Welcome all listeners to Season 4 of the SECD On Demand Podcast with our new hosts, Iya and Ally!

Today's episode explores the world of SEL through school climate with Dr.Alicia Raia-Hawrylak. Alicia is the Co-Project Manager of the School Climate Transformation Project (SCTP). Alicia supervises the development and validation of the New Jersey School Climate Improvement (NJ SCI) Survey and evaluation of the project’s impact, including analyses of implementation factors and school climate outcomes. Alicia completed her Ph.D. in sociology at Rutgers University, where her research and publications use both quantitative and qualitative methods to explore the ways school-wide culture is communicated and enacted within
classrooms. 

We also had the pleasure of meeting with Metuchen School District Climate Coordinator Rick Cohen. Rick is the assistant
superintendent of the Metuchen School District, principal of Moss
School, and serves as faculty at Rutgers University in New Jersey. His work embeds evidence-based SEL curriculum and pedagogy into already existing state standards-aligned curricula PK-12. As an administrator and school leader from Metuchen, Rick has used the NJSCI platform in connection with school climate and SEL initiatives. 

For more information on the NJ SCI Platform or to submit an interest form on behalf of an NJ school district, visit www.njschoolclimate.org.

To learn more about SEL and the SECD Lab, visit our website at www.SECDLab.org or Instagram @secdondemand.

Happy Listening!