Selecting Curricula

Vetting Team. Districts will want a process to vet potential curricula to ensure a good match with your aims and needs for developing and supporting social and emotional competencies among staff and students. Ensure good representation at a minimum from grade level teachers, social work and counseling, and administration for vetting potential curricula. A more robust team may include community partners, parent representatives, and even student representatives. 

Viewpoints and Expertise. These different viewpoints will help the team think through contextual and implementation issues from several lenses: developmental, common needs and challenges, mental health and trauma-informed factors, community factors, as well as logistics and budgeting.

Stakeholders. Keep in mind this team will represent a range of stakeholders, but they will also actively engage your stakeholders to involve them in the process by seeking their input and feedback as well. Good outcomes are more likely when the final selection is appealing to a majority of staff, students and parents. 

Aspiration. Consider aspirational aims for social and emotional competencies all students and staff need to be successful in and beyond school. Social Emotional Learning is an academic content area with standards. Beyond this, districts may have core values and / or aspirational aims about what a successful graduate looks like, for example. 

Risk. Also, be sure to consider your school climate data, as well as any risk screening, attendance, discipline data, and other relevant community data as part of this process. Be able to disaggregate data to consider equity issues that may need to be considered as part of the process. This may require focus groups to understand more fully any disparities and ensure curricula reflect and are engaging for all students. 

Keep in mind that the community mental health center, police department, and juvenile justice authority are agencies cited in legislation through Kansas Senate Bill 367 (SB367) as intervention partners. Leaders from these agencies may be able to provide data about needs and challenges to assist with selection decisions.

Systems. Finally, have a way to consider systems level issues such as available resources, existing practices and professional development needs in relation to the potential curricula. Schools may wish to conduct or refer to an initiative inventory to consider already available resources and practices along with their impact, or lack thereof.

Criteria. These factors may become important criteria to consider as part of the selection process.

Brainstorm. It may be useful initially to create a list of evidence-based potential curricula and programs that will enable you to meet Kansas SECD Standards, district and school aspirations, and potentially address key needs proactively. Resources, such as the CASEL validated program guide linked below, often include grids that show key features at a glace for a long list of validated SEL curricula and programs. This may be a quick and easy way to initially "brainstorm" a list of contenders.

Criteria Review. Your team may wish to more systematically go through the initial list to narrow down to a smaller number of contenders that actively meet all the criteria the district is looking for in a SEL approach. These contenders will be the curricula and programs the vetting team will more deeply research to present and obtain feedback from stakeholders.

Research Synopsis & Narrowed List. For the contenders that meet your district criteria, vetting team members will gather more in-depth information and have a process for coming back to share out with the vetting team strengths and challenges, as well as match with district criteria. The guides linked above often contain full reviews that can be used for this purpose. Further, team members / districts may wish to speak to districts who are implementing the potential curriculum to seek information about their experience. The vetting team may wish to narrow the list to an acceptable number of curricula or programs that can be piloted.

Feedback and Input. The vetting team will want to share out the research and rationale for the final slate of SEL potentials and seek stakeholder feedback. Feedback may include which curricula or programs are most appealing, and input regarding ideas for piloting materials and providing feedback for final selection process prior to purchase.

Stakeholder Engagement. Depending on the level of familiarity with SEL, districts may wish to provide high level overviews of SEL, the research, and impact; Kansas standards and goals; local input, aspirations and needs; the vetting and selection process; as well as support and professional development that will accompany the district's SEL effort. 

Feel free to use or adapt any of the following resources.

RESOURCES: Videos & Powerpoints to Orient Stakeholders

Additional Questions and Resources:

How does SEL Relate to Civic Learning?

How does SEL Relate to Workforce Preparation?

How does SEL Relate to Mental Health?

How does SEL Relate to Equity?

Pilot Process. Using input and ideas from staff, the vetting team will want to clearly outline the pilot process and go over the plan with staff. Systematically gather data and feedback across the pilot process to evaluate student and staff response to the curriculum or program. 

Some curricula provide formative and summative assessments that will help schools discern if students are learning and using the skills and competencies. These may be in the form of tests, surveys, or observation forms.

Also available are assessment systems specifically designed to assess strength-based skills and competencies. Examples include:

• SELweb - offers Direct Skill Assessment in which students respond to simulated situations 

• Aperture or Panorama - Provide knowledge assessments and student / teacher surveys

• Kansans Can Competency Framework - Provides student surveys

For more information and links, visit our Measuring SEG page

When the decision has been reached about your Social Emotional Curriculum Selection, your district will want to enact whatever policy or adoption process is needed to make your purchase, including for professional development for high quality implementation.

Your DLT, BLTs and CTs will want to engage in feedback loops for planning the launch of your SEL curricula. Consider the Essential Elements below, including having a plan for teaching school-wide with fidelity. Consider what fidelity tools the curriculum may offer and whether any items need to be added to your Walk Through Tool or other processes your district may be using to ensure high quality instruction.

Adopted curricula should be evidence based. The resources above allow you to check and see whether the curriculum you are considering is evidence based, meaning it has gone through a rigorous randomized control trial that determined the program results in specific outcomes, such as skill attainment, improved climate and/or academic achievement, or other valued outcomes.

"Research-based" curricula have not gone through this rigorous process. 

Schools investing time, talent, and dollars in social emotional learning will want to ensure this investment reaps the intended outcomes. An evidence-based curriculum implemented with fidelity is designed to do so. 

Schools will want to cross-walk the selected evidence-based curriculum with the Kansas Social Emotional and Chararcter Development academic standards (or the KELS for preschool). Many curricula are robust enough to meet these, but some may need to  be supplemented to reach all standards.

As you review the standards, you will notice it is important to keep SEL developmental, while also attending to vertical alignment.

Kansas SECD Standards

Kansas Early Learning Standards

The plan should address the following:

–Embedded in schedule with a dedicated time

–Instructional practices are identified and used

–Common language is used throughout the day and building

–All teachers are involved with teaching the curriculum; not just the counselor

–Professional development and fidelity tools are utilized