tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14707730.post124833272896708641..comments2024-02-24T19:49:45.687-05:00Comments on Schools Matter: Selling SEL (Social Emotional Learning)James Hornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04462754705431590571noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14707730.post-56644275836243921942016-08-13T16:40:55.394-04:002016-08-13T16:40:55.394-04:00The Middle School movement has suffered the most i...The Middle School movement has suffered the most in this return to a quantitative approach to education. In the private & elite public schools the idea that social-emotional learning would play a strong role in the early adolescent, ran counter to those school's culture for exclusivity, credentialing and bragging rights. As their test scores and other measurable were not under a microscope, they phased out much of the these goals and practices, instead making their schools mini high schools. The urban public schools were pressured into mimicking the self selective schools, with the never ending penchant for testing. The under performing rural schools have been left mostly on their own to try and fend for themselves. Even the ardent supporters of social emotional focused education still push their children into the college track, and thus prevent them from seeking out alternatives to the liberal arts domination found in virtually all public and private schools today. <br />Chris Doellerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14315475142017501313noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14707730.post-26975492555808328372016-08-10T01:36:07.401-04:002016-08-10T01:36:07.401-04:00Antwan Wilson, a Broadie Superintendent of the Oak...Antwan Wilson, a Broadie Superintendent of the Oakland Public Schools, meets with eight other California superintendents at least four times a year in Los Angeles as part of a privately organized group that calls itself California Office to Reform Education (CORE) with a published mission to reform California's education system. The word "Office" was included in the title when Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger help in organizing this group of California superintendents as the corporations directors. <br /><br />Unfortunately, the media refers to this private group's activities as "CORE districts' activities". The conotation attached to that label CORE districts is that this private group is representing the districts in which these CORE superintendents work. <br /><br />But, that is a misleading association as these CORE superintendents are working in an un-elected private organization and cannot represent their school districts unless directed by their publicly elected school boards. It is the school district's school boards that should be speaking for the district. <br /><br />Unfortunately, Arnie Duncan provide the CORE organization's request for a waiver from NCLB to the districts that the superintendents worked in; and most, but not all of the districts that employed with CORE superintendents accepted the waivers for their districts. Understand that most of the Districts receiving the waivers did not actually vote to accept the waiver before or after receiving the waivers. I know Oakland was one district that never even discussed the waiver at its school board meetings but shifted money from NCLB Title I tutoring programs to programs the District's administration wanted as replacement. The act of shifting money was a form of accepting the CORE waiver without having to take a direct public vote on the waiver. <br /><br />Now the CORE private group is lobbying in California for the legislature to back it in making SEL part of the State's evaluation of students.<br /> Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00231961860079645312noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14707730.post-74007702799905998552016-08-09T19:27:27.072-04:002016-08-09T19:27:27.072-04:00I taught SEL to elementary students for six months...I taught SEL to elementary students for six months. The goal of the program was to recommend non-violent alternatives to resolving the conflicts. We sat in Restorative Justice circles, viewed videos and hashed out ideas. I do not know that the kids learned much, but I got a glimpse into the stressors of their lives and why some of their fuses were so short. In a fifth grade class, every single child knew someone personally who had been killed by gun violence.<br /><br />Abigail ShureAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com