DEPARTMENT VISION STATEMENT

What is Transformative Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)?

The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) defines Transformative Social and Emotional Learning (T-SEL) as a process whereby young people and adults build strong, respectful, and lasting, relationships that facilitate co-learning to critically examine root causes of inequity, and to develop collaborative solutions that lead to personal, community, and societal well-being (CASEL, 2021).

Core features of Transformative SEL include:

• Authentic partnering among students and adults with a deep focus on sharing power and decision-making between young people, educators, families, and communities.
• Academic content that integrates issues of race, class and culture.
• Instruction that honors and makes connections to students’ lived experiences and identities, and scaffolds learning to build an understanding of others’ lived experiences.
• Enhancing and foregrounding social and emotional competencies needed for civic engagement and social change, such as reflecting on personal and social identities, examining prejudices and biases, interrogating social norms, disrupting and resisting inequities, and co-constructing equitable and just solutions.
• Prioritizing students’ individual and collective agency to take action for social justice.
• Focus on creating belonging and engagement for all individuals.

 Source: CASEL Framework

 Transformative SEL in Folsom Cordova Unified School District

As part of a focus on teaching the whole child, Folsom Cordova Unified School District has defined a strategy for integrated and explicit social and emotional learning (SEL) opportunities for students and adults in our system. We know from research that social-emotional competence can be achieved in the following ways:

1. Positive climate and culture focused on empathy, respect, and equity
2. Direct SEL instruction
3. SEL integrated into academic lessons and extracurricular activities
4. Educative and restorative discipline practices that build community and repair harm

 SEL in California

The California Department of Education (CDE) has also made Social-Emotional Learning a focus for all schools across the state. According to the CDE website, the department  “is committed to helping educators learn more about SEL and how to make this a part of every child’s school experience. To support this work, CDE has joined the Collaborating States Initiative  a group of states that share information, best practices, and promising tools and ideas in the interest of building strong Social Emotional Learning  in schools across their states.  The Collaborating States Initiative is hosted by the Collaborative for Academic Social and Emotional Learning.

The CDE has convened a group of experts from different sectors of the education system to advise on the best ways to support SEL implementation. The following are products this team has developed: 

• Social and Emotional Learning Guiding Principles (full version(PDF) and summary); 
• Social and Emotional Learning Resource Guide; 
• Recommendations for Policy and Practice (final is forthcoming)

Source: https://www.cde.ca.gov/eo/in/socialemotionallearning.asp

SEL and Equity:

In the ever changing landscape of teaching and learning in the 21st Century, learning organizations continuously strive towards the goal of equity. By following the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) guide to utilizing SEL as a lever for equity, FCUSD believes that systemic implementation of SEL can be a powerful tool for improving systemic culture, conditions, and competencies across the district in order to better serve children and families.