GreatSchools Partners with Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence
to Create Social Emotional Learning Tools for Parents, Children
OAKLAND, CA — June 23, 2015 — GreatSchools, a national nonprofit that helps millions of parents guide their kids to great futures announced today in collaboration with the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, the launch a new set of tools called “Emotional Smarts.” These tools will help parents help their children develop emotional intelligence, build character, and shape valuable life skills such as independence, resilience, confidence, gratitude, courage, empathy, and grit.
Research shows that students with higher levels of emotional intelligence are more engaged in the classroom, and do better academically. They are also most likely to find success later in life in the workplace and at home.
“Every year at GreatSchools, we help millions of parents who want to guide their child’s success in life,” said Bill Jackson, CEO and founder of GreatSchools. “We support parents through every stage of their child’s education — whether it’s finding the right school for their child, demystifying national education trends and policy, or surfacing new ways for parents to engage in their child’s learning. This new partnership with the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence is designed to translate cutting-edge research into practical steps that parents can take to help support their child’s social and emotional learning.”
Based on research conducted at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, home to the original scientific theory of emotional intelligence, the new content and tools that will help parents teach their children how to resolve conflicts, foster positive relationships and build emotional intelligence.
“The sustainability of a strong society requires each of us to use our emotions intelligently. Research in the area of social emotional learning has shown us that the skills of emotional intelligence impact a person’s ability to thrive personally and academically,” said Dr. Marc Brackett, Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. “The valuable content created through this project will support families in equipping their children with the skills of emotional intelligence they need to succeed in all aspects of their lives, in and out of school.”
The end result of this collaboration is a series of social, emotional learning tools including articles, videos and features, hosted on GreatSchools.org to help parents facing challenges such as homework battles, sibling rivalry, discipline, friendships, bullying and competition.
Among the tools you will find at GreatSchools.org are:
- Through a child’s eyes — A series of videos that help parents see issues like homework, friendships and sibling rivalry from their child’s perspective.
- Do you feel me? — A game that helps children understand and recognize emotions by allowing them to guess the “feeling word” they are watching in a series of videos.
- Emotional toolbox — Videos, articles and expert advice on parenting challenges and building character in your child.
- Yale Center For Emotional Intelligence tools — Tools to help your family resolve conflicts, foster parent relationships, and build children’s emotional intelligence.
- Mad-Sad-Glad Libs — Explore “feeling words” in a fun way!
About GreatSchools:
Founded in 1998, GreatSchools is a national nonpartisan nonprofit that helps millions of parents find great schools, support great learning, and guide their kids to great futures.
The Webby award-winning website, GreatSchools.org, is the nation’s leading guide to preK-12 schools, with profiles of about 200,000 public and private schools and more than one million ratings and reviews by parents, teachers, and students. In addition, GreatSchools offers thousands of articles, videos, and worksheets to help parents support their children’s learning. Last year, GreatSchools had more than 59 million unique visitors, including more than half of all U.S. families with school-age children. Headquartered in Oakland, California, GreatSchools partners with cities and states across the country.
About The Yale Center For Emotional Intelligence:
The Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, co-founded by Dr. Marc Brackett, is home to the original scientific theory of emotional intelligence. The Center conducts research on emotions and the role of emotional intelligence in important life outcomes. The Center also develops innovative approaches to teaching emotional intelligence in school systems and other organizations, and studies the influence of emotional intelligence training on student, teacher, and leader effectiveness. RULER, the Center’s signature approach to teaching emotional intelligence has been adopted by hundreds of public and private schools across the United States, including, most recently large districts such as Bridgeport, CT and Seattle, WA. RULER has been shown to enhance teacher effectiveness, reduce problem behavior, positively shift school climate, and boost academic performance. The Center also works with Facebook on efforts related to both preventing and reducing bullying and state level departments of education and justice to promote the adoption of evidence-based approaches to social and emotional learning.
CONTACT:
GreatSchools
Steve Padilla, Director of Communications
spadilla@greatschools.org
707-330-6559
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