Why would parents and teachers, tired of high-stakes testing in their public schools, wish to sign onto more assessment that tests, tracks, and profiles their child’s behavior online?
Good teachers have always built social skills into their classes. Helping children behave and work with each other is second nature to teaching. One can find nice social-emotional learning (SEL) activities.
But now states are setting up SEL standards about what children should think and feel. How does one standardize such things?
I originally noted that @SEL4MA has lovely activities for children. They do. As I look at Twitter now, I see terrific book titles for children and a lovely quote from Mister Rogers, whose upcoming movie I noted on Twitter yesterday.
But I have been informed that they have a dark side of their own. Their websitedescribes their endorsement of Social Impact Bonds and Pay for Success. One teacher told me they are “like stalkers” with many for-profit partners and enablers. This is troubling. It is also deceptive. It’s easy to see how one can be sucked into the nice activities for children, without realizing what this organization is truly advocating.
SEL is ill-defined, unproven and still connected to Common Core.
There’s a mish-mash of psycho-social, neuroscience talk, and programs are not always well-explained to parents, or well-understood. SEL covers so much.
Where’s the research? The reliance of support is on a 2011 Meta-analysis of eight studies showing students do better academically with SEL activities, but there’s nothing to support the pervasive dominance of SEL assessment in schools.
