Director's Desk

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and Not-So-Random Acts of Kindness

-Meria J. Carstarphen

People often say that our public schools try to do too much; that schools should not be responsible and accountable for “all of society's problems.” However, the reality is that schools do not get to choose which issues they get to address and which are someone else’s responsibility. When our children come to school, regardless of what is happening outside, they must know as soon as they walk through our schoolhouse doors that they are valued and respected, that they belong, and that they are loved.

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Numbers That Matter:

Test Bias and Anxiety: What Does the Research Tell Us?

-Bill Caritj, Staff Writer

Recent estimates have suggested that between 15% and 22% of students exhibit high levels of “test anxiety” (Putwain & Daly, 2014; Thomas et al., 2017), and students with disabilities, women, and minority students reported higher rates of test anxiety (Putwain, 2014; Sena, Lowe, & Lee, 2007; Zeidner, 1990). As with test bias, a number of studies have examined this issue and possible solutions. As with test bias, a number of studies have examined this issue and possible solutions.

SEL Beyond the Classroom: Culture, Identity, and Healing in Education

-Bryant O. Best, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Urban Educational Leadership

Socioemotional Learning and Psychological Wellbeing, NCEED

Morgan State University.

Personalized learning. Project-based learning. Deeper learning. What do these words mean? I thought to myself as I nodded my head in my onboarding meeting, silently praying that my new supervisor wouldn’t suddenly realize she had made a mistake in hiring me.