CASEL

Let’s Talk About It?

The 2024 Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Exchange was an amazing experience, bringing together more than 1,800 leaders to connect, learn, and grow.

Who Was There?

 2024 Exchange participants represented:

•           1,816 Participants
•           47 U.S. states (plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico)
•           30 countries
• 17 million students reached!

What Key Points Were Impressionable?

— “Learning” is an implicit part of SEL. That was the inspiration for this year’s Exchange theme: ACCELERATE: Academic Thriving and Lifelong Learning.

— Focus was on how SEL supports academic learning and helps build a curiosity and eagerness for learning that lasts a lifetime.

— From math to science to literacy to civic education to the arts, the event explored how integrating SEL into academic instruction supports students in their growth and development.

— Youth voice took center stage through sessions and performances, and attendees all got a global perspective of SEL implementation.

— Focus was how SEL supports academic learning and helps build a curiosity and eagerness for learning that lasts a lifetime.

— Exploration revealed how SEL opens us up to the idea that learning can happen in many different places and in many different ways.

— Students can be our teachers. Families shape how we teach.

— Communities beyond the school walls offer a place to learn and grow.

The “AHA” Moments!

We’ve captured some here to bring out the insight, facts and transformation that SEL offers everyone of every age.

"There is lots of data showing that SEL is important for academic gains. When kids have self-organization skills, they turn in quality work on time. When kids can communicate, they turn in better work in writing and oral communication."
Matinga Ragatz — PBLWorks and U.S. National Teacher, Hall of Fame Educator

"The skills that [employers] are seeking with great energy are communication, collaboration, critical thinking-these are skills that are bolstered, supported, and enabled by SEL work. They are undergirded by self-awareness, relationship-building, and self-management."
Michael Crawford — America Succeeds

 "What we hear from parents is, 'By the time my kids graduate high school, I want them to be good communicators, have great relationships, and be happy and successful adults.' SEL can help us ensure that schools deliver on that promise."
Karen Niemi — Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence

"When students leave the K-12 system and go on to do other things, they're not sitting at their own isolated desk doing a worksheet of problems, regurgitating what the teacher just told them to do. They're exploring the world, looking at real-world problems. We need to continue to push math past memorization and get to understanding."
Kevin Dykema — National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

"You don't teach kids just by handing them information. It takes motivation, connection, and support. That's where SEL and academics come together, like peanut butter and jelly."
Harper Anthony – 7th Grade Student

Integrating SEL and Academics to Support Student Achievement

 What does SEL look like in the classroom? How to integrate SEL and academic instruction so that they are mutually supportive? Education experts explored practical strategies to accelerate academic learning while offering students opportunities to practice and advance their social and emotional skills. 

“We need to build trust and know and value students. If you do not see students, they won’t trust you and be able to open up in the classroom.”—Dr. Dawn Brooks DeCosta, Harlem Community School District

SEL and Academic Disciplines

STEM, literacy, civic education, and the arts: social and emotional skills are essential in the teaching of all these disciplines. Here are some of the insights experts shared about how SEL can support instruction in these fields:

“We have lost the art of listening. We need to be teaching listening. Listening is integral to creating good scientific arguments, discussing those arguments with others, and changing your argument based on what other perspectives and views are.”—Dr. Sara Rimm-Kaufman, University of Virginia

“Literacy is reading, writing, thinking. It is the world around us. When we think about literacy and academics, SEL, and cultural responsiveness, we have to stop seeing those as three separate things. This is education done well and done together. … Learning to have conversations with others and to have respect, love, and care for each other—it becomes not just a strategy or lesson plan but an experience.”—Dr. Gholdy Muhammad, University of Illinois Chicago

“The best way to learn about democracy is to participate in democracy.”—Jill Bass, Mikva Challenge

“[SEL] is community resilience, and the way you build community resilience is welcoming everyone to a seat at the table. … If I think of a challenge, it’s that we were slow in inviting youth…to the work. And when we did, we went not just for honor students, but also for students at the margins who feel less connected, protected, and respected in our learning spaces.”—Dr. Teri Lawler, Delaware Department of Education