I like TC Weber's work because he manages to so adeptly fuse looking at policy and policy maker shenanigans with the more on-the-ground view of how students and parents experience schools. There's much worth reading in his most recent post, but this is the line that really jumped out at me:
In Massachusetts, it was a serial edupreneur gadfly who got the SEL ball rolling and because he was a pal of the head honchos at DESE, it took on life. Chris Gabrielli is a reformster who comes to us courtesy of HGSE and was chair of higher ed under pro-privatization governor Charlie Baker. He was a failed candidate for Lt. Gov, but a successful hedge funder at NewSchools Venture Fund. His other non-profits (that pay 6 figure salaries to its staff) are National Center on Time and Learning - to expand the school day and year and Empowerment Zones - a kind of state takeover lite.
For the SEL "research" they had students take surveys:
"A growing number of schools are making authentic, sustained efforts to collect data on students' social-emotional skills. NewSchools Venture Fund's 'Invent' cohort—a network of innovative schools across the country—is leading an effort to expand the definition of student success and put students at the center of their learning experience. This cohort of schools has adopted a portfolio of survey-based measures to track the full range of knowledge, skills, and mindsets needed for success in college, career, and life."
"Last year, the Invent schools piloted surveys of social-emotional skills and school culture and climate that will serve as important complements to the academic measures they are already using. Students responded to questions on such competencies as self-management ('How often did you come to school prepared?') and social awareness ('How well did you get along with students who are different from you?'). The survey results will help Invent schools adapt instruction and modify school design to support students' social-emotional development more effectively."
I rather doubt there was any lasting effect, but the folks who staffed these programs did all make tidy salaries without ever setting foot in an actual classroom by themselves.
As I say above - I think there probably *was* a result: kids feeling anxious, judged, measured, and being encouraged to see every dip in mood or moment of absent-mindedness as some potential threat to their ultimate "success." And we wonder why so many of them are developing crippling anxiety.
The problem is the ethos that has overcome education, with (in my opinion) horribly damaging effects: the obsession with "data."
Once something is part of the curriculum, these days, you have to measure it, even if that measurement is pure baloney. Childhood is captured as a series of data points, usually through some daft questionnaire or random survey or dodgy grade, which then is turned into a bar graph or some other mathy prop to use in Improvement Theater. If one imagines one's personal life being managed like that, it's easy to see that it's subtly dehumanizing.
One of my students described how her 10 yo daughter gets a weekly "attitude" grade - not meant to measure bad behavior or rudeness, but intended to create a data account of her mood, her positivity etc. I mean, God almighty. Who doesn't have a quiet or grumpy week at ANY age, let alone at 10? And how Orwellian to have your mood constantly measured and found wanting. It's meant well, and of course any decent teacher takes note if your formerly cheery student falls silent and starts staring out of the window. But her daughter gets stressed now every Friday: has she pleased the adults? Has she smiled enough? What a horror show.
I agree that most efforts in schools are meaningless and a waste of time. Modeling and school climate come first. If you want to help your students, you can also use something like Jane Nelsen’s “Positive Discipline in the Classroom” to teach students how to resolve conflicts through discussion. Many of them do not know how to do this. I used this book myself when I was in the classroom, and my students were much more independent, bonded to each other, and tattling nearly ceased to exist.
In Massachusetts, it was a serial edupreneur gadfly who got the SEL ball rolling and because he was a pal of the head honchos at DESE, it took on life. Chris Gabrielli is a reformster who comes to us courtesy of HGSE and was chair of higher ed under pro-privatization governor Charlie Baker. He was a failed candidate for Lt. Gov, but a successful hedge funder at NewSchools Venture Fund. His other non-profits (that pay 6 figure salaries to its staff) are National Center on Time and Learning - to expand the school day and year and Empowerment Zones - a kind of state takeover lite.
For the SEL "research" they had students take surveys:
"A growing number of schools are making authentic, sustained efforts to collect data on students' social-emotional skills. NewSchools Venture Fund's 'Invent' cohort—a network of innovative schools across the country—is leading an effort to expand the definition of student success and put students at the center of their learning experience. This cohort of schools has adopted a portfolio of survey-based measures to track the full range of knowledge, skills, and mindsets needed for success in college, career, and life."
"Last year, the Invent schools piloted surveys of social-emotional skills and school culture and climate that will serve as important complements to the academic measures they are already using. Students responded to questions on such competencies as self-management ('How often did you come to school prepared?') and social awareness ('How well did you get along with students who are different from you?'). The survey results will help Invent schools adapt instruction and modify school design to support students' social-emotional development more effectively."
I rather doubt there was any lasting effect, but the folks who staffed these programs did all make tidy salaries without ever setting foot in an actual classroom by themselves.
As I say above - I think there probably *was* a result: kids feeling anxious, judged, measured, and being encouraged to see every dip in mood or moment of absent-mindedness as some potential threat to their ultimate "success." And we wonder why so many of them are developing crippling anxiety.
The problem is the ethos that has overcome education, with (in my opinion) horribly damaging effects: the obsession with "data."
Once something is part of the curriculum, these days, you have to measure it, even if that measurement is pure baloney. Childhood is captured as a series of data points, usually through some daft questionnaire or random survey or dodgy grade, which then is turned into a bar graph or some other mathy prop to use in Improvement Theater. If one imagines one's personal life being managed like that, it's easy to see that it's subtly dehumanizing.
One of my students described how her 10 yo daughter gets a weekly "attitude" grade - not meant to measure bad behavior or rudeness, but intended to create a data account of her mood, her positivity etc. I mean, God almighty. Who doesn't have a quiet or grumpy week at ANY age, let alone at 10? And how Orwellian to have your mood constantly measured and found wanting. It's meant well, and of course any decent teacher takes note if your formerly cheery student falls silent and starts staring out of the window. But her daughter gets stressed now every Friday: has she pleased the adults? Has she smiled enough? What a horror show.
As if teachers have time to spare for data collection...
Not to mention the sessions where we all contemplate a chart and pretend that it means something.
That!
I agree that most efforts in schools are meaningless and a waste of time. Modeling and school climate come first. If you want to help your students, you can also use something like Jane Nelsen’s “Positive Discipline in the Classroom” to teach students how to resolve conflicts through discussion. Many of them do not know how to do this. I used this book myself when I was in the classroom, and my students were much more independent, bonded to each other, and tattling nearly ceased to exist.