The New Teacher Center (NTC) is pleased to announce our recent award of a five-year, $7.9 million Education Innovation and Research (EIR) Mid-Phase Project grant.

Schools and teachers need support in integrating social and emotional learning (SEL) into instructional practice. NTC’s legacy work of job-embedded coaching anchors SEL proficiency in how to best accelerate academic learning. The EIR grant will enable NTC to implement our whole-school professional learning model with three sites across the U.S.

NTC will partner with the New York City Department of Education, Eastern Oregon Regional Educator Network, Minnesota Southwest West Central Service Cooperative, and evaluation partner SRI International to introduce SEL-anchored instructional support. The project will support 1,366 K-8 teachers and 64,920 K-8 students in 124 schools (50 percent of schools designated rural). Approximately 60 percent of students are high-need and quality for free or reduced lunch through the National School Lunch Program.

Project goals include:

• Build the capacity of sites to lead a high-quality and sustainable whole-school professional learning strategy
• Prepare coaches to provide SEL-anchored instructional support
• Provide teachers with SEL-anchored instructional support
• Assist school leaders to sustain instruction-focused teacher support
• Enable stakeholder groups to use data and communication to drive and inform learning

Centering systemically underserved students’ SEL needs through surveys and data opens up new pathways to steer instruction practices, improve learning, transform school culture, and retain teachers.

For the official announcement, visit the U.S. Department of Education website.