Tuesday, May 24, 2022
The work of Wisconsin’s schools in developing and implementing social and emotional learning (SEL) and integrating it with career and workforce development was recently featured in a case study by the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL).
“Wisconsin’s journey is an exemplar for other states looking to do this work,” the report summary states. “While every state has its own context, Wisconsin’s emphasis on developing inter-agency and cross-sector collaboration, leveraging strong foundations of existing career and workforce development efforts, and supporting practical implementation at the district level are key elements of systemic integration of SEL.”
The summary goes on to say that Wisconsin’s success has been predicated “on the willingness of other other agency teams to integrate systems to accomplish the shared goal of serving the whole child,” and the state’s continued support of implementation.
“SEL is an important component for meeting the needs of every child,” State Superintendent Dr. Jill Underly said in the report. “What we know is that when we meet the needs of the whole child, from cradle through college, we are setting them up, as well as our communities, our workplaces, and our families, for future success.”
The Wisconsin case study is one of three describing the development and implementation of SEL integrated with career and workforce development efforts. The other two case studies feature Delaware and Kansas.