Implementation, Sustainability, and Scaling Up of Social-Emotional and Academic Innovations in Public Schools

Abstract

Many attempts at bringing successful educational programs and products “to scale” as part of school reform, particularly in urban districts, have been disappointing. Based on the experiences of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) and reviews of literature addressing implementation failures, observations about failures to “scale up” are presented. These include persistent structural features in educational settings that are too often unrecognized, the perpetuation of a narrow and decontextualized “programs and packages” perspective, poor management of time and other resources, and inadequate attention to characteristics of the adults who must carry out planned reforms. Several assumptions essential for success are identified, including the need to incorporate social and emotional learning as an integral part of academics and the ways in which diversity provides an ever-changing context for implementation. Concluding thoughts center around three points: the need to prepare professionals with the array of skills needed to lead efforts at scaling up school reform, the importance of an action-research perspective, and the need to better document the stories of educational innovation and scaling up efforts so that contextual details can enrich an understanding of what is required for success.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maurice J. Elias

Maurice J. Elias, Ph.D., is Professor, Psychology Department, Rutgers University, and Leadership Team Vice Chair of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning. His latest works include Building Learning Communities with Character: How to Integrate Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (ASCD, 2002), EQ + IQ = Best Leadership Practices for Caring and Successful Schools (Corwin Press, 2003), and the UNESCO publication, Academic and Social-Emotional Learning (2003) (http://www.ibe.unesco.org).

Joseph E. Zins

Joseph E. Zins, Ph.D., is Professor in the College of Education at the University of Cincinnati and a member of the Leadership Team of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning. He has over 150 scientific publications, and included among his 12 books are Building Student Success through Social and Emotional Learning (in press) and Promoting Social and Emotional Learning: Guidelines for Educators (1997). He is a Fellow of APA, former Editor of the Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation, and past Secretary of NASP.

Patricia A. Graczyk

Patricia Graczyk, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology and the Associate Director of Research for the Pediatric Stress and Anxiety Disorders Clinic at the Institute for Juvenile Research in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her research interests include school-based mental health, anxiety and mood disorders, and child and adolescent peer relationships. Dr. Graczyk earned her doctorate in school and clinical psychology at Northern Illinois University in 1998.

Roger P. Weissberg

Roger P. Weissberg, Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychology and Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is Executive Director of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), an organization committed to advancing the science and practice of social and emotional learning (www.casel.org). He has published 150 articles, chapters, and books on school-based prevention and positive youth development.