A webinar by Second Step, brought to you by Committee for Children.

Social-emotional and character development (SECD) competencies are as basic, foundational, and essential to academic achievement as reading competence. As schools begin addressing learning losses following COVID-19, a call to action is needed. SECD provides an opportunity to answer this call and to encourage schools to address SECD competencies as a necessary component of the multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) process. This will require a focus on supporting and actualizing students’ sense of positive purpose. When students have a positive purpose and a mindset of contribution, they are willing to learn and cooperate for social action. It is a primary responsibility of public schools to prepare students for citizenship in a democracy, college and career success, and for world-wide economic viability. We must prepare students for the tests of life, not a life of tests. This session will discuss how SECD can become the foundation for student learning and a much-needed element in the MTSS process.

Presenters: 

Maurice J. Elias, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology, Rutgers University
Director, Rutgers Social-Emotional and Character Development Lab

Donna Black, LSSP
President, SEL4TX
Licensed Specialist in School Psychology

Host: 

Jennifer Sanderlin
Education Partnerships Regional Manager, Committee for Children