Building Capacity for SEL Across a Large School District
Format
Individual Presentation
First Presenter's Institution
St. Lucie Public Schools
Second Presenter's Institution
St. Lucie Public Schools
Third Presenter's Institution
St. Lucie Public Schools
Fourth Presenter's Institution
na
Fifth Presenter's Institution
na
Location
Session 6 Breakouts
Strand #1
Heart: Social & Emotional Skills
Strand #2
Head: Academic Achievement & Leadership
Relevance
Our SEL Project builds capacity across our school district to understand, practice and teach all of the elements involved in the Heart strand including:
- Fostering social and emotional skills and the social climate for all children and youth
- School climate
- Academic resilience
- Caring curriculum and achievement motivation
- Student empowerment and leadership skills
- Emotional intelligence and communication skills
- Decision making and goal setting
- Mindfulness
Brief Program Description
Learn how a South Florida School system utilize their Title IV dollars to create and maintain the State’s first district SEL Department. Participants will explore the systemic approach St. Lucie Public Schools took to establish SEL as a prevention to mental health issues in 40 schools at the elementary, middle and high school levels. Implementation emphasizes three prongs of explicit instruction, instructional integration and infusion into school climate and culture.
Summary
Participants will explore the systemic approach St. Lucie Public Schools took to establish SEL as a prevention to mental health issues in 40 schools at the elementary, middle and high school levels with funding through the Title IV, Part A grant. Implementation emphasizes three prongs of explicit instruction, instructional integration and infusion into school climate and culture.
In a 2018 survey of school leaders, 75% expressed a need for in-class support and specifically, individualized interventions for students in need of social-emotional support. Furthermore, analysis from a district-wide teacher survey, 58% of respondents indicated a need to better understand the mental health and the social emotional state of children. The district has committed to implementing structures to support the integration of an evidence based Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Project. The goal of the project to implement classroom-based practices that promote student’ social emotional competence and support the Title IV, Part A goals of improving 1) Well rounded educational experiences 2) Improve safe and healthy school conditions for students’ learning.
Personnel and curriculum are the major expenses for the project. The Director of Social Emotional Learning, a new position funded through this grant, works collaboratively with educators and administrators to utilize evidence-based strategies to support a coordinated and effective school climate. The Director will assist schools with the development of an infrastructure to support social emotional learning is charged with professional development and implementation of the SEL curriculum district-wide. Two Social Emotional Learning Specialist also provided through grant funds, coordinate professional development and on-going support across the district that promote the implementation of evidence-based SEL projects and behavioral support. In addition, a Social Emotional Parent Educator, a position funded by this grant, works to increase parental and public awareness of social emotional learning skills. To provide training, support and resources to students and their families involving social emotional learning and mental health.
Learning Objectives
1. To understand the journey St. Lucie Public Schools, Fl to establish SEL programs in all of their schools including the adopted practices and impact of implementation.
2. To learn about the 3 prong approach to school-wide SEL implementation: explicit instruction; instructional integration and infusion into school climate and culture.
3. To understand the power of capacity building in reaching the needs of all school stakeholders during quarantine and re-opening of schools.
Biographical Sketch
Traci Wilke Director of SEL St. Lucie Public Schools An educator for over 30 years, Traci Wilke is the Director of Social Emotional Learning for St. Lucie Public Schools, Florida. She has served in various capacities including special educator, speech language pathologist, assistant principal and as a school principal for over 10 years in Title One schools of diverse students from poverty. As a transformational leader, her focus on rigorous, standards based, quality instruction with positive school cultures led her schools to success. In 2018, she was recognized as her district’s Principal of the Year and a Top 3 Principal Finalist of the Year for the Florida Department of Education.
Cassey Chang SEL Specialist St. Lucie Public Schools Cassey has a Masters in Social Work and is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. Cassey has worked as a Mental Health Specialist for Title 1, supporting students at non-traditional education sites. She has also worked as a Clinical Supervisor in community mental health. She has a background as a therapist specializing in co-occurring treatment. She has also has a background as an ESE teacher.
Christina Coppola SEL Specialist St. Lucie Public Schools Christina has a Masters in Social Work. She has worked as a school based mental health therapist and as a Substance Abuse Prevention Specialist. She has a background in teaching in alternative education and has worked as a school based ESE specialist.
Keyword Descriptors
social emotional learning, schools, district-wide
Presentation Year
2021
Start Date
3-9-2021 1:40 PM
End Date
3-9-2021 2:40 PM
Recommended Citation
Wilke, Traci; Chang, Cassey; and Coppola, Christina, "Building Capacity for SEL Across a Large School District" (2021). National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference. 31.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/nyar_savannah/2021/2021/31
Building Capacity for SEL Across a Large School District
Session 6 Breakouts
Learn how a South Florida School system utilize their Title IV dollars to create and maintain the State’s first district SEL Department. Participants will explore the systemic approach St. Lucie Public Schools took to establish SEL as a prevention to mental health issues in 40 schools at the elementary, middle and high school levels. Implementation emphasizes three prongs of explicit instruction, instructional integration and infusion into school climate and culture.