Partner Cities
There is widespread consensus in local authorities throughout Israel that social-emotional learning (SEL) is the foundation for academic success, improving the atmosphere at schools, and cultivating competencies that are vital in a rapidly changing world. Some local authorities put this approach into practice by integrating SEL into all their educational institutions and frameworks as well as adopting a common municipal language with regard to SEL. Others are training municipal SEL facilitators to lead initiatives in their communities. More than a few local authorities are promoting SEL by implementing the SEL.IL Center’s I Can Succeed (ICS) program in their preschools, elementary schools, and secondary schools.
The SEL.IL Center considers local authorities full partners and leaders in systemic, sustainable SEL implementation. We are proud of our partnerships and the initiatives we are developing together with different local authorities around Israel.
In the 2020-21 school year, the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality’s Education Administration launched a three-year initiative to articulate and implement SEL developmental goals for all of the city’s educational institutions. The city aspired to develop a framework for what “children are expected to know and be capable of doing in the realm of SEL based on their age and culture” as well as to define how educators can assess and cultivate these skills among their students. Furthermore, Tel Aviv-Jaffa aimed to conduct the SEL process in concert with the city’s existing areas of emphasis, goals, and processes in education.
During the first year, the 2020-21 school year, the SEL.IL Center cooperated with representatives of different age groups and sectors in the city to articulate a conceptual framework with three main skills (intrapersonal, interpersonal, and decision-making) that are divided into 13 SEL sub-skills. This framework encompasses children from birth until high-school graduation, is approved by representatives of the city’s Education Administration, and facilitates the use of a common language throughout the city regarding SEL. Developmental goals for each of the 13 skills were then formulated for every age group based on this framework.
During the second year, the 2021-22 school year, these development goals were implemented in selected educational frameworks for preschool, elementary-school, and secondary-school children in both regular and special education. This pilot program included both Hebrew and Arabic speakers. In addition, recommendations that take gender issues into account were formulated for activities to promote SEL skills for the different age groups.
In addition, a user-friendly tool was developed to map classes’ SEL skills. The tool, which relies on educators’ assessments, facilitates mapping the extent classes master SEL skills. This data (which provides a customized profile of a class or small group) can be used to determine which skills to recommend each educator focus on next.
During the third year, the 2022-23 school year, the SEL goals were implemented on a significantly larger scale:
- A total of 270 preschool teachers underwent training so that they can map their class’s SEL skills and implement a special version of the ICS preschool program which was adapted to the municipal conceptual framework and goals developed during the two previous years.
- A pilot was conducted for an innovative technological product, SEL by Milgo. This app enables educators to better hear their students’ voices regarding their SEL skills and receive recommendations for steps to take to cultivate these skills in the entire class, small groups, and individuals.
This year, the 2023-24, school year, the results of this initiative can be seen throughout the city:
- 240 preschools are systemically implementing the goals via the ICS program.
- Dozens of regular and special education schools throughout the city are incorporating the goals into their regular activities, such as assessment processes, professional development, and the ICS program.
This is the fifth year of the initiative to assimilate a common language regarding SEL throughout the city of Zichron Ya’akov. This municipal initiative aims to implement SEL skills based on a common language throughout the entire education system, meaning for all age groups and sectors, and the community as a whole. Over the years, different municipal forums have been established to incorporate this common language into the municipal education system in a meaningful manner. They include a municipal steering committee, led by Dr. Miriam Korkus-Panoyan, municipal education department director, that strives to integrate, monitor, and critique the municipal process.
In the previous school year, 2022-23, citywide implementation occurred in three parallel channels:
1. All the city’s educational institutions, from preschool through high school, are implementing the ICS program for the explicit instruction of SEL skills.
2. Experts from the SEL.IL Center are providing ongoing guidance and training to the city’s SEL team (preschool coordinators, municipal facilitators, educational staff, etc.).
3. Experts from the SEL.IL center are working with coordinators from the city’s informal education system to implement SEL language and concepts into informal educational frameworks throughout the city, such as youth movements, after-school programs, community centers, etc.
The SEL.IL Center is cooperating with the municipality of Baka el-Gharbiya and the aChord Center of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to implement a conceptual SEL framework in Baka el-Gharbiya. We recently began working on this systemic, multiyear, preventive process. Due to the lack of culturally appropriate conceptual SEL frameworks, the first step is developing a SEL model tailored to the local culture, with the guidance of experts from the SEL.IL and aChord centers.
To advance and support local initiatives to build relevant, sustainable, and scalable projects, a local SEL leadership team will be trained. The team will include people who serve in a variety of key positions in different frameworks in the city so that the team possesses a wide range of professional capabilities. This team will focus on advancing training processes for both SEL and entrepreneurship. The team members will provide ongoing guidance to educators as well as in the process of developing and adapting SEL programs based on motivations, skills, and experience from in the field.
To this end, the initiative will include a municipal incubator that will examine, select, and advise selected programs with potential to forge a wide-ranging impact and connection with the community and the municipal ecosystem.
The process’s goals are:
- Reducing harmful interpersonal behavior and vandalism of public spaces by youths.
- Increasing the sense of belonging and establishing a personal and a collective identity that is inclusive among youths.
The incubator will focus on programs that aim to promote a sense of belonging, empathy, a growth mindset, and emotion regulation in the formal and informal education system.
The SEL.IL Center is cooperating with the municipality of Nahariya and Oranim College of Education for this project to develop and implement a conceptual SEL framework in Nahariya. We recently began working on this multiyear process.
In light of the city’s unique needs, the project will first develop innovative pedagogy based on knowledge in three areas: inclusivity, SEL skills, and learning in settings other than the classroom. The work will begin in preschools and selected elementary schools and later expand to additional educational frameworks. The process will include establishing frameworks to train pedagogic counselors, teachers, and preschool teachers so they can form and lead preschool communities (in which preschool teachers, aides, and students will learn together with the guidance of pedagogic counselors and leading teachers) and elementary-school communities (in which leading teachers will guide groups of teachers). These communities will study inclusive pedagogy based on SEL skills and develop teaching practices that include learning outside of the classroom. Training also will be offered to the municipal education department and parents.
The process’s goals are:
- Increase the sense of wellbeing and belonging of educational staff (practitioners) as well as their capacity to work with heterogeneous groups by developing pedagogy based on inclusive SEL, learning in settings outside of the classroom, and learning in a variety of educational frameworks from birth until high school graduation.
- Enhance students’ SEL skills (belonging, empathy, growth mindset, emotion regulation, and/or other skills found to be relevant in the process during dialogue in the field) and sense of belonging as Nahariya residents.