To Choose the Right SEL Program, Ask the Right Questions

When schools opened in fall 2024, they faced an impending fiscal challenge as Covid relief dollars were phased out. The urgency to prove the effectiveness of every dollar spent has never been greater, and educational leaders are tasked with making strategic decisions that ensure both immediate and long-term success for their students. One such decision is choosing the right social and emotional learning (SEL) program, a choice that can significantly impact student outcomes and community well-being. So, how do you choose the right SEL program?

With hundreds of programs to choose from, this decision can be overwhelming for schools and districts. As a senior researcher at the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), I recommend narrowing your options by asking an even better question: “How do I choose the right SEL program for my school and community?” 

This question provides a solid starting point on the path to making the best choice for all stakeholders: students, families, educators, and the community as a whole. There is no universal “right SEL program,” but the right SEL program for you is the program that best aligns with the needs and priorities of your school and school community.

Determine Your Needs and Priorities

Start by listening to the people who will be directly impacted by this decision: school or district staff, students, their families, and your community partners. These stakeholders have deep experience and wisdom to share, and engaging them in this process fosters trust and buy-in. 

The first step that school leaders can take is to create a program selection team with representatives from each of these groups. Start by grounding in a common definition of SEL—for example, “SEL is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.” Then, ask questions like these:

• What needs do we see in our school, district, or community?
• What skills do we want to develop in our young people? 
• What outcomes are we hoping to achieve?

• For students and families: What would an SEL program need to include so that it’s able to meet your needs (e.g., cultural relevance and responsiveness, materials in a particular language)? 
• For school staff: What kind of program or approach makes sense based on your needs (e.g., one that is lesson-based, integrated with academic content, teacher practices, organizational strategies)? What training and support will you need?
• For community members: What skills and outcomes do you hope to foster in future employees and community leaders?

Consider school priorities and district goals that you want your SEL program to align with. For example, does your district have a portrait of a graduate that outlines specific goals for students? Does your school have a vision? Initiatives and priorities like parent engagement or student voice? SEL can support these goals and many more.

Asking these questions can also open lines of conversation about potential resistance to SEL programs. In a recent report, we share principal-reported challenges in implementing SEL, the most prevalent being teachers’ not having enough time. Bringing stakeholders’ questions or concerns to the surface can guide schools in practical elements to prioritize in programming. For example, a school may choose a program that emphasizes integration into academic content areas as a way to minimize demands on teacher time. 

CASEL’s free Program Guide, updated this year, includes a filter for “Program Approach” (which includes “Integration of SEL and Academics”) and “Implementation Support Offerings,” each of which can help schools find a program that aligns with their infrastructure needs. Using the Program Guide’s filters is an easy way to generate a smaller, more individualized list of program options.

Conversations with stakeholders may also provide an opportunity to identify potential misunderstandings about SEL programming and to clarify that SEL is about students developing the skills to communicate their own ideas, listen respectfully to a variety of different perspectives, and make responsible decisions after analyzing data and facts.

SEL programming supports outcomes that people across the political spectrum agree on: helping young people to develop skills and have opportunities to succeed in college and career, contribute positively to their schools and communities, have healthy relationships, and avoid risky behaviors (e.g., drug use, violence, bullying, and dropping out). Open, two-way communication with stakeholders from the start can help you address questions and concerns, clarify misunderstandings, and develop criteria that meet the unique strengths, needs, and priorities of your community.

For example, in a CASEL research-practice partnership project, a school leadership team engaged with a high school parent group learning about social and emotional learning and the SEL initiatives the high school was developing. These parents attended 10 SEL meetings to illuminate the ways that caregivers might be actively engaged in systemic SEL. Early results from the pilot study indicated that caregivers found the discussion series informative and empowering, with several caregivers seeking to use their new SEL insights to fill positions on school-based SEL parent advisory committees.

CASEL’s Guide to Schoolwide SEL includes a resource to develop a shared vision. This tool outlines steps for assembling and integrating perspectives from stakeholders. From this shared vision, I recommend identifying the must-haves for your context, such as programming available for high school students or programming available in Spanish. Additionally, it is helpful to identify target outcomes that are most important for your students—for example, addressing school climate or problem behaviors. Having a list of concrete elements that are consistent with your vision will guide your search to find the right program.

Find an Aligned, Evidence-Based Program

You are now prepared to review program options with a narrower—and less overwhelming—focus. Look for an evidence-based SEL program that aligns with the needs and priorities you’ve outlined with your stakeholders, school, and district. 

Evidence-based programs have demonstrated positive outcomes through rigorous research. Program approach and research design may vary, but rigorous research studies have several characteristics in common: sound design that includes a comparison group, high-quality data analysis, expert review of the results, and positive effects for students. When a program is evidence-based, you can feel confident that it has shown positive effects.

Still, there is one more question you should ask: “Effective for whom?” Many groups of participants in research do not have demographic characteristics that are reflective of all communities. When reviewing the evidence behind a program, consider if the schools or students in the study share meaningful characteristics with your student population. The closer the similarity to your population and context, the more likely you are to achieve similar positive results.

CASEL’s Program Guide allows you to filter evidence-based SEL programs by grade level, school characteristics, and student characteristics, again making it easier to find the ones that best fit the needs of your school community. 

To ensure that the program you choose supports the priorities and criteria you identified, you can also filter to see whether the program has demonstrated positive outcomes in areas like improved academic performance, reduced problem behaviors, and improved school climate. For example, academic recovery has emerged as a major priority for schools and districts following the pandemic. Using our filter tools, a school prioritizing academic recovery could more deeply consider the 30 programs that have positive academic outcomes.

Practical tools, like CASEL’s step-by-step resources, can offer a road map for leaders to make SEL program decisions that align with their unique needs and goals. Leaders can form a cross-stakeholder team to identify goals, prioritize program components, and review programs. Whatever tools you use in your search for the right SEL program, be sure to ask the right questions:

• What are the priorities of your school and community? 
• What evidence-based programs target these priorities and show positive outcomes in areas that are most important for your students? 
• Has the program demonstrated these positive outcomes with a population and context similar to your own? 

By asking the right questions, you’ll find the right SEL program: one that meets the needs and hopes of your students in your community.