3 Simple Steps to Embedding Social-Emotional Learning within the MTSS Framework

Let’s talk about Social Emotional Learning (SEL)! We actually cannot talk about it enough given current world events that are impacting the mental well-being of ourselves and our students. So fostering healthy SEL skills within our schools and school districts is more important than ever! 

 According to The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, better known as CASEL, “Social and emotional learning is the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.” In

In other words, it’s how we positively manage our emotions and interactions with internal and external circumstances. 

 With all that said, the question of how we can create an effective system for monitoring and supporting healthy social-emotional learning in our school environment remains active in all of our minds. 

 To begin to answer that question, let’s take a step back and brainstorm about all the current systems we have in place to support positive outcomes for our students. The Multi-Tiered Support Systems (MTSS) is one major system that comes to mind as one that many districts have adopted nationwide to support the Academic, Behavioral, and SEL needs of our students. 

 Now that many of us have these great systems in place, how do we effectively support the growing social-emotional needs of our students through a framework like MTSS? 

Here are 3 Steps to Fostering Healthy Social-Emotional Learning within the MTSS Framework: 

1. Clearly define SEL Skills:

Simply put, “We can’t teach what we don’t know”. Just like in reading and math, we all want our students to have acquired specific skills that will allow them to access the content at their grade levels. If we want our students to practice positive social-emotional learning we also have to clearly define what those skills are, what they look like, and how we assess them. 

a. CASEL’s five areas of SEL Competencies are a great foundational base for defining SEL at your schools. They are

• Self Awareness

• Self Management

• Social Awareness

• Relationship Skills

• Responsible Decision Making

  CASEL’s website shares great tools for defining each area of competency. 

2. Create Tools to Assess SEL Skills:

Now that you have defined the skills that students should possess for healthy social-emotional learning, we now have to assess those skills. Why assess? So that we can create numbers or scores for our students and quickly identify students in need of interventions and support. 

a. A simple way to create a benchmark for SEL skills would be to take a specific area, for example, Self Awareness, and come up with an observation tool or simple questions for the student, their teachers, and parents. Based on the amount of YES and NO’s, a score for Self Awareness is then created for that student. Those scores can then be used to assess social-emotional needs and define groupings for additional support.

3. Implement and Monitor Tiered SEL Groups:

If you’ve completed step 1 and 2, you now have a clear definition of the Social-Emotional Learning Skills that students currently possess, along with a score for each student. This is critical information for tiered groups. When using MTSS for academics, we group students based on their reading and math scores. Tier 1 is often higher scores who are on target, Tier 2 are our students who are falling behind due to skill gaps and Tier 3 are students exhibiting major challenges and skill deficits. Then we monitor their progress. That same process can be applied to SEL groups: 

a. We’ll jump right into an example of a Tier 3 student group since those are our students with the highest needs. A Tier 3 SEL student would fit the criteria of a student that has major deficits in all defined areas for social-emotional learning. This student will now receive support in all areas in the form of social groups for defined areas of need, activities, and even external support, depending on the severity of need.

b. Ongoing Assessments of this student will be done through observations, informal and formal assessments of SEL skills. The goal is always to help students make progress in their ability to exhibit positive social-emotional learning skills. 

So there you have it, 3 Simple Steps to implementing SEL within an MTSS Framework.

1. Clearly define SEL skills 

2. Create Tools to Assess SEL Skills 

3. Implement and Monitor Tiered SEL groups. 

The road to positive social-emotional learning is not always an easy one, especially when external factors that are out of our control are impacting how we learn and interact with each other. 

With that in mind, our commitment at LearnEd Potential to our students remains. That commitment is to ensure that we are doing everything in our power to create an environment and implement systems that positively support the academic, behavioral, and social-emotional success of all learners!

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