Project Activities
The project had three core components – an outcome evaluation, an implementation evaluation, and a cost study. In addition, the research team conducted a variety of activities to disseminate the findings to various stakeholders who could benefit from the findings of the study. The team collected student and teacher administrative data, administered student and teacher surveys, and conducted interviews with key personnel at Regional Offices of Education (ROEs), Intermediate Service Centers (ISCs), SEL Hubs, and participating districts and schools.
Structured Abstract
Setting
The evaluation included schools across Illinois that participated in the LR-SEL programs between 2022-23 and 2023-24 and selected comparison schools.
Sample
The sample for the outcome analysis included 2,061 schools that participated in SEL Hubs, REACH Expansion and/or received Community Partnership Grants and 775 schools that did not participate in any of these activities as comparison schools. The implementation evaluation included 113 interviews with SEL Hub Directors, ROE superintendents, and coaches or other staff and 78 interviews with school staff, district administrators or community partners.
The project team examined three SEL activities (REACH Expansion, SEL Hubs, and the Community Partnership Grants) that were part of ISBE's efforts to support recovery from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Research design and methods
The outcomes study employed a school-level observational comparative design using regression modeling to examine associations between levels of SEL program participation (measured by days of engagement) and student, teacher, and school climate outcomes, while controlling for baseline characteristics and pre-pandemic differences. The exploratory survey analysis used an observational, cross-sectional design with pooled multi-year data, employing Rasch modeling, multilevel modeling, and regression analyses to examine associations between student and staff social-emotional well-being, school climate, and outcomes. The implementation evaluation used a tiered purposive sampling approach and a series of interviews and case studies to examine meaningful variation in LR-SEL implementation across schools, districts, ROEs, and area SEL Hubs.
Control condition
The control condition consisted of schools that did not participate in SEL Hub activities, REACH or Community Partnership Grants during the study period.
Key measures
Student behavioral measures included attendance and discipline events. Teacher behavioral measures included attendance and retention. Student academic learning measures included performance on state standardized English language arts and mathematics exams, on-track status, and graduation. Student and teacher social-emotional wellness, mental health, and school climate were assessed using reliable and validated survey-based measures.
Data analytic strategy
The outcome study employed a nonexperimental, regression-based analytic approach to examine differences in outcomes across five levels of program engagement relative to nonparticipating schools. Analyses used statewide administrative data and estimated associations between SEL participation and student and teacher outcomes, including achievement, absenteeism, and retention. To improve comparability, models adjusted for observable differences in school characteristics, including school size, type, location, demographic composition, and pre-pandemic baseline outcomes (2019). Although these covariate-adjusted models reduce bias from observed differences, the design remains descriptive and does not support causal inference. The qualitative analysis used NVivo qualitative software to analyze interviewees' responses by mapping them onto a coding structure that aligned with the topics covered in the semi-structured interview protocols.
Cost analysis strategy
The cost analysis included a random sample of 10 schools that implemented or participated in each of the three LR-SEL programs (REACH Expansion, SEL Hubs, and the Community Partnership Grants). The team used the ingredients approach to identify the costs associated with the resources used to implement the LR-SEL programs and calculated the overall and per-student cost of the resources used in the implementation of each LR-SEL program.
Key outcomes
The main findings of this project are as follows:
- Educator well-being emerged as the most urgent need across districts, with adult social-emotional competencies viewed as foundational for enabling teachers to support students effectively (Daruwala, et al., 2025).
- The LR-SEL initiative’s decentralized, opt-in design allowed regions to tailor SEL supports to local context and capacity, but also produced variability in communication, participation, and implementation across the state (Daruwala, et al., 2025).
- Regional intermediaries (ROEs and ISCs) played a central role in implementation, with strong existing relationships driving local buy-in and positioning SEL supports as resources rather than mandates (Daruwala, et al., 2025).
- The SEL Hub structure facilitated increased cross-regional collaboration, enabling shared learning and resource exchange while requiring leaders to apply their own social-emotional competencies in coordination and problem-solving (Daruwala, et al., 2025).
People and institutions involved
IES program contact(s)
Project contributors
Partner institutions
Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE)
Products and publications
Project website:
Publications:
Daruwala, I., Shramko, M., Clancy, E., Salinas, V., Edwards, I., Jiang, J. Y., & Kendziora, K. (2025). Using statewide policy to promote student and adult social-emotional competencies: Implementation evaluation of the Learning Renewal—Social Emotional Learning initiative. Social and Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy, 6, 100165.
Available data:
All descriptive results are documented in the appendix of the following final report housed on the project website: https://restartnetwork.org/sites/default/files/2026-01/ISBE%20Learning%20Renewal%20SEL%20Final%20Report.pdf. Data used for descriptive and outcome analyses were obtained through a data-sharing agreement with ISBE. In accordance with ISBE research approval requirements, all data were destroyed at the conclusion of the study, precluding archival of the full analytic dataset. The survey data were obtained through ISBE’s Social-Emotional Learning and Well-Being survey and collected using ISBE platforms and were subject to the same data governance policies. Interested parties may obtain these data directly from ISBE, pending establishment of their own data sharing agreements.
Additional project information
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Questions about this project?
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