Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and School-Based Mental Health

Overview

Under the umbrella of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and School-Based Mental Health, investigators collaborate with young people and educators to co-produce scholarship that advances knowledge about the infrastructure needed for effective SEL implementation in schools. The delivery of high-quality SEL has been connected to improved academic success and wellbeing of young people. Recent scholarship has expanded this concept to infuse the explicit, additional goal of interrupting the (re)production of inequity in school environments (see Jagers et al., 2019). Led by Dr. Valerie Shapiro and team, this project addresses questions of immediate relevance for educational policy and practice striving to continuously improve SEL implementation.

For more information, contact i4Y@berkeley.edu.

Photo of Shapiro Lab

Build Delivery Systems to Implement SEL Initiatives

Through research-practice partnerships, Dr. Shapiro and team study models for building partnerships, supports, capacities and structures/routines to improve well-being and equity in schools. This includes both the California Department of Healthcare Services funded CalHOPE Student Support and Sacramento County Office of Education’s Schools as Centers of Wellness.

Photo of students throwing paper airplanes

Design Assessment Systems to Inform and Improve SEL Initiatives

This team is dedicated to designing, developing, testing, and improving measurement tools to support local SEL programming for equity and wellbeing. Within this aim, the Berkeley Assessment of Social and Emotional Learning (BASEL) was developed to facilitate the measurement of (a) wellbeing, (b) the social and emotional competencies and conditions required for learning, teaching, and leading, and (c) the levers of system transformation. We work with counties, districts, and schools who are interested in using data to explore school experiences, understand individual and collective strengths, and identify areas for growth. We are currently partnering with the Sacramento City Unified School District Department of Professional Learning– Culture, Climate & SEL to support two Data Collection Spotlight Schools.

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Promoting High Quality Use of Research Evidence in SEL Initiatives

Understanding and promoting high quality use of research evidence is a critical component of SEL implementation. Funded by the William T. Grant Foundation Scholars Program, this team partners with and explores how educational intermediaries such as the Greater Good Science Center synthesize, translate, curate, and package research evidence for educational use within SEL initiatives.