District recommends Wayfinder for K–8 in transformative SEL adoption

District staff told the board on May 21 that the Transformative Social Emotional Learning adoption process included multiple pilots and extensive feedback from students and teachers, and recommended Wayfinder for elementary and middle school implementation beginning in the fall.

Executive Director Carla Gay said the adoption process produced a bilingual mission and vision and that Wayfinder was selected because it is "accessible and adaptable" and available in multiple languages. She said elementary students reported that lessons let them "get to talk about their feelings and it taught them about community," and that at middle school the program will be delivered through advisory. For high schools, the district will not adopt a standalone curriculum but will partner with Multnomah ESD on professional learning to embed T-SEL practices into content areas and advisory. Staff said training options and costs are under negotiation with the vendor and that professional development will be offered to teachers and administrators in advance of fall implementation.

The board discussed placement, scheduling and how standards will be embedded. Staff noted that high-school advisory time and other schedule constraints made a stand-alone high-school curriculum impractical; instead the district will focus on adult learning and curricular integration through standards embedded by content-area teachers.