Dear Parent(s)/Guardian(s),
Now more than ever we understand the important roles
social and emotional skills play in each child’s success in
school, the community, and eventually in higher education
and the workplace. Schools have traditionally focused on
providing skills and content in relation to areas of study,
but really never focused on teaching children the skills they
need to be successful learners. Skills such as self-awareness,
being empathetic, demonstrating self-control, persisting at
challenging tasks, making good decisions, and working well
in groups are all necessary to become successful students
and adults. The process by which students learn these and
other similar skills is called social and emotional learning.
The research indicates that school districts with strong social
emotional learning programs experience an 11-17% increase in
student achievement across all grades. To support our students
in developing essential social and emotional skills that will
help them become successful and responsible adults, we have
implemented a social and emotional learning program entitled
Second Step in grades K-8 this year.
The Second Step curriculum, which also contains bullying
prevention units, is being delivered to every student K-8 once
a week in our schools. As part of this program, our teachers
will be using a tool called the Devereux Student Strengths
Assessment (Mini), or DESSA, which was developed by the
Devereux Center for Resilient Children. This tool asks teachers
to rate how often a student has demonstrated specific social
and emotional skills.