Innovation in Strategies and Practices to Promote Social and Emotional Skills

Stephanie Jones, Sophie Barnes, Laura Stickle, and the EASEL Lab, Harvard University; Joe Aleardi, Executive Director, Horizons Bridgeport; Meg Small, Director for Social Innovation, Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center, The Pennsylvania State University

This brief describes social and emotional skills and their role in enhancing academic success and positive behavior among students, highlighting in particular the decades of research documenting the effectiveness of school-based prevention and intervention programs in building these important skills. Despite the breadth and rigor of this work, there remain substantial barriers to implementing such programs and bringing them to scale. The authors discuss three innovative approaches to promoting social and emotional skills that respond to some of the challenges with implementation and scaling: non-curricular, modularized approaches (e.g., SEL Kernels), teacher/adult-focused approaches (e.g., CARE/CALM for Teachers), and integrated, technology-based SEL interventions. Social and emotional skills are foundational to academic success, mental health, and participation in a civil society, but implementing SEL programming at scale requires innovative approaches and partnerships that support all actors in the educational ecosystem. The authors recommend simplifying and localizing SEL programming, supporting teachers and other adults in promoting social and emotional skills, deploying technology creatively, and engaging in long-term, reciprocal research-practice partnerships to advance the evidence of these innovative approaches.