Teacher Readiness to Implement Universal Social Emotional Instruction in a Rural 7-12 Grade School

Universal social-emotional learning is shown by research to have positive impacts on academic, social and economic outcomes for students. High quality implementation of universal social and emotional learning is a key factor for seeing these gains. When a universal social emotional curriculum is introduced, several factors need to be addressed at initial implementation for future curriculum to be delivered with fidelity. This paper describes the factors of initial implementation shown by the literature to ensure the highest quality of further curriculum delivery, including establishing a need, listening to teacher voices, addressing concerns, ensuring a good fit with the current school culture, adequate training, and peer and administrative support. Furthermore, this paper describes the outcomes of whether teacher readiness to implement a new universal social emotional curriculum with fidelity improves when such factors are accounted for. If pre-implementation quality is high, literature suggests curriculum implementation is likewise improved