Through a comprehensive focus on social and emotional learning (SEL), Streator Elementary School District is committed to the social, emotional, and academic development of students by connecting the whole child framework. Streator School District also recognizes that building the capacity of adults to model SEL skills is at the core of teacher and leader excellence. Using the CASEL framework to guide its SEL programming also in alignment with the district's strategic plan.
The SEL is in which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes, to develop healthy identities, manage emotions, achieve goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions (CASEL, 2020). Simply put, we want our students to be emotionally ready to handle relationships and challenges that life brings them. We also want to support parents who are working towards those goals with their children.
Results from a large student that looked across 213 studies involving more than 270,000 students found that:
- Social and Emotional interventions that address the five core competencies increased students’ academic performance by 11 percentile points, compared to students who did not participate.
- Students participating in SEL programs showed improved classroom behavior, an increased ability to manage stress and depression, and better attitudes about themselves, others, and school.
- Additional meta-analyses echoed these findings. Consistency across independent research teams offers strong support that well-implemented SEL programs are beneficial (Durlak et al., 2011).
Please stay tuned for more information in the future regarding Social Emotional Learning at Streator School District #44
Anne McDonnell, M.S. Ed., BCBA
Director of Social and Emotional Learning
Streator Elementary School District #44
1520 N. Bloomington St., Streator, IL 61364
(815) 672-2926