Our Impact
CRTWC has been working for 14 years to bring about a paradigm shift in the way that we prepare teachers. Most educators receive little training in social and emotional development nor are they taught how to integrate this focus into their practice across the entire school day. For instance, a national scan of the state standards for teacher preparation found only 6 states had high standards for addressing all areas of the CASEL competencies (Schonert-Reichl et al., 2017). Additionally, the report highlighted a lack of consistency in attention to the CASEL competencies in teacher preparation programming. Many programs had no established curricula or best practices for guiding teachers to implement SEL in their classrooms nor for developing their own skills to support their professional growth and well-being.
There is no better time to help teachers develop a social, emotional, and cultural lens than in teacher preparation – a time when teachers are developing their competencies, mindsets, and beliefs about teaching and their students. Intervening during the teacher preparation is an important window of opportunity, as it begins the development of this lens early on and sets teachers on an upward trajectory of continuing to develop these skills, mindsets, and beliefs throughout the professional development pipeline.
Teacher Preparation Program Impact
Teacher Educator Institutes (TEI):
- CRTWC developed the yearlong Teacher Educator Institute (TEI) to engage university faculty and provide a framework and tools for teacher credential programs to embed SEL and culturally responsive/sustaining practices throughout their standard curriculum.
- Participation in the Teacher Educator Institute (TEI) involves learning about, engaging in, and practicing the implementation of the CRTWC’s Anchor Competencies Framework. The TEI provides a professional learning community (PLC) and space for teacher educators, mentor and cooperating teachers, and teachers to reflect on their own knowledge, skills, SEC, and culturally responsive and sustaining practices.
- Since August 2017, CRTWC has worked with 7 cohorts of the yearlong TEI – a total of 185 Teacher Education Program faculty from 47 Institutions across 15 states.
Hover over the map to see the institutions of our Teacher Educator Institute (TEI) participants.
States in gold represent those where CRTWC has helped to implement our framework on a state- or district-level.
District-Level Work
Sunnyvale School District (SSD):
- CRTWC has worked for over 7 years with university supervisors from SJSU and cooperating and mentor teachers from SSD. Over the course of these years, CRTWC has worked with 10 schools in the district and provided resources and training to nearly 25 teachers in each school for a total of 300 teachers.
- CRTWC provided promotional material to and offered a new foundational course in employing the CRTWC social, emotional, and cultural lens for all district educators in September and October of 2020.
Coaching Institutes:
- One of the key pressure points for systemic change within school districts is to provide professional development for the coaches who work directly with teachers in the classroom. We offer a yearlong Coaches Institute that provides:
- the foundational knowledge base in development of the coaches’ social, emotional, and cultural lens
- guidance and support for coaches to use an asset-based approach to develop teachers’ social, emotional, and cultural lens through both individual coaching and school-wide professional development sessions
- We have worked with several school districts including Morgan Hill, Oak Grove, Santa Clara Unified, and Palo Alto School Districts, as well as the Santa Clara County Office of Education
Examples of Integrating the Framework Throughout Teacher Preparation
CRTWC contracted with CalState TEACH to integrate the Anchor Competencies Framework across their online modules. Since the beginning of this partnership, the Framework has been fully integrated into all CalStateTEACH online curriculum modules and instructional lesson designs, supporting the development of pre-service teachers’ social, emotional, and cultural lenses as they enter the profession. Thirty teacher educators from CalStateTEACH have attended TEIs and have developed action plans for further integrating the Framework into their teaching practice.
Beginning in 2011 and supported by CRTWC, seven Multiple Subject Credential Program faculty and two student teaching supervisors committed to embedding the teaching of SEL skills in their courses. In 2014, the work shifted from a focus on individual courses to mapping the integration of SEL across the entire curriculum. This work continued to this day.
At the request of the College of Education Dean, the University of Dayton sent a team of 6 teacher education faculty members to the 2017-18 year-long TEI. Using the professional learning communities (PLC) model, faculty members took our Framework back to their department and dean and received “buy-in” to integrate social, emotional, and cultural competencies across their teacher education program. They gathered baseline data from faculty on what they were currently doing. This data then informed what they needed to do within courses to integrate a focus on social, emotional, and cultural competencies across the curriculum. Faculty also involved cooperating teachers in workshops to learn about the Framework. Data were collected to track progress of this integration.
Teacher Preparation Program: CRTWC recently responded to a request from the Office of Accountability, Research and Equity in Minneapolis Public Schools to provide a TEI for educators working within the new District Special Education Teacher Preparation Program. The TEI will provide the foundational understanding for incorporating the Framework within the new Special Education Teacher Preparation program.
“The Book”: Teaching with a Social, Emotional, and Cultural Lens
CRTWC has held Book Clubs that involve 2 online sessions with Dr. Markowitz about her book, “Teaching with a Social, Emotional and Cultural Lens: A Framework for Educators and Teacher Educators” (Markowitz & Bouffard, Harvard Education Press, 2020). Book Clubs have been conducted with some of the following:
- Washington State teacher educators and state-level officials
- Oregon teacher educators and state-level officials
- CalState TEACH teacher educators
State and National Recognition
State and National Recognition
- Ashoka-Packard Foundation’s Changemakers Award
- Aspen Institute Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Learning
- CASEL Collaborating States Initiative
- Learning Policy Institute
Partnerships and Associations
Partnerships and Associations
- California Council on Teacher Education
- California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC)
- California Lutheran University
- California State University
- Chancellor’s Office
- Children Now
- Greater Good Science Center
- Kids in Common
- Sunnyvale School District
Past and Present Supporters
Past and Present Supporters
S. D. Bechtel Jr. Foundation
Silicon Valley Community Foundation
1440 Foundation
Silver Giving
HopeLab Foundation
Applied Materials
David and Lucile Packard Foundation
