High school-age students have a sixth sense for when things feel dopey, dumb, sus, cheesy, corny, basic, cringe, or 鈥渃heugy.鈥� (That last term is au courant according to The New York Times, which may mean it鈥檚 already out of date.)
Nowhere are the pitfalls greater than in well-intentioned social-emotional learning programs for secondary students. To put it bluntly, if you鈥檙e doing mood meters, 鈥渟cared straight鈥� lectures, or feeling sticks with high school students, there鈥檚 probably a good chance that the students are tuning them out.
The big problem, researchers and practitioners say, is that too much of what constitutes SEL learning feels patronizing to teenagers and fails to address their core psychological needs and motivations: developing an identity and sense of agency, being recognized and respected by peers, finding ways to excel, and committing to specific goals and activities.
Programs that explicitly teach SEL skills generally have a good track record for younger children. But for older students, the paradigm looks different. It鈥檚 less explicit and requires creating leadership opportunities鈥攆ormal and informal鈥攚here students will have to exercise their relationship and self-regulation muscles.
And it means adults have to do things differently, too, to create a school climate that supports rather than contravenes those efforts.
鈥淲hen we think about working with younger students in general, often being a great teacher feels very theatrical. And as students get older, it鈥檚 actually the opposite,鈥� said Jeffrey Imwold, the managing director of student support services for KIPP NYC, a chain of charter schools. 鈥�69传媒 will know when you鈥檙e being inauthentic. What matters is how you show up for them and deliver the material鈥攁nd it can be really hard to show up authentically.鈥�
What do we know from research about high school SEL?
There are fewer resources for teachers and school leaders who want to devise strong SEL programs at the high school level, according to several recent reports from the RAND Corporation, a research and analysis firm.
Using a nationally representative sample of teachers, it found that and just 19 percent used written lesson plans to promote SEL.
There is also less research on SEL at the upper secondary level. In a second report, RAND that had at least some positive research鈥攁nd not a single one had been evaluated using a random-assignment design, the most rigorous way to assess effectiveness.
Researchers who study social-emotional learning say the focus on doing 鈥減rograms鈥� is perhaps part of the problem. Too many are retrofits of initiatives aimed at younger children that feel phony to older students, said David Yeager, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin.
Yeager and found that most of them were beneficial through about 7th grade, but had no overall benefits in high school. Like failed anti-smoking or anti-gang initiatives,, he concluded.
鈥淭eenagers are really sensitive to social status. Anti-bullying programs don鈥檛 deal with the teenage need to have status. They just tell you, don鈥檛 do it,鈥� he noted. 鈥淭hat argument doesn鈥檛 work for 14- or 15-year-olds. Anti-bullying efforts need to give kids alternative routes to status, rather than telling them to not care about status.鈥�
Thus, successful SEL approaches are often implicit, getting adolescents to exercise their SEL muscles without necessarily knowing that that鈥檚 the intent鈥攁 little bit like sneaking kale into a fruit smoothie.
Here, Education Week outlines five ideas for thinking about SEL programs in high schools鈥攂oth what to do and what to avoid. They aren鈥檛 a recipe and should be tailored to districts鈥� local context and instructional goals. But they could help district and school leaders avoid SEL efforts that feel lame. (Or cheugy.)
1. Integrate high school SEL programs into academic learning.
Research indicates that it鈥檚 difficult to teach noncognitive skills, including core SEL concepts such as self-management and responsible decision-making outside of content. That鈥檚 partly because these skills look different depending on the task at hand. (Compare, for example, persistence in writing an essay to persistence at solving a multi-step mathematics problem.)
And when students engage in rich and robust classroom discourse鈥攍earning how to disagree constructively and how to persuade others鈥攖hose are as much SEL opportunities as they are academic ones, noted Eugene Pinkard, the director of practice and leadership at the Aspen Institute鈥檚 education and society program.
There are some major challenges with this type of high-quality integration. For one, noted Cami Anderson, the founder and CEO of ThirdWay Solutions, a consulting firm, even rich, well-regarded academic curricula often lack the scaffolds and supports that help teachers and students engage with the social-emotional implications of each lesson. (Anderson, a former Newark, N.J., superintendent and administrator in the New York City district, worked on SEL and curriculum in both positions.)
鈥淚t needs to be rigorous and content-rich, but also provide opportunities for meaning-making around SEL skills,鈥� she said. Take, for example, a lesson that focuses on Ruby Bridges, who helped desegregate New Orleans schools in 1960. Great content will have students reading Bridges鈥� reflections, as well as those of students and parents who opposed integration, and situate the historical moment within the larger civil rights struggle.
But teachers can also use the lesson to prompt dialogue about what kinds of social and emotional strengths Bridges drew on.
鈥淎s a facilitator, there鈥檚 a lot to unpack there around moral decisionmaking. When do you decide to steer into conflict? What are the personal consequences of that decision? Where does that land you in terms of emotion? How do you take care of yourself personally? Where is the line around empathy?鈥� Anderson suggested. 鈥淭o me, that is the work. ... But it would require some really high-quality, adult-facing training鈥� for teachers.
2. Aim for coherence across the system.
Many school systems now use regular climate surveys and check-ins to get a picture of overall student health. But coherence goes beyond that, the researchers and practitioners said, and it is harder to achieve in high schools if one teacher, for example, gives multiple revision opportunities for work and another doesn鈥檛, or if departments use divergent grading approaches.
鈥淧art of the problem with high school SEL is that it鈥檚 so compartmentalized. It鈥檚 not obvious how to use and transfer those insights,鈥� said Yeager. 鈥淚f your health teacher says 鈥楬ere鈥檚 how to succeed,鈥� your health teacher isn鈥檛 the one handing out your math grades.鈥�
To create common, coherent experiences for students, some districts are investing in specially designed academic lessons that also purposefully build SEL skills. Beginning in 2015-16, the District of Columbia Public 69传媒 began to create an academically rich set of lessons, called Cornerstones, nested within its English/language arts and social studies curricula.
Each cornerstone is anchored in complex text, includes a field trip or partnership with community groups to make the work feel authentic, and generally ends with a performance or set of outcomes in which students share their work with each other and with the community. In 10th grade, for example, D.C. students experience 鈥淟ife I Choose,鈥� a cornerstone lesson focused on narrative poetry and what it means to be successful in life.
Situated within a larger ELA unit about narrative, 鈥淟ife I Choose鈥� includes learning about poetry slams; as it progresses, also students will write their own poems and revise them using a framework. They鈥檙e helped by a teaching artist who partners with the district and the cornerstone culminates in an opportunity for students to present their own slam poetry in a legit performance space.
Such lessons flip the paradigm of how SEL works, said Karen Cole, the district鈥檚 deputy chief of academic and creative empowerment.
鈥淚n most SEL, we present it as something you should do with students to prepare them to be successful in academics,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut the idea of Cornerstones is that when you acquire academics, it develops you as a person in a way nothing else does.鈥�
3. Focus on how adults can foster a good school climate.
It鈥檚 tempting to think that SEL is something that teachers 鈥渄o鈥� to students. But much actually hinges on getting educators to make changes to the overarching school climate. 69传媒 should be nurturing places where systems and structures support SEL work, teachers are trained on learning development, and thoughtful SEL experiences are devised for students, Pinkard said.
鈥淲here I鈥檝e landed is to give kids beneficial messages and interventions that aren鈥檛 too long, and therefore not insulting about telling kids what to think or how to think,鈥� added Yeager. 鈥淲ork on the adults in the school to change the climate to be more student-centric.鈥�
Some aspects of creating school climate can be harder to tackle than others. 69传媒鈥� dress codes and conduct manuals, for instance, can convey a quiet authoritarianism that undercuts some of the values schools purport to care about, like fostering citizenship and independence.
Similarly, said Yeager, it鈥檚 all well and good to say that you support students to have a growth mindset to, for example, overcome shyness or loneliness.
鈥淏ut if you鈥檙e in the kind of school where there are few opportunities for you to feel like a worthwhile person鈥攖here鈥檚 no leadership opportunities, no clubs, if there are no affordances for real contributions to community or peer group鈥攊t鈥檚 hard for you to believe that things can improve for the better,鈥� he noted.
The good part, the SEL leaders say, is that teachers will get on board with these efforts if school leaders convince them it will support the outcomes they care about.
鈥淲hen you have an SEL classroom, students want to be there and it鈥檚 less work for you; and more importantly, it creates the kind of student behavior you want, and turns the classroom into the kind of classroom you want it to be,鈥� Imwold said.
One way to show high schoolers you鈥檙e serious about creating a positive climate? You don鈥檛 necessarily have to create your SEL initiative from scratch, Anderson said, but you do need to let the end users鈥攕tudents鈥攚eigh in on what they want and need from the efforts.
4. Don鈥檛 neglect extracurriculars and other out-of-classroom opportunities to let students lead.
From devising cheerleading routines, building the sets for the school musical, athletic scrimmages, and the studio arts, there are tons of opportunities to build in SEL learning competencies beyond the classroom.
鈥淲e find [students] develop so many of these competencies through the extracurriculars and they frequently talk about their experiences in extracurricular opportunities,鈥� said Imwold of KIPP NYC. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 where I developed social awareness or self awareness; I realized I was not a football player, and I found my people through theater, and that became the defining experience of my time in high school.鈥�
Similarly, said Pinkard of Aspen, 鈥渄on鈥檛 make the mistake of assuming all of this learning is in the classroom. The SEL experiences that we鈥檙e describing require students to be in places to engage each other outside the classroom, and with adults and community members outside the classroom.
鈥淚f you want your students to give a speech about something that鈥檚 important in their community, you can鈥檛 expect that to just come out of their head or simply be composed in the classroom,鈥� he said.
The District of Columbia鈥檚 鈥淥ur City鈥� cornerstone looks at the city鈥檚 neighborhoods and how their residents can advocate for better services through their advisory neighborhood councils, Washington鈥檚 most local level of government. It concludes with students interacting with the commissioners at a municipal building.
And the Oakland, Calif., district uses capstone projects that require students to interview community members and researchers or conduct surveys to explore a social problem.
5. Consider peer mentoring programs.
Saul Vargas, a 2020 graduate of KIPP NYC high school, has a unique insight on what works for high school-age students: As a peer leader, he and a partner regularly met with underclassmen in groups of about 12 students about how to make the big transition to high school.
鈥淲e talked a lot about organization, about making friends and reaching out to teachers鈥攋ust learning how to manage yourself and be independent, because you鈥檙e in transition from a place in middle school where your hand is being held,鈥� he said in an interview. 鈥淚n high school, you either do the work or you don鈥檛.鈥�
Peer mentoring of this sort is an approach that checks off a few SEL boxes at once: It gives one group of students an opportunity to lead, while helping younger students exercise their SEL skills in an authentic way.
The charter school鈥檚 program was sometimes more prescriptive than Vargas would have liked鈥攈e wasn鈥檛 a big fan of icebreakers and preferred sharing his own challenges and solutions with students. But he found the experience ultimately powerful鈥攅specially when he found success mentoring students who were struggling.
Vargas鈥� proudest moment was speaking with a student who was struggling with motivation and filing assignments. Vargas helped her see the work as an investment in herself, rather than something to please adults.
鈥淥ne of the problems with her specifically was that she felt that teachers sort of undervalued her and didn鈥檛 think she was good enough to perform and talking to her about that and convincing her that you don鈥檛 need external validation to do well,鈥� said Vargas, now entering his sophomore year at Princeton University. 鈥淚n the next two to three quarters, her grades improved. She started getting 80s and 90s 鈥� and it felt like a successful moment.鈥�
Samara Fraser-Wellington, now a junior at the school, also sat on its restorative-justice team, where she helped resolve interpersonal issues among students.
鈥淪ometimes you have to sit and listen to things you don鈥檛 necessarily agree with yourself but you have to still figure out how to help them,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o I think that was the hardest part when I first started. I think the most rewarding part is knowing what they get out of it, knowing I was able to help them, and hearing people say thank you. That makes me smile.鈥�
The programs do take some work to set up. 69传媒 will need some training and guidelines: KIPP used an extra class period and a summer retreat to help its peer leaders learn how to model a lesson and host a dialogue.
