Why School Culture Is Crucial to Social and Emotional Learning

By Kathleen Porter-Magee May 2020

Key Points

• In a few short years, advocates on all sides of the reform debate seem to have coalesced around the idea that social and emotional learning (SEL) is crucial to driving long-term, life-changing outcomes for students. • What seems to be missing from many of these reports and calls to action is a consideration of how crucial school culture is to SEL’s success. • To best develop the “whole child,” SEL must be powered by a clearly articulated school mission, vision, and purpose. • Anything else—such as programmatic quick fixes or metrics-driven nudges—risks being yet another duct tape school reform solution that falls apart when put to the test.

There is an episode of the TV series Seinfeld in which A quick read of the tea leaves of education reform Kramer, Jerry Seinfeld’s eccentric neighbor, hires suggests that social and emotional learning (SEL) an unpaid intern to work at his fictional company, is on track to become the next duct tape solution Kramerica Industries. Kramerica is focused on, to America’s education problems. It has emerged among other things, building an “oil bladder” to from a topic on the sidelines—driven largely at the prevent maritime oil spills. The theory is that, if oil community level, in response to the needs and tankers lined their oil tanks with large rubber balls, challenges different schools and students face—to the rubber balls would remain intact in the event center stage with remarkable speed. of a tanker crash, thus saving the ocean from devas- In a few short years, advocates on all sides of the tating oil spills. reform debate seem to have coalesced around the It’s a ridiculous idea, and in the end, when Kramer idea that focusing on SEL is crucial to driving long- tests his theory and it fails, he simply turns to his term, life-changing outcomes for students. Reports, next ill-thought-out scheme, saying: “Well, that programs, and general calls to action have been didn’t work. Hey, how about this. . . .”1 launched on both coasts and everywhere in between. We like to think that we education reformers With the Aspen Institute’s “A Nation at Hope,” are far more knowledgeable about teaching and NewSchools’ “Expanding the Definition of Student learning than Kramer is about maritime engineering, Success,” and just about every large urban school but too many of us still fall victim to the Kramerica district in between, everyone seems to be grappling challenge. That is, to demonstrate progress or with how to ensure our schools look beyond test achieve quick results, we look to “duct tape” pro- scores and focus their attention on developing the grammatic solutions atop far deeper and more vexing “whole child.”2 challenges. And if and when they don’t work, we What seems to be missing from many of these abandon ship and move on to the next “innovation.” reports and calls to action is a consideration of

AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE 1 how crucial school culture is to SEL’s success. To I stood out as a great student. Classwork, best develop the whole child, SEL must be powered homework and exams were all similar, as if by a clearly articulated school mission, vision, and someone were just cutting and pasting the purpose. Anything else—such as programmatic questions in a different order. quick fixes or metrics-driven nudges—risks being This approach fell apart in the demanding academic yet another duct tape school reform solution that environment of a Georgetown University classroom.5 falls apart when put to the test. Education reformers have, at least in some of the highest-performing charter networks, solved the Why Test Scores Aren’t Enough college “access” problem by providing a structured environment full of support systems. Yet, measured In 2016, an Atlantic article boldly proclaimed that “social by college completion rates or the long-term effects and emotional learning is key to college success.” on their life and careers, the reality of these charter In the piece, education reporter Emmanuel Fenton schools is falling short of the promises made to stu- explained, “Educators and academics across the coun- dents and their families. Before building an education try have come to agree that content knowledge isn’t reform infrastructure that covers people from cradle 3 enough to prepare students for life after high school.” to grave, perhaps it is time to ask if there is a deeper Of course, it’s easy to understand how reformers philosophical problem in the way many of these K–12 came to place such a high value on test scores as schools are organized that is driving these challenges. the ultimate yardstick of student success: They are That’s where SEL comes in. simple to measure, are important indicators of school effectiveness, and provide a common benchmark we can generally agree on and track. Yet, even top-performing charter schools that The stubborn truth is that you cannot have embraced transparency for student achievement address students’ social and emo- results have been forced to grapple with the reality that test scores aren’t the only thing that matters. tional needs without making tough, This is something that the KIPP Foundation values-driven decisions about what addressed head-on in its 2011 report The Promise of College Completion. The report openly—and to prioritize and what to teach. bravely—acknowledged that, while the network’s state test results were strong, its college graduation Unfortunately, while there may be wide consensus rate fell “far short” of the network’s goal for its that we need to move beyond test scores, there is graduates. “We aspire for 75 percent of our students little consensus about what that actually means. to earn four-year degrees,” the network leaders The stubborn truth is that you cannot address stu- explained. And the 33 percent who had, so far, dents’ social and emotional needs without making earned college degrees didn’t go nearly far enough tough, values-driven decisions about what to pri- 4 to close the college completion gap. oritize and what to teach. And, unfortunately, in an The findings in the KIPP report, in many ways, age of increasing individualism and relativism, echoed the first-person narratives of charter grad- teaching specific values has become a dangerous uates who have described the struggles they face third rail that educators avoid as much as possible. when they go to college. As one example, in a 2012 That’s undoubtedly part of the reason why, in Washington Post article, former Cesar Chavez Charter public schools, discussions about SEL too often School graduate Darryl Robinson explained the devolve into platitudes about grit, self-regulation, challenges he faced in his first year at Georgetown growth mindset, and more. Of course, there’s University. While in high school, Robinson nothing inherently wrong with teaching these maintained good grades simply by listening skills. But if your goal is developing habits and to my teachers and giving them what they character that help students internalize these skills wanted to hear: themselves. I could go to class, for life, you cannot merely duct tape prepackaged pay attention, and as long as I was respectful, lessons onto a school and expect the results to endure.

AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE 2 And that’s because students don’t learn values the or programmatic requirements. Unfortunately, same way they learn math. Rather, their character given the importance of aligning SEL programs and and moral compass are formed in a culture in practices to the underlying culture and to the values which the values that are taught match the values and beliefs of the adults in the building, metrics- that are exemplified by parents and teachers and driven nudges or programmatic quick fixes will likely expected of students. be insufficient to drive long-term changes for students. That’s because the deep work of instilling in stu- Why School Culture Is Essential to SEL’s dents the values and habits of good citizenship and Success virtue is a function of a school’s culture—something that Robert Pondiscio observed when he spent a The fundamental challenge with SEL is we cannot year embedded in one Success Academy Bronx form student character or teach important values charter school. In his book, How the Other Half through didactic instruction or programs alone. Learns: Equality, Excellence, and the Battle over School That’s because shaping student character requires Choice, Pondiscio observed: more than simply telling students what to do; it requires modeling for them what that looks like in I walked into Success Academy expecting to report and write a book about curriculum action. In other words, a “do as I say, not as I do” and instruction. I surprised myself by writing approach to SEL simply does not work in the long term. mostly about school culture, and the discern- Of course, this isn’t surprising when you consider ible effect on children when every adult in parenting as a guide to influencing SEL outcomes. their lives—including parents—is pulling Both research and practice suggest that while children in the same direction.7 may listen to what you say to them and comply with your directives in the short term, in the long run, Said more simply: While academic gains can be they are far more likely to model their own behavior realized through direct instruction, educating the after what they see modeled by the adults in their whole child—including forming character and cul- lives. As one example, a 2008 study by Healthy Psy- tivating the habits of virtue—requires a strong culture. chology, a journal published by the American Psy- And that culture must be grounded in a clearly defined chological Association, looked at the different set of beliefs and values. ways parent teaching and parent modeling affected That also means that the converse is equally children’s behavior. The study found, unsurprisingly, true: In a school where culture is not grounded in that “how parents teach their children influences a clear purpose or a clearly shared set of values and how their child behaves currently, but how the beliefs, the formation of student character (and even child sees the parent behaving affects how the child student achievement) will be uneven. Outcomes will intends to behave when he or she is an adult.”6 be incidental rather than intentional. The same is also true of school culture and SEL outcomes. Expecting students to self-regulate Why Effective School Cultures Require while seeing teachers get frustrated and angry will Agreement on Values just teach students that children should self-regulate and that emotional outbursts are the exclusive In his book The Death of Character: Moral Education province of adults. Or, children may follow school in an Age Without Good or Evil, James Davison Hunter rules that demand integrity of students, but if the declares that character is dead. Yet, he argues that its adults in the building act without integrity, the stu- death coincides with a push to “renew values”—that is, dents will be far more likely to leave the lessons of it “is especially loud, persistent, [and] universal.”8 integrity behind after they graduate. The groundswell of support for SEL represents exactly For policymakers, then, the question of how to the push that Hunter describes. affect SEL outcomes at scale is complicated. Typi- Here’s the problem, according to Hunter: Without cally, policymakers or state and district leaders the objective foundation of character education, seeking to drive school-site change rely on one of “moral” education—which is really just another two different policies: either metrics-driven nudges term for the idea of SEL—is reduced to merely “terms and phrases . . . [that] are political slogans

AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE 3 more than they are creeds, a partisan rallying cry And so, calls like those found in the Aspen report rather than a set of convictions.”9 to “find common ground,” or other attempts to Of course, the challenge is that grounding SEL boil SEL down to generalized lists of SEL indicators in a clearly defined set of “creeds” is polarizing. It such as respect, honesty, responsibility, and self- requires drawing a line in the sand and defining, in management, are meaningless unless programs to clear terms, both that right and wrong exists and improve SEL actively give the indicators meaning. that certain things are, objectively, wrong. And then Doing the hard work of giving values meaning is it requires helping students develop the fortitude essential to SEL effectiveness. to do what’s right, even when it’s hard—whether that means persisting on a difficult task when Two Ways Not to Inspire Lasting SEL you’d rather give up, delaying gratification (however Change defined), or putting others’ needs ahead of your own. But today, as society moves toward ever more Despite the importance of grounding SEL shifts relativism, we seek to dull the edges of our moral more explicitly in school culture, most approaches conversations—to acquiesce the idea of objective to SEL try to either inspire change through metrics- truth to the more socially acceptable idea of mere driven nudges or force change through explicit beliefs. The challenge is that beliefs that are grounded programmatic shifts. in preferences rather than an understanding that This isn’t surprising because these are the levers objective truth exists are a weak foundation for that state policymakers, advocates, and district strong character. leaders have to drive change. Unless you are actively Or, as Hunter explains, “Values are truths that running a school, it is difficult to lead a school-site have been denied their commanding character.” culture shift. But if a culture shift is what’s necessary Even “the word ‘value’ signifies the reduction of . . . to drive long-term outcomes for students, we are conviction to mere preference.” And so, by pushing shortchanging principals, teachers, and ultimately to teach students values and good character in an students if we don’t give time and space for school increasingly relativistic world, we are asking for leaders to understand and embrace the culture “character without unyielding conviction” and shifts necessary to drive change. “strong morality but without the emotional burden Advocates would do well to look to the success of guilt or shame.” In short, “We want good, but and failures of the nascent “disciplinary reform” without having to name evil.”10 movement, perhaps the most hotly debated reform Yet, popular approaches to character develop- question school leaders face today, to glean lessons ment seek to do just that. The Aspen guidance, for about how to affect outcomes in an area where culture instance, explains: matters at least as much as programs and practices do. The data are clear that students of color are sus- Uniformity is not the objective, but to the pended and expelled at far greater rates than their degree schools and youth-serving organiza- white and Asian peers are. And there is little questions in a community can find common ground—can agree on shared language for tion that this is a significant problem that affects student outcomes or can collaborate in service student outcomes directly, particularly when you of youth—it will help students’ experience consider the connection with suspension, retention, be more aligned and positive.11 school dropout, college attendance, and more. To address this problem, in 2014 the Obama Note that there is an outright rejection of the objec- administration issued guidance to school districts tivity of the exercise of defining values. Instead, the calling on schools to reduce the racial disparity in authors call on communities to find common ground. school suspensions and expulsions.13 This call to action would not be surprising to Hunter, One response to this call to action was for district who explained that “it is easier to assert ‘values’ as leaders to step in and put quotas on the number of abstract universals because the moment they range suspensions schools could use or restrict the types into anything deeper or more practical, what is of infractions for which school leaders could issue ‘self-evident’ immediately becomes contested.”12 suspensions. In California, the Los Angeles, Oakland,

AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE 4 and San Francisco Unified School Districts took onciliation, rather than exclusionary practices. Unfor- the lead for the state and banned “willful defiance” tunately, the results of district-driven implementation suspensions. State policymakers quickly followed of restorative justice have been mixed. In one study suit and issued a statewide partial ban on willful of a Pittsburgh pilot program, suspension rates defiance suspensions.14 While the category is vague— declined, but academic outcomes didn’t improve and therefore easy to manipulate—the intent is and actually worsened for sixth through eighth clear: The state is using metrics as a cudgel to change grades. Meanwhile, arrest rates at restorative jus- narrowly defined school-site behaviors. tice schools remained unchanged.16 Another study randomly assigned 13 Maine middle schools to use restorative justice and found the program made no significant difference.17 Programmatic solutions that are im- Here again, we find upon close examination that posed on schools don’t work unless restorative justice isn’t a solution that can be easily slapped on top of a school whose culture, values, the school ensures that it aligns the and beliefs don’t align with the behavioral and pro- core convictions of the program with grammatic shifts the program demands. One lesson that of the school. from these reforms may be that programmatic solutions that are imposed on schools don’t work unless the school ensures that it aligns the core Unfortunately, these metrics-driven nudges convictions of the program with that of the school. simply take a disciplinary tool away from educators without giving them anything in its place. To be Where Do We Go from Here? Three clear, willy-nilly use of suspensions to control stu- Lessons from Catholic Schools dent behavior is misguided and damaging. It’s also usually evidence that a school’s culture is funda- It would be easy at this point to simply throw up mentally broken. And so, an edict issued from on high our hands and conclude that there is too much will not help students if it takes away a frequently vagueness in the task of advancing SEL to deserve used tool with no acknowledgment or understanding a further investment of our time and energy. But of the chaos that can cause. that is the wrong lesson. Instead, we should seek That doesn’t mean the fault lies at the foot of to narrow the scope of these experiments, sharpen the Obama administration, which merely used the our problem definition to a manageable one, and power of the bully pulpit to elevate a real problem. implement programs that we can reasonably conclude Rather, it lies with district leaders who imposed ill- might help us progress toward these goals. thought-out metrics-driven nudges rather than doing At Partnership Schools, the network of urban the hard work of figuring out the underlying culture Catholic schools where I serve as superintendent, challenges that are contributing to the problems. we are using SEL as a lens through which to more On the flip side, other districts sought to address holistically evaluate our effectiveness. And through the Obama guidance by implementing programmatic that work, we are learning some valuable lessons solutions. In New York City, for example, Mayor about the link among the programs, practices, and Bill de Blasio’s “Leadership Team on School Climate” norms that drive our work and the long-term out- established a $2.4 million pilot program to imple- comes we most hope help our students. ment “restorative justice” in 15 schools.15 Like New More specifically, our work has taught us three York City, schools and districts around the country important lessons. are looking to restorative justice to help fix what First, strong character and good citizenship are most agree is a broken system of student discipline, formed as much as—perhaps more than—they are particularly in high-quality schools. explicitly taught. And that means that a stand- The promise of restorative justice is clear: address alone character development program, or skill and student misbehavior through forgiveness and rec- habits developed in isolation but not reinforced

AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE 5 throughout the entire school day, will not success- Finally, and perhaps most importantly, once a fully drive the results we want. That is to say, it’s school has a clear and unapologetic statement not possible to isolate character and values into a about what it values and what the teachers and program that can easily be layered on top of the leaders believe, those values must be directly school day and taught separately from everything aligned to everything that happens in the building. else that happens at school. That’s why Catholic If, for example, a school says it believes all children schools are wary of accountability systems that can learn but then does not hold all students to don’t consider the larger goals of faith formation high expectations for academic rigor, then the culture and character development. It’s also why any of the school is not strong enough to support the meaningful discussion of the effectiveness of Catholic formation of strong character. schools must include an assessment of the strength The same can be said of any value that, even if of their “Catholic identity.” stated, is not visible throughout the day and Second, we have learned that the schools that throughout the building. For instance, one value effectively cultivate the habits and mindsets of across all Partnership Schools is that we are all strong character and good citizenship are those made in the image and likeness of God. Because we that have a clearly and unapologetically stated purpose believe this, we embrace discipline that is restorative and root beliefs. Too many SEL initiatives fail rather than shame based. That means something because, in an effort to avoid controversy, schools much more than bringing in a restorative justice fail to make clear what they believe and how those program. It touches every aspect of our schools— beliefs drive action in the school. It’s not enough such as who we hire, how we train our teachers, for values to be implicitly reinforced; they need to how we communicate with their families, and what be explicitly stated. Vague generalities are a poor we see in our students, even when they fall short of substitute for clear values. our expectations of them. Catholic schools are founded to teach not just Yet even in the Catholic school world, where our core content such as English and math but also the faith grounds the school climate and culture across core beliefs of the Catholic Church. At Partnership all our schools, this approach to SEL is an evolution, Schools, under the leadership of our assistant super- not a revolution. When it works, it is a process of intendent, Christian Dallavis, we work with all our small but significant steps to better align our norms, school leaders, faculty, and staff to surface and practices, programs, and policies to our core beliefs. promote these root beliefs. Those are beliefs that That may not be the transformational break- represent truths of the world, that all faculty and through in schooling that some SEL proponents staff share, and that are so fundamental to the seek, but against the backdrop of an endless cycle school’s work that they guide decisions about hiring, of poorly thought through education reform exper- policies and practices, curriculum and instruction, iments, it may be that pragmatic, evolutionary and more. change is exactly what our students need.

About the Author

Kathleen Porter-Magee is superintendent of Partnership Schools, a nonprofit that manages seven New York City Catholic schools, four in Harlem and three in the South Bronx. Before joining the Partnership, she was a classroom teacher and served in leadership positions at Achievement First; the Archdiocese of Washington, DC; the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, and the College Board. Porter-Magee is a Pahara-Aspen education fellow and has been an education fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.

AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE 6 Notes

1. Seinfeld Scripts, “The Voice,” https://www.seinfeldscripts.com/TheVoice.htm. 2. Aspen Institute, National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development, “From a Nation at Risk to a Nation at Hope,” January 15, 2019, http://nationathope.org/; and NewSchools, “Expanded Definition of Student Success Challenge,” https:// www.newschools.org/ignite/program/expanded-definition-of-student-success-challenge/. 3. Emmanuel Felton, “When Social and Emotional Learning Is Key to College Success,” Atlantic, March 2, 2016, https://www. theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/03/when-social-and-emotional-learning-is-key-to-college-success/471813. 4. KIPP Foundation, The Promise of College Completion: KIPP’s Early Successes and Challenges, September 2016, https://www. kipp.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/CollegeCompletionReport.pdf. 5. Darryl Robinson, “I Went to Some of D.C.’s Best Schools. I Was Still Unprepared for College.,” Washington Post, April 13, 2012, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/i-went-to-one-of-dcs-best-high-schools-i-was-still-unprepared-for-college/2012/04/ 13/gIQAqQQAFT_story.html. 6. Barbara A. Morrongiello, Michael Corbett, and Alexandra Bellissimo, “‘Do as I Say, Not as I Do’: Family Influences on Children’s Safety and Risk Behaviors,” Health Psychology 27, no. 4 (2008): 498–503, https://psycnet.apa.org/buy/2008-09239-012. 7. Robert Pondiscio, How the Other Half Learns: Equality, Excellence, and the Battle over School Choice (New York: Avery, 2019). 8. James Davison Hunter, The Death of Character: Moral Education in an Age Without Good or Evil (New York: Basic Books, 2001). 9. Hunter, The Death of Character. 10. Hunter, The Death of Character. 11. Ron Berger et al., National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development: A Practice Agenda in Support of How Learning Happens, Aspen Institute, January 15, 2019, http://nationathope.org/wp-content/uploads/aspen_practice_final_web_optimized.pdf. 12. Hunter, The Death of Character. 13. US Department of Education, “U.S. Departments of Education and Justice Release School Discipline Guidance Package to Enhance School Climate and Improve School Discipline Policies/Practices,” press release, January 8, 2014, https://www.ed.gov/ news/press-releases/us-departments-education-and-justice-release-school-discipline-guidance-package-. 14. Louis Freedberg, “Gov. Newsom Must Decide Whether to Expand Ban on Student Suspensions for ‘Willful Defiance,’” EdSource, September 9, 2019, https://edsource.org/2019/gov-newsom-to-decide-whether-to-expand-ban-on-student-suspensions- for-willful-defiance/617238. 15. Eliza Shapiro, “New York Charter Wars Enter a School Safety Phase,” Politico, May 31, 2016, https://www.politico.com/ states/new-york/city-hall/story/2016/05/school-safety-emerges-as-new-proxy-battle-over-new-york-city-schools-102275. 16. Catherine H. Augustine et al., Can Restorative Practices Improve School Climate and Curb Suspensions? An Evaluation of the Impact of Restorative Practices in a Mid-Sized Urban School District, RAND Corporation, 2018, https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/ RR2840.html. 17. Joie D. Acosta et al., “What Two New Studies Reveal About Restorative Justice in Middle School and How It Can Be Done Better,” RAND Corporation, April 17, 2019, https://www.rand.org/blog/2019/04/what-two-new-studies-reveal-about-restorative- justice.html.

The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501(c)(3) educational organization and does not take institutional positions on any issues. The views expressed here are those of the author(s).

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