Mental Health
Social and Emotional Learning
Mental health/SEL Survey
Thesis and building upon the past
Past
From the disregard to the lack of awareness of mental health issues, there exists a disconnect between students, teachers, counselors, and the administration that hinders the current and prospective growth in various aspects of students' lives in the school environment.
New
The stigma surrounding mental health issues in schools is hindering the educational success of an alarming number of students across Illinois. Often, students, parents, and teachers don’t necessarily value the importance of mental health enough. Additionally, the highly competitive nature of schools nowadays makes it difficult to distinguish between social/emotional issues arising from the school environment, versus clinical mental illness.
definitions
“Mental illness refers to a wide range of mental health conditions — disorders that affect your mood, thinking and behavior.”- Mayo Clinic
“Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which children and adults understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.”- CASEL
Current Assessment and Paths Forward
1. Require social and emotional learning integration in schools across the state
2. Ensure young people are part of the decision-making process
3. Strengthen SEL training for teachers
- Original ILGA 100th General Assembly’s HB4657 bill, but was amended later to remove the requirement
“Provides that, beginning with the 2019-2020 school year, every public elementary school and high school shall include in its curriculum a unit of instruction studying emotional intelligence. Requires this unit of instruction to include teaching how to recognize, direct, and positively express emotions.”
Research Findings
The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) "Respected" Findings
Social-emotional learning (SEL) is a big missing piece in many students' education. A lack of social and emotional skills development leaves students unprepared for life after high school. SEL improves relationships, reduces bullying, prepares for postsecondary education, work, and life. Students feel more respected and safer, and do better academically. They are also more likely to give back to their communities. Schools that emphasize SEL are appealing to students across all backgrounds, regardless of race, ethnicity, and income.
Fewer than half of all students surveyed by CASEL believe their high schools are doing a good job of helping them develop SEL skills.
Hispanic students, students with lower grades, and lower income students report feeling less physically safe in school. Students with lower grades feel less comfortable learning and participating, and are more likely to have experienced bullying. African-American students report social and relational issues at higher rates, but they feel more motivated and excited about school than their white and Hispanic peers.
In each of the four social and emotional categories of growth mindset, self-efficacy, self-management, and social awareness, students of color and lower socioeconomic backgrounds had more negative perspectives. (FutureEd from Georgetown University)
Cost-Benefit Analysis
"On average, for every dollar invested equally across the six SEL interventions, there is a return of eleven dollars, a substantial economic return." (Center for Benefit-Cost Studies in Education Teachers College, Columbia University)
