Erin Brownfield, EdSource
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A new study from the University of Virginia used data from a large sample of children from the National Center for Education Statistics
to compare the extent to which the academic benefits of preschool persist based on whether the children went on to attend high or low quality elementary schools.
The study, by Arya Ansari and Robert C. Pianta,
found that, "the academic benefits of preschool were largely sustained through the end of fifth grade when children subsequently attended a high quality elementary school." Less than one quarter of these academic benefits lasted when children attended a low quality elementary school, however.
In a
blog post about the study for New America, Emily Workman writes that the researchers used "comprehensive measures of school level quality, including teacher turnover and absences, schoolwide academic performance, teacher to student ratio, school climate, school safety practices and incidences of violence and crime" to determine which category of elementary school students attended.
This research, say the authors, suggests that policymakers and education leaders should "pay careful attention to what is realistic to expect from one year of preschool education and the conditions under which its benefits persist or diminish."
The transition from preschool to the K-12 system could be improved with greater coordination between the systems, say experts. Rolf Grafwallner, program director for Early Childhood Initiatives at the Council of Chief State School Officers said, "you have to look at this period [PreK-3rd] as a block. You can't piecemeal it."
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Early Education Reports from EdSource
California to get huge boost in child care funds from federal budget
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| Credit: Support PDX/Flickr |
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Thousands of children will get access to subsidized child care as a result of a massive increase in child care funding approved by Congress last month.
Congress approved - and Trump signed, albeit reluctantly - a $1.3 trillion budget that includes a nearly $2.4 billion increase in funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant program. The program is the largest federal child care assistance program and is intended to provide child care to low-income parents so they can work or attend an educational or job training program.
The increase brings the total amount for the program this year to $5.6 billion, and a similar amount for next year. This includes an additional $610 million for Head Start
nationwide.
The additional funds should allow nearly 12,000 more children to receive child care in California, among some 151,000 more children nationally, according to the Center for Law and Social Policy.
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Campaign underway in California to elect a
'children's governor'
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Credit: Sarah Tully, EdSource
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As California's governor's race accelerates toward the June 5 primary, a range of interest groups are trying to ensure that the candidates take up the issues they care about -- and that, more importantly, whoever gets elected carries out their agenda once in office.
There is now a concerted push to elect what some advocates are calling a "children's governor" - a governor committed to implementing policies that benefit the state's youngest children, beginning at birth.
For the last eight years, Gov. Jerry Brown has had an uneasy relationship with early education advocates. While funding for child care and preschools has increased during his tenure as governor, he has resisted calls for providing subsidized preschool or transitional kindergarten to all of the state's low-income 4-year-olds, often referred to as universal preschool.
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Credit: Fermin Leal, EdSource
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There is growing recognition that California in effect has three systems of education - one for children before they enter kindergarten, another serving children in the K-12 grades and one for higher education.
But in the eyes of many experts, policymakers and elected officials, the system serving the state's youngest children is the most important in building a foundation for a student's future success. It is also the most fragmented and least coordinated one.
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Credit: Alison Yin, EdSource
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California's booming economy has led to a slight drop in the child poverty rate, but the state still has the highest rate in the country when the cost of living is taken into account, according to
new data released by Kidsdata and the Public Policy Institute of California.
An average of 22.8 percent - or 2 million - of California's children lived below the poverty threshold in 2013-15, which is $30,000 a year for a family of four, according to the data released this week. The number is down from 24.4 percent in 2011-13.
"The economy is good, and more families have at least one parent working at least part-time," said Caroline Danielson, senior fellow at the
Public Policy Institute of California. "That said, we still have higher poverty rates than we did before the Great Recession."
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Credit: Fermin Leal, EdSource
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In 2016, heading into her 15th year as a kindergarten teacher, Kristy Caesar knew what to expect from a room full of 5-year-olds.
But what greeted her on that first day of school last year was an eye opener - she had 21 kindergartners and only four had attended preschool. Eighteen students couldn't recognize a single phonetic letter sound, such as the sound "A" makes.
"It was so challenging; they were months behind," said Caesar, who teaches at Kennedy Elementary School in Lindsay, in California's Central Valley. She recalled thinking, "Something needs to change. I can't keep getting learners who have never gone to preschool."
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Higher expectations for early childhood teaching "on a collision course" with low pay
Kevin Mahnken of The 74 writes that expert opinion is solidifying around the importance of high-quality preschool teaching and "many are insisting that the time has come to fully professionalize a field that has traditionally welcomed job seekers lacking a higher education."
This effort to urge to raise standards for those working with young children, however, is "on a collision course with the paltry compensation those teachers currently receive for their labors."
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Lack of affordable child care is a global problem
CNN provides an interesting overview of the costs of child care around the world, and the impact of caring for young children in families of all kinds.
According to the article, the lack of affordable child care is a global issue. Despite perceptions that high child care costs are a developed-world problem, "families in lower-income countries spend a significant chunk of their income -- about 17% of some women's average earnings -- on child care services, similar to those in wealthier countries." When affordable child care is not available, older siblings in lower-income countries, especially girls, may be forced to leave school to provide child care.
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