SEL draws questions for state school board

Ohio’s plans to treat social and emotional learning as a key part of education — equal to reading, writing and math — is drawing opposition from residents who have caught the ear of some state school board members.

Debate is likely to flare up at the state board’s meeting Tuesday, as it plans to vote on statewide standards for social and emotional learning (SEL), which centers on helping students manage emotions and interactions with others, even in challenging situations.

For many members of the board and for educators statewide, SEL is a useful way to help students succeed in life in ways that traditional subjects don’t cover. For residents like Melanie Hunt of Delaware, it’s “the newest blanket overreach in public education.”

“It is not the function of the schools to support students’ emotional needs,” Hunt told the board last month. “That is the express function of the family. Schools are not a proxy for the family.”

Social-emotional learning is a growing focus for schools in Ohio and nationwide. The Cleveland schools have been increasing social-emotional teaching since a 2007 school shooting by a student. The district was visited in 2017 by a national panel looking at how such programs were working nationally.

Tim Shriver, best-known as the Kennedy-family member who runs the Special Olympics, also heads a partnership of 10 large districts around the country, including Cleveland, known as the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL).

Shriver recently told reporters at an education conference that evidence shows that learning can improve if schools can teach students self-management, self-awareness, relationship skills, decision-making skills and social awareness.

“Teaching the whole child, teaching the head and the heart, teaching information and inspiration, has great promise for the future,” he said.

The state board agreed last year, making social-emotional learning skills one of four main focus areas in its strategic plan for schools statewide. The others were: Foundational Knowledge and Skills, like English math and technology; Well-Rounded Content, like social studies, science, languages and the arts; and Leadership and Reasoning, like problem-solving, design thinking, creativity and information analytics.

That plan had near-unanimous support from the board then, drawing opposition only from board member Sarah Fowler, who represents Geauga and Ashtabula counties, along with parts of Lake and Summit counties. Fowler objected to these goals stepping into the role of parents.

But members on the 19-person board have changed since last year, and new board members Hill and John Hagan of Alliance have joined Fowler in opposition of prioritizing SEL.

Hagan said at the board’s May meeting that he is bothered by social-emotional learning being equal to the other areas, largely because he sees few clear definitions of the goals of the lessons.

Hill and board member Lisa Woods of Medina also have concerns about how the state will measure progress in these goals and test students on their social and emotional skills.

Hill has been mailing postcards created by Dr. Karen Effrem, founder of Florida-based Education Liberty Watch and a former Common Core opponent, questioning what the state will measure and who will have access to the data. Effrem has also raised issues online about SEL work in Ohio and other states, while co-authoring a white paper for the Massachusetts-based Pioneer Institute, which also opposed the Common Core, calling SEL “the New-Age nanny state.”

“Who will do the measuring?” one postcard reads. “Does the student benefit when data is collected about their values, feelings, beliefs, attitudes and behavior?”

Hill also sought a resolution last month pledging that the state “will not develop, assess, require, collect information from local districts, teachers or students in the use of SEL.”

The amendment was voted down. State Superintendent Paolo DeMaria recognized that some parts of the strategic plan may suggest the state would measure aspects of SEL, but those would be altered by this month’s meeting.

“That was not the intent,” DeMaria said. “It’s a small number of references that beg for some clarity.”

Board member Nick Owens of Georgetown said that the board never had any plans to test or measure students in this area.

Throughout debate over the strategic plan, DeMaria and board members repeatedly noted that there are no reliable or objective ways to test social-emotional gains available now. On multiple occasions, members said they wanted to include social-emotional goals even if they could not be measured.

“It’s all a red herring that we’re going to test on this,” Owens said.