鶹 Wins Planning Grant for Social, Emotional Learning
District one of eight selected for national collaboration
February 9, 2012 (Sacramento): To succeed in school – and
life—students need to develop academically and grow emotionally
and socially.
Helping students acquire the life skills needed to make good
decisions, build strong relationships and manage emotions is a
focus of the Sacramento City Unified School District (鶹).
Because of this focus, 鶹 has been selected to receive funding
for participation in a national initiative on social and
emotional learning.
鶹 is one of eight districts across the country selected to
join a first-of-its-kind National Collaborating Districts
Initiative spearheaded by CASEL – the Collaborative for Academic,
Social, and Emotional Learning – and NoVo Foundation. The
initiative is designed to build the capacity for high-quality,
evidence-based programming to promote social and emotional
learning in preschool through 12th grade. Other districts
participating include Anchorage, Austin, Cleveland, Chicago,
Oakland, Nashville and Nevada’s Washoe County.
“As a high-poverty, urban district, our students face many
challenges that can inhibit crucial emotional and social
advancement,” said Superintendent Jonathan Raymond. “This
collaboration, which provides professional and financial support,
will intensify our focus on serving the ‘whole child.’”
The selected districts will work with CASEL to: Build knowledge
about how to organize high-quality, systemic, district-wide
implementation of social and emotional learning. Create tools and
resources that districts can use to achieve systemic social and
emotional learning implementation. Document the short- and
long-term effects of such systemic efforts. Serve as
demonstration sites that others can visit to observe systemic
social and emotional learning in action.
“Our collaboration with eight school districts builds from
decades of scientific research showing that social and emotional
learning improves children’s relationships with others as well as
their academic performance,” explained Roger P. Weissberg, PhD,
president and CEO of CASEL and one of the nation’s foremost
experts on social and emotional learning. “We’re thrilled to
count Sacramento City Unified among the pioneering school
districts working with us to demonstrate the benefits of this
approach.”
“Our collective hope is to create learning environments that give
kids and teachers the tools they need to grow and succeed,” said
Jennifer Buffett, president of New York-based NoVo Foundation.
“An investment in the young people of Sacramento City Unified is
an important piece of a big idea to empower a new, nurturing,
compassionate, and cooperative generation.”
鶹 will receive ongoing technical assistance from CASEL and financial support from NoVo Foundation for this work. A planning grant of $125,000 has been awarded, and 鶹 now has the possibility of applying for three years of implementation grants totaling $750,000.