Higher Expectations: Promoting Social Emotional Learning and Academic Achievement in Your School (Social Emotional Learning, 3)

107 Pages·2001·1.11 MB·English

by  Raymond J. Pasi

The Series on Social Emotional Learning
Teachers College Press
in partnership with the Center for Social and Emotional Education and the
Collaborative to Advance Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL)
Jonathan Cohen, Series Editor
CONSULTINGEDITORS:
Maurice Elias, Norris M. Haynes, Roger Weissberg, and Joseph Zins
EDITORIALADVISORYBOARD:
J. Lawrence Aber, Diana Allensworth, Michael Ben-Avie, Robert Coles,
James P. Comer,Ann Lieberman, Pearl R. Kane, Catherine Lewis,
Karen Marschke-Tobier, John O’Neil, Nel Noddings,
Seymour B. Sarason, Thomas Sobol
Greater Expectations:
Promoting Social Emotional Learning and High Achievement in Your School
RAYMONDJ. PASI
Educating Minds and Hearts:
Social Emotional Learning and the Passage into Adolescence
JONATHANCOHEN,EDITOR
Caring Classrooms/Intelligent Schools:
The Social Emotional Education of Young Children
JONATHANCOHEN,EDITOR
Social emotional learning is now recognized as an essential aspect of children’s
education and a necessary feature of all successful school reform efforts. The
books in this series will present perspectives and exemplary programs that fos-
ter social and emotional learning for children and adolescents in our schools,
including interdisciplinary, developmental, curricular, and instructional contri-
butions. The three levels of service that constitute social emotional learning
programs will be critically presented: (1) curriculum-based programs directed
to all children to enhance social and emotional competencies, (2) programs and
perspectives intended for special needs children, and (3) programs and perspec-
tives that seek to promote the social and emotional awareness and skills of edu-
cators and other school personnel.

HIGHER
EXPECTATIONS
Promoting
Social Emotional Learning and
Academic Achievement in Your School
R J. P
AYMOND ASI
Foreword by Maurice Elias
Teachers College
Columbia University
New York and London
PublishedsimultaneouslybyTeachersCollegePress,1234AmsterdamAvenue,NewYork,
NY10027andbytheNationalAssociationofSecondarySchoolPrincipals,1904Associa-
tionDrive,Reston,VA20191
Copyright2001byTeachersCollege,ColumbiaUniversity
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
formorbyanymeans,electronicormechanical,includingphotocopy,oranyinformation
storageandretrievalsystem,withoutpermissionfromthepublisher.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Pasi,RaymondJ.
Higherexpectations:promotingsocialemotionallearningandacademicachievement
inyourschool/RaymondJ.Pasi.
p.cm.—(Theseriesonsocialemotionallearning)
Includesbibliographicalreferences(p. )andindex.
ISBN0-8077-4091-8(paper:alk.paper)
1.Affectiveeducation. 2.Sociallearning. 3.Emotionalintelligence.
I.Title. II.Series.
LB1073.P372001
370.15′3—dc21 2001035580
ISBN0-8077-4091-8(paper)
Printedonacid-freepaper
ManufacturedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is dedicated to my parents,
Irene and Raymond J. Pasi,
and to
The Marist Brothers of the Schools.
Throughout my life, they taught me,
by word and by example,
the importance of educating the mind and heart.

Contents
Foreword by Maurice Elias ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xv
1. Introduction: The Case for SEL 1
Some Examples: Beginnings 3
Strategies for Success 5
Some Benefits to Keep in Mind 8
2. Designing a Program: The Basic Principles 10
Getting Ready 10
Designing a Program 14
Starting at the End: Program Evaluation 17
3. Schools as Challenging, Caring Communities 19
School Leaders: Shaping the Environment 20
Laying the Groundwork 22
Building the Foundation for Caring 23
Role of the Principal 24
Solving Problems 25
Modeling Forgiveness 26
Encouraging Involvement 26
4. Getting Started 29
Getting Faculty Input 29
Overcoming Resistance 32
Getting Student Input 35
Attracting School Leadership 35
Attracting District Leadership 37
vii
viii Contents
Involving Parents 38
Anticipating Program Costs 38
Utilizing Resources 39
5. Schoolwide Activities: Initiatives That Work 40
Selected Activities 40
The Role of Administrators: Disciplinarians 46
The Role of Counselors: Flexible Resources 48
6. SEL Across the Curriculum 51
Grouping SEL Skills Thematically 53
Recognizing Opportunities for SEL Instruction 55
Selected Activities 58
Classroom Applications 62
7. Conclusion: It Can Be Done 77
Appendix: Selected Resources 81
References 83
Index 85
About the Author 89
Foreword
Ray Pasi has a vision of school as a caring, challenging, respectful, active
center of community learning. As an administrator, he has worked closely
withhiscolleaguestoenhanceandtransformtheschoolsinwhichtheywork.
He has taken a leadership role in turning them into social and emotionally
intelligent places where kids and adults want to be.
In Higher Expectations: Promoting Social Emotional Learning and Ac-
ademic Achievement in Your School, Pasi shows us that he is well able to
articulate the principles that have led him and his colleagues to success. This
is all too rare a skill. Success does not take place through magic. It occurs
after hard work, extensive planning, a high degree of focus, and an unshak-
able commitment to the social and emotional wellness of children. He tells
us what we most need to know.
When a school community decides to design and implement an ex-
plicit, school-wide program in social and emotional education, it is
assertingitsbeliefinabroaddefinitionofintelligenceandsuccess,and
its commitment to helping students develop their capacity to make
intelligent decisions and develop healthy interpersonal relationships.
How does a school proceed? First, identify and build on what you are
already doing that is a positive contributor to students’ social-emotional
growth. Second, recognize that effective social and emotional learning is in-
corporated into direct and indirect instruction throughout all areas of school
life. Third, know that the climate of each classroom and the school overall
must be characterized by caring and respect. This is true not only for social-
emotional development but also for academic learning that children internal-
ize and then put to use for good in their social world.
IwillnotenumerateallofRayPasi’s“RulesforSchools”fromChapter
2. But reading that chapter and those that follow will leave an indelible im-
pression. Here is an initiative supported by empirical data, blessed with nu-
merous, accessible examples of successful implementation, supported by a
growing organization, the Collaborative to Advance Social and Emotional
Learning (www.CASEL.org), and rooted in a deep sense of hopefulness, re-
spect, and caring. And Ray Pasi has the gift of being able to describe the
ix