Integrating Social, Emotional and Academic Development: An Action Guide for School Leadership Teams

This action guide provides school leadership teams with a resource for integrating the social, emotional and academic needs of young people into the daily student experience, from the time a bus driver greets a student until the end of the day. It supports the school leader and her/his team in mapping out an approach for integrating the social, emotional, and academic needs of students into the way adults and students experience school each moment of each school day. As part of their academic mission, schools contribute to students developing social-emotional skills that are critical to success in school, career and life. These broader skills and competencies fall into three categories: (1) social and interpersonal (e.g., working on a team, resolving conflicts); (2) emotional (e.g., coping with frustration and stress, demonstrating empathy); and (3) cognitive (e.g., goal-setting, staying focused, persevering, etc.). Academic instruction creates an ideal context for practicing these broader competencies and skills, which research validates as important to success beyond school and malleable. Social, emotional and academic development (SEAD) requires rethinking the school experience for students and adults so that social, emotional, and academic dimensions of learning are mutually reinforcing in practice, and infused into every aspect of the school and student experience. Enacting SEAD in practice rests on a three-legged stool: Students need (1) explicit instruction in understanding and applying social-emotional competencies/skills; (2) embedded opportunities to practice these competencies/skills during academic instruction; and (3) a learning environment that is infused with healthy relationships and that models safety, belonging, and purpose so that students can invest their whole selves in learning. Integrating SEAD has two meanings in this context: addressing social, emotional, and academic dimensions of learning together because they are inextricably linked in students' experiences; and integrating a SEAD approach into overall school improvement strategies--not as a siloed initiative or an "add-on" program. The school principal and leadership team (including teacher leaders) are key levers of transformation for a school community. This action guide both challenges and supports school leaders in advancing SEAD to meet the excellence and equity mission of public education.