What We Have Learned
CalHOPE
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CalHOPE 〰️
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How educators’ capacities to implement SEL improved during CalHOPE
SEL Foundations: A graduate-level course at UC Berkeley offered at no cost to California classroom teachers, early and expanded learning professionals, and pupil services personnel that explores:
What systemic social and emotional learning (SEL) is.
Practical strategies to promote adult well-being and equitable, evidence-based SEL for youth.
Asset-based, accessible approaches to fostering positive relationships with students.
How these strategies can improve learning conditions across schools.
What We Have Learned
What happens when educators give themselves permission to intentionally invest in their own social and emotional well-being?
In this study, 212 teachers participating in the SEL Foundations implemented an Adult SEL practice of their own choosing for three weeks. Then, they reflected on what worked, what didn't, and what they learned along the way.
By analyzing their reflections, researchers identified five themes that capture how educators put Adult SEL into practice.
This paper also explores the successes, challenges, and adaptations teachers described as they navigated this work in real-world settings.
Topics:
adult SEL, systemic SEL,
teacher well-being
How can educators strengthen their own social and emotional well-being?
Research Paper: “It All Starts with Us”: Exploring teachers’ efforts to increase Adult SEL in practice
Educators play a crucial role in students’ SEL, but few enter the teaching profession with opportunities to develop their own SEL knowledge and skills. The paper’s authors argue that continuing education and utilizing university partnerships may provide an important pathway for building educators’ SEL capacity as teacher preparation programs often provide limited focus on adult SEL.
In this paper, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley followed PK - 12th grade educators enrolled in SEL Foundations, a graduate-level continuing education course, in Fall 2023. By comparing participants’ survey responses before and after the course, researchers found statistically significant improvements in educators’ favorable attitudes, knowledge, skills, and the confidence needed to implement SEL effectively in their classrooms.
Surprisingly, researchers also found a statistically significant improvement in well-being from August to November among this sample of teachers earning graduate credits.
Do in-service educators build their capacities for SEL implementation while taking a graduate-level SEL course?
Research Paper: Securing the foundation: Providing supports and building teacher capacity for SEL implementation through a university-based continuing education course
Topics:
adult SEL, systemic SEL,
social and emotional learning,
equity, continuing education
In practice:
"We must not forget how important it is to equip teachers with the requisite
capacities for their own well-being, engagement, and performance...
Practitioners, particularly those who are responsible for setting their region's continuing education plans, should ensure that there are opportunities to expand Adult SEL...
Current educators who are looking for support to expand their capacity to
implement SEL, support students, and be well may consider participating in
an in-depth learning experience with a focus on Adult SEL."
In practice:
Educators reflected that time was a barrier to adult SEL practices,
and that they were often too ambitious with their initial goals.
They also noted overwhelm as a barrier to self-care.
Educators recommend small goals, patience, and grace while developing
adult SEL practices, as well as structural solutions to carve out time for
reflection and improvement of adult SEL and to make adult SEL a priority
and a normative part of teaching.
SEL Foundations is enrolling!
SEL Foundations is a 3-credit, online, graduate-level course designed for classroom teachers and expanded learning staff who work directly with a stable group of pre-K through 12th-grade students.
There are a limited number of subsidies to support enrollment for qualified educators at no cost to them! If you would like to review course details, including dates and times for live sessions, visit the SEL Foundations course site!
To express interest in the course, complete our Enrollment Interest Form!
Advancing systemic SEL statewide in California and supporting pre-K-12th grade educators through CalHOPE
What We Have Learned
Coming soon!
The systemic outcomes of SEL implementation during CalHOPE
Research shows that SEL has the greatest impact when it moves beyond individual classrooms and becomes a part of how schools and systems operate every day.
In California, County Offices of Education (COEs) play a critical role in making that kind of system-wide change possible. As regional partners supporting more than 1,000 K-12 school districts serving nearly six million students, COEs help connect schools with resources, guidance, and implementation support.
What We Have Learned
Social and emotional learning (SEL) implementation and outcomes are shaped by the surrounding conditions of learning, teaching, and leading.
To better understand the conditions that support systemwide SEL implementation, SEL leaders at County Offices of Education (COEs) reported on their SEL work. COEs play an important role in providing support to districts and schools for SEL implementation.
Researchers analyzed reports from 117 COE leaders after nearly 3 years of CalHOPE participation. Leaders reported positive perceptions of their own well-being, their workplace climate, and implementation support activities.
Additionally, researchers found that COEs had a variety of partnerships in place to further the goal of supporting SEL implementation. Notably, counties with a higher variety of partners were more likely to report a strong presence of other levers of transformation, namely providing greater support (e.g., training, coaching), having higher capacities (e.g., knowledge, skills), and more structures and routines for SEL implementation (e.g., leadership needs, needs assessments, data-based decision-making).
What did we learn about the conditions for social and emotional learning (SEL) implementation from CalHOPE Student Support?
Research Paper: Educational leaders' reports of conditions for supporting SEL implementation: The power of partnerships
Topics:
adult SEL, systemic SEL,
social and emotional learning,
equity, continuing education
In practice:
COEs in California have built the partnerships needed to provide supports that build capacities for the structures and routines of SEL implementation!
Pro-tip: Having a greater variety of partners is good for regional implementation support organizations providing support, building capacities, and advancing the structures and routines of SEL implementation.
As part of a unique statewide approach to implement social and emotional learning (SEL) across the PK - 12th grade education system, California leveraged regional education agencies, known as County Offices of Education (COEs), as central hubs for implementation support. COEs received support (e.g., training, coaching, resources) to build their capacities (e.g., knowledge, skills) to support SEL implementation in districts and schools. In turn, COEs provided supports to districts and schools in their regions for the sake of building capacity to deliver SEL and to advance the structures and routines of SEL implementation.
To design and sustain change at this scale, CalHOPE Student Support used the SHIFT-SEL theory of action to guide their implementation decisions.
Twice a year, SEL leaders working at COEs, districts, and schools reported on the conditions shaping implementation.
By analyzing and comparing the responses from both semesters in the 2023 - 2024 school year, researchers identified three important learnings:
Topics:
social and emotional learning, implementation support,
statewide planning infrastructure,
capacity building
How do statewide conditions for SEL implementation shift over time?
Research Paper: Educational Leader Reports of Statewide Change in Conditions for SEL Implementation over 1 Year of CalHOPE Student Support
In practice:
This research provides a snapshot of system changes across a school year. It highlights the role of COEs in providing implementation support and examines how that support contributes to shifting SEL implementation conditions in districts and schools.
SEL Leader well-being and workplace climate can be measured during SEL implementation for reflection and improvement.
SEL leaders reported more favorable conditions at COEs than in districts and schools; this may be due to the way CalHOPE began - starting with COE leaders - or because the setting and roles have different demands and possibilities.
Improvements in the well-being and workplace climate of SEL leaders in districts and schools are possible! In California, these improvements happened after 4 years of expanding partnerships, providing support, building capacities, and creating intentional structures and routines for SEL implementation.