Active Projects

Circle UP: An Integrated Whole School Model To Address Learners’ Social-Emotional And Learning Needs

• Circle UP is an integrated social-emotional learning program that helps students own their learning by embracing emotions and individualizing learning
• Focused on improving social-emotional learning and engagement with elementary school students
• Multiple strategies are available to meet the needs of each individual student, including Universal Design for Learning, Collaborative & Proactive Solutions , and Check & Connect
• Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, this research is conducted in collaboration with Aldine ISD, CAST, Lives in the Balance, and Check & Connect

ConnectUP: Enhancing Secondary/Transition Outcomes Using Check & Connect (C&C) with the Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction (SDLMI)

The University of Kansas developed the SDLMI curriculum, which teachers use to enable students to set goals, choose, plan, and track progress toward goals. The University of Minnesota developed the C&C intervention model to promote students' engagement with school, reduce dropout, and increase school completion. The ConnectUP Project combines, implements, and evaluates a large-scale C&C + SDLMI intervention.

C&C staff will support the project by participating in team management meetings to review progress on specific tasks and activities. They begin by recruiting teachers and schools that already use C&C in Georgia and then randomly assign schools to continue with C&C only (the business-as-usual condition) or the new C&C + SDLMI intervention. C&C staff will further support the project through training, data collection and analysis, and dissemination.