Student Wellbeing

Topic

Social and Emotional Learning

Social and emotional learning occurs when teachers and school staff help students develop the interpersonal skills they need to succeed in school and work. This skill-building happens in the course of everyday instruction, when teachers pause to encourage students to pose a question in a more respectful tone, imagine how others feel, take a deep breath to calm themselves down, break a goal into manageable pieces and more. Social and emotional self-management is thought to set the stage for productive, cooperative learning.

June 5, 2019

There’s value but also limitations to students’ grading their own interpersonal skills, study finds

California districts should use insights from surveys of students' habits of mind but not rate schools by the results, a PACE research project concludes.

John Fensterwald

May 6, 2019

Oakland Unified committed to fixing fiscal problems, but state must also step up

As district recovers after strike, superintendent calls on state to provide more funding.

Kyla Johnson-Trammell

April 24, 2019

For principals, biggest task is creating a school culture without the threat of gun violence

In survey, principals say more time is spent addressing problems associated with the threat of gun violence than any other challenge.

John Rogers

April 3, 2019

California schools find success building student confidence and campus culture

School officials are increasingly focused on students’ social and emotional learning.

Julie Patel Liss

January 9, 2019

Gov. Newsom proposing to expand services for babies and toddlers

The budget proposal is expected to significantly expand paid family leave, home visits to help parents teach and care for their babies and screenings to identify delays early.

Zaidee Stavely

January 4, 2019

Restorative justice reduces suspensions in elementary grades but not middle school, study shows

Many educators say restorative justice has transformed school climates. Others say it is over-hyped. A new study by the RAND Corp. lends support to both sides.

David Washburn

November 28, 2018

Plans come into focus for California schools ravaged by wildfires

Officials have identified three elementary schools that will take Paradise Unified students displaced by the deadly Camp Fire and are close to securing a site for middle and high schoolers.

David Washburn And Diana Lambert

August 31, 2018

The price of punishment — new report shows students nationwide lost 11 million school days due to suspensions

The report, based on federal government data from 2015-16, also found that racial disparities in suspensions remain an acute problem. Nationwide, African-American students lost five times as many days as white students.

David Washburn

July 25, 2018

Improving California school environments focus of pilot program

UCLA and two county education departments are collaborating to train teachers and administrators throughout the state on alternatives to traditional discipline.

David Washburn

June 26, 2018

With California in the lead, LGBTQ history gets boost in school curriculum

California's FAIR Education Act is being emulated in Illinois and Massachusetts.

James Hilton Harrell

June 21, 2018

Discipline reform gets boost in California budget

Efforts to expand California's ban on suspending students for “willful defiance," now limited to K-3 grades, also still in play.

David Washburn

June 11, 2018

How rewarding positive behavior turned around our school

Breaking the chain of misbehavior and punishment by recognizing students for what they do right.

Chelsea Ramirez and Jacob Rosario

June 6, 2018

Gavin Newsom knows what it is like to struggle with reading

The likely future governor of California opens a window to the painful world of dyslexia experienced by millions of children and adults.

Louis Freedberg

May 16, 2018

The art of engagement: classroom management now matters more in teacher training

The current era of discipline reform in California is putting greater emphasis on an aspect of teaching that has long gotten the short shrift in teacher credentialing programs.

David Washburn

May 15, 2018

Resources often don't match rhetoric for restorative justice in California schools

While awareness of restorative justice is high among school officials statewide, budgets for programs remain tiny in most school districts.