Social and Emotional Learning

The SEL Challenge Technical Report has Launched!

We are pleased to announce the launch of the SEL Challenge Technical Report!

The SEL Challenge was designed in pursuit of two ambitious goals: to identify promising practices for building SEL skills with vulnerable adolescents, and to develop technical supports for use of these SEL practices at scale in of out-of-school time (OST) settings. The SEL Challenge Technical Report highlights the methodology and findings of the two year study that focused on six different domains including emotion management, empathy, teamwork, responsibility, problem solving and initiative.

The products of the Challenge – standards for SEL practice and the suite of SEL performance measures – are designed to help programs focus deeply on SEL practice, assess their strengths, and improve the quality and effectiveness of their services using a lower stakes continuous improvement approach. We hope that local policy makers and funders will use the Challenge as a template for identifying the exemplary SEL services already available in their communities and make sure that they are adequately recognized, resourced, and replicated.

The promising practices are featured in a Field Guide, Preparing Youth to Thrive: Promising Practices for Social Emotional Learning. The Technical Report, Preparing Youth to Thrive: Methodology and Findings from the SEL Challenge, describes how the partnership did the work of the Challenge and what we learned as a result.