Santa Clara, CA, Oct. 14, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Smarter Balanced, in partnership with the Parent Institute for Quality Education (PIQE), developed new professional learning resources to help educators support the social-emotional learning needs of their students as part of a successful academic school experience.
The new PIQE social-emotional learning resources are available on Tools for Teachers, a Smarter Balanced website of instructional and professional learning resources for educators.
“Supporting teachers so they can effectively support students is the heart of our work,” said Magda Chia, Executive Strategy Officer for Smarter Balanced. “By connecting PIQE’s social-emotional learning materials with our wide-range of Tools for Teachers’ academic lessons and strategies, we can help educators bring a holistic approach to student academic experiences and support students in a culturally-responsive manner.”
The new Tools for Teachers resources coincide with a call from parents for more social-emotional resources at schools. Parent surveys conducted by PIQE, a long-time ally to schools and parents, identified that more than one-in-three students (35 percent) were not provided social-emotional resources at school and two-out-of-three parents (63 percent) were concerned about their childrens’ emotional needs.
“We are honored to partner with Smarter Balanced to enhance our work in building strong parent-teacher-school partnerships,” said Elizabeth Zamudio, PIQE Vice President of Programs. “Our families faced many challenges and hardships this year impacting their students’ education. Investment in family engagement training for teachers, principals, and support staff is key to ensure school personnel have the knowledge and tools needed to effectively connect and respond to needs.”
PIQE brings an evidence-based curriculum and a deep expertise in supporting educators and school administrators to engage successfully with low-income families, communities of color, English learner and immigrant families.
The co-created Tools for Teachers resources make clear the connection between healthy social-emotional skills and academic success, and help educators partner with students and families to support social-emotional development. The resources are organized into three, 45-to-60-minute virtual professional development modules on self-awareness, self-management, and social awareness. Along with sharing information on the connections among brain functioning, emotions, and behavior, the resources will help educators model self-awareness and self-management behaviors and skills with students.
About Smarter Balanced
Smarter Balanced is a public agency supported by its members. Through the work of thousands of educators, we created an online assessment system aligned to college and career ready standards, as well as instructional resources for educators to help them improve teaching and learning.
About PIQE
PIQE is a national organization with evidence-based programs that engage, empower and transform parents to actively engage in their children’s education and strengthen parent-school collaboration. PIQE provides empowering information, skills development and support systems for low-income families, communities of color, English Learner and immigrant families benefiting approximately 2.1 million children throughout its history.
