The Missing Piece - Civic Enterprises

Figure 2 When provided with CASEL’s definition of SEL, teachers overwhelmingly believe it should be animportant part of students’ in-school experience.Teachers see social and emotional skills as most relevant for elementary schools. Still, majorities believe it should be a bigpriority through high school. They said teaching social and emotional skills should be a big priority at this level:In preschoolIn elementary schoolIn middle school63%61%All teachers 77%Pre-K/Elementary school teachers 79%Middle school teachers 72%High school teachers 73%77%80%74%71%69%74%In high school42%53%56%63%understanding of SEL lines up closelywith CASEL’s definition (for full definition,see page 16), indicating that teachersendorse this definition. Teachers defineSEL as the ability to interact or get alongwith others, teamwork or cooperativelearning, life skills or preparing for thereal world, and self-control or managingone’s behaviors. Further, when promptedwith the CASEL definition, SEL is stronglyendorsed. Nearly all teachers (93percent, including 76 percent who citedit as very important) believe SEL shouldbe an important part of the in-schoolexperience (Figure 1).This endorsement of SEL holds trueacross education levels and school types(Figure 2). Only a minority of teachers(19 percent) thinks SEL should not betaught in schools. A full 95 percent ofteachers believe social and emotionalskills are teachable (including 97 percentof prekindergarten and elementary schoolteachers). A majority of prekindergartenand elementary school teachers (86percent), middle school teachers (72percent), high school teachers (58percent), teachers from schools withhigh rates of poverty (76 percent), andteachers from schools with low rates ofpoverty (74 percent) report that SEL isan important part of students’ in-schoolexperience. Furthermore, nearly everyteacher surveyed (97 percent) saythat SEL will benefit students from allA full 95 percent of teachersbelieve social and emotionalskills are teachable (including97 percent of preschool andelementary school teachers).A National Teacher Survey on How Social and Emotional Learning Can Empower Children and Transform Schools 15