When schools and school systems adopt a whole-person approach to learning, educators see improved student attendance and engagement, improved student connectedness, better social and emotional health, and improved academic outcomes. In addition to gaining academic knowledge, students are able to graduate with the essential social and emotional skills needed to succeed in college and the workforce.
To support statewide adoption of social-emotional learning (SEL) and other whole-person strategies, the National Center of Social and Emotional Learning and School Safety at WestEd worked with the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction and North Dakota Regional Education Association to identify districts that had been experiencing success with using whole-person practices.
Using a mixed-method research approach, two districts rose to the top as SEL exemplars: Wilton School District and Richland #44 School District. This case study explores each district’s successful strategies and some of the benefits they have offered to the district’s students, staff, and communities — beyond the evident student performance data.
