As the Tennessee Department of Education prepares to roll out new academic standards in math, English, social studies and science, it’s turning attention to creating the state’s first-ever set of standards in a completely new arena — social and emotional learning.

Tennessee will spend the next year on the task as one of eight states chosen to draft new standards focused on students’ emotional well-being and mental health in grades K-12.

That means setting benchmarks for what students should know or be able to do in each grade when it comes to skills such as decision-making, self-awareness, social awareness, self-control, and establishing and maintaining healthy relationships.

The idea is that setting grade-appropriate standards for social and emotional learning can help teachers help their students thrive both in and out of the classroom.

“These are the type of skills important for students to possess to be ready for college or career,” said Pat Conner, the department’s director of safe and supportive schools.

The standards will be developed in collaboration with the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, also known as CASEL, which announced this week that Tennessee will join the initiative along with California, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Washington. The national organization previously has partnered with urban districts including Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools but is branching out into state policy to spread strategies around social and emotional learning.

Tennessee’s new standards will be drafted beginning Sept. 1 by a team that includes researchers, parents and educators. The final product will be reviewed next July by the State Board of Education.

“(The standards) will establish social and emotional learning as a priority in education,” said Conner, who has worked with at-risk youth in Tennessee for 30 years.

Strategies to bolster social and emotional skills include class meetings, breathing exercises, individual check-ins and safe spaces where students can go to calm down without feeling like they’re being punished.

“When a child goes off in class and a teacher understands what’s going on in that student’s life, she can help them manage that,” Conner said, adding that good teachers have been doing these things all along.

The initiative is the latest in the State Department’s efforts to support children beyond academics. In 2010, Tennessee was one of 11 states to win a grant for safe and supportive schools, and became the only state to develop a survey to evaluate “conditions for learning” in its schools including safety, supportive discipline practices and teacher-student relationships. Last year, the state released a toolkit for teachers seeking ways to incorporate social and emotional learning in their classrooms.

This year, the state also is rolling out a voluntary Response to Instruction and Intervention for Behavior framework that aims to quickly identify students’ behavioral problems so they can be matched with the proper supports.

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