Oregon’s journey creating social and emotional learning standards for educator preparation programs

Abstract

This paper summarizes Oregon’s creation and implementation of Standards in Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) for Educator Preparation programs (EPPs) in response to the House Bill 2166 passed in 2021. Initial steps included gaining an understanding of current practices and new teachers’ perspectives on preparation they received in SEL. The Educator Preparation SEL Survey revealed that EPP courses largely emphasized the Learning Context and Student SEL, but not Teacher SEL in their programming. Findings from the New Teacher SEL Survey indicated that while many new teachers felt prepared to create inclusive and positive learning environments, half felt unprepared to deliver SEL-based instruction and did not feel equipped by their programs with personal SEL skills to manage the stressors of teaching. Results from these surveys highlight the need to integrate SEL into educator preparation to develop educators who can create supportive and inclusive learning environments. An interdisciplinary workgroup utilized findings from these surveys to develop SEL standards for EPPs. The workgroup adopted the Anchor Competency Framework by Markowitz and Bouffard (2020) and aligned it with CASEL’s five SEL competencies to create comprehensive standards for EPPs. These standards were reviewed and adopted in Spring 2023 and implementation strategies are underway in Oregon. The Oregon experience highlights the necessity of systemic approaches to embedding SEL in teacher education to enhance the well-being and effectiveness of future teachers. Oregon’s process detailed here serves as an example and inspiration for states aiming to infuse SEL into their teacher preparation programs.