The Bellevue School District is currently wrapping up a pilot program in which middle school students are not only learning about math, science and literature, but also about their own emotions and building relationship skills.
“This could be a game-changer for the whole community, in my opinion,” said Wendy Powell, one of the district’s Social Emotional Learning curriculum developers.
The pilot program aims to improve middle school students’ self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and responsible decision making using a combination of two programs — RULER and MindUp, from the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and the Hawn Foundation, respectively. It is funded by the Bellevue Schools Foundation.
Participating teachers choose eight lessons on anything from relaxing breathing to positive thinking from each program to integrate into their classrooms.
Studies have shown that this type of learning can help reduce anxiety, depression and aggression and improve students’ engagement in class and their test scores, Powell said.
Last year, 24 percent of Bellevue eighth graders reported experiencing depressive feelings, and 15 percent contemplated suicide.
Across the Eastside, more teenagers reported turning to alcohol and marijuana to cope with anxiety and data found a jump in the number of attempted suicides.
Initially, the foundation was only looking for 20 teachers district-wide to participate in the pilot program. However, roughly 60 teachers ended up volunteering.
There is already some social emotional curriculum in all levels of Bellevue schools in response to 2011 anti-bullying legislation, but there was room for growth, Powell said. Students in kindergarten through fifth grade already use the RULER curriculum as well as a program called Second Step, but the district took another look at the approach to older students after changing their initiatives in 2013.
“We had curriculum in sixth through eighth grade, but in hindsight, it could have been better. It was taught during social studies by an outside counselor once in a while, but this is something that can’t be a binder on the shelf that only comes out once a year,” Powell said.
Social emotional learning is an education approach that recognizes that students’ learning and behavior are just as impacted by their emotions and their control over them as the quality of instruction and discipline, according to the SEL for Washington advocacy group.
The concept of social emotional learning has been gaining traction not only in Bellevue, but across the country.
SEL for Washington was initially formed a few years ago by Bellevue residents Sarah Butcher and Jennifer Karls to explore integrating this type of approach regularly in schools after parents and educators began to speak in favor of it.
Initially, they questioned whether the interest in social emotional learning within the Bellevue School District was unique to Bellevue, but since the group’s formation, they’ve quickly compiled members statewide, Butcher said.
The opinions of students and teachers participating in the pilot program will be collected later this month, and the district’s adoption committee will make a decision on whether or not to expand the middle school pilot program on March 30.
