Mental Health: Social Emotional Learning and RULER

According to the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), an evidence-based framework, social and emotional learning practices cultivate a caring, participatory, and equitable learning environment that actively involves all students in their social, emotional, and academic growth. CASEL identifies five core, evidence-based competencies that promote students' social and emotional skills growth: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. 

 

Alexandria City Public Schools students, K-12, participate in daily lessons and activities to gain a common language for emotions, use strategies to manage and respond to emotional situations and engage in healthy decision-making. To support the explicit teaching of Social and Emotional Learning competencies, ACPS adopted the RULER curriculum. The RULER Approach, an evidence-based program developed by the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, supports the entire school community in understanding the value of emotions, building emotional intelligence skills, and creating and maintaining a positive school climate. RULER’s curriculum examines the use of soft skills such as those associated with their acronym: Recognizing, Understanding, Labeling, Expressing, and Regulating emotion. In this, RULER uses four anchor tools to use in the classroom with students:

The Charter “How do I want to feel in my class community?”	A written agreement amongst students and staff alike, that helps enhance school climate and community well-being through establishing common goals and a shared vision around safety and belonging
The Mood Meter “How am I   feeling now?”	A process to pause and gain emotional self-control under challenging situations and replace rushed reactions with purposeful, reasoned action.
The Blueprint	Supports perspective-taking and conflict resolution. Note: In ACPS, our students access such skills through the use of Restorative Practices, which can reduce the number and severity of classroom incidents through de-escalation strategies and building positive relationships.

To ensure staff members can teach the RULER Approach and Curriculum to students, Mental Health Specialists partner with school-based administrators, student support team members, and teachers to facilitate direct training from RULER’s Yale Institute of Emotional Intelligence. Upon completion of training, school-based RULER leaders provide turnaround training of teachers and staff in the RULER Approach and curriculum at their respective schools, thus leading to school-wide implementation with students. With a data-driven approach, administrators, teachers, and student support team members use their social, emotional, and RULER learnings to facilitate collaboration in creating their school’s SE(A)L Calendar.