Wellbeing, Work Climate, and Levers of Transformation for Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Implementation among California Educational Leaders in Fall 2023

High-quality social and emotional learning (SEL) initiatives have been demonstrated to prevent problems and promote wellbeing among youth. Educational leaders are tasked with implementing SEL that creates the conditions for students to thrive. SEL initiatives, intended to facilitate healthy development and address inequities, often face implementation challenges that threaten their success. To overcome these challenges, CalHOPE Student Support was established as an effort to build capacity for implementation of SEL in K-12 public schools across all counties in the state of California. As part of CalHOPE, County Offices of Education (COEs) work closely with focal schools and districts to support them in sustainable SEL implementation with an equity lens. Specific CalHOPE implementation activities to build statewide capacity for SEL through CalHOPE began in 2021 and are ongoing. To capture the current outlook of SEL in California, 676 educational leaders (69% non-Hispanic White, 80% female) from 54 counties (155 COE leaders, 97 district office leaders, 424 school leaders) reported on their own wellbeing, conditions associated with their wellbeing (e.g., work climate), and their work to engage levers of SEL system transformation. Overall, most educational leaders self-reported strong wellbeing (experiencing positive emotions) and resources for coping with work-related stressors, positive work climate (in the domains of safety and connection as well as opportunities for leadership, though less positive in the domain of cultural responsiveness), and an overall strong presence of specific levers of SEL system transformation (e.g., supports received and provided, capacities built). COE leaders reported a more positive outlook on key levers of system transformation than district or school leaders, which may reflect CalHOPE’s early-stage focus on capacity-building in COE settings as well as different priorities and job responsibilities across these three levels of the education sector. Continued investment in CalHOPE will enable a strengthened focus on culturally responsive leadership climates, equity in structures and routines of SEL implementation, and building more robust data-driven feedback loops for continuous improvement, as the CalHOPE team continues to make progress in building statewide capacity.