How do we prepare our children to be knowledgeable, responsible, caring, and contributing members of a pluralistic and global society?
Social-Emotional and Character Development (SECD) involves the capacity to recognize and manage emotions, solve problems effectively, take others’ perspectives, and establish positive, empathic relationships with others—competencies that are essential for the development of all students. SECD is the key to student engagement, vital, healthy thriving, civil discourse, bullying and violence reduction, prevention of drug and alcohol abuse, preparation for citizenship in a democracy, and increased motivation for learning and creativity.
Learn About SECD Projects

Mosaic
MOSAIC (Mastering Our Skills and Inspiring Character) is a middle school curriculum structure for advisories or other classes, to build students’ SEL skills and character.

Youth Nation
A space created for youth to express their views about public issues and problems of concern and hear from other youth around the country. Learn how to get involved in your civic/community/political environment.

STAT
Students Taking Action Together (STAT) is a set of instructional strategies that can be integrated into existing social studies/history/civics/current events curricula, designed to help students get along better and improve civic engagement, civility, and respectful discourse, through building key SEL competencies.

District and School-Wide SECD Implementation
The SECD Lab has experience with District-Wide and School-Wide implementation, particularly in urban settings, and we have made many of our consultation and planning tools and curriculum-related resources available here.

Want SECD Resources for your classroom?