In 2004, Illinois became the first state to require schools to teach social-emotional skills and to create curricular standards and benchmarks. Shortly after, the Chicago Public Schools adopted a policy that committed the district to train all school personnel in the area, and develop age-appropriate programs to help students manage their emotions, set goals and build better relationships with peers and teachers.
Bringing this goal to life isn’t easy in CPS, where social-emotional learning, or SEL, has waxed and waned in schools depending on leaders’ commitment to the idea and whether money is available for training. However, the new requirements have slowly but steadily pushed CPS toward a more systematic approach. In 2008, a group of schools with track records of commitment to SEL began implementing evidence-based SEL programs, including Hay Elementary in Austin and Pilsen’s Spry Elementary...