Commentary: Kids reap benefits of social-skills program - April 9, 2009
By Elisabeth Donahue/Special to the Minuteman
Lexington - If you have elementary school children in Lexington, chances are you have heard of "Open Circle." But do you know what it is?

Open Circle is a social competency program designed to incorporate social-emotional learning into the elementary school classroom. It is based on the premise that children learn better if they have the social skills to navigate the classroom and playground, and have a common language to discuss and address conflict.

The program's name comes from the core component of the program - 15- to 30-minute Open Circle meetings twice a week in which children move their chairs into an "open circle," leaving one chair empty as a symbol that there is always room for another person and another point of view.

The Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College designed and support the program. It is a "grade differentiated" program, with lessons becoming more in-depth as children age.

At the core is a set of principles - communication, responsibility, cooperation, respect, and assertiveness - and lessons focus on teaching concrete skills and strategies to put those principles into action.

Supported by a Lexington Education Foundation (LEF) grant, Open Circle was introduced in Lexington in 2002 - first as a pilot at Fiske and later at all elementary schools.

Through the years, LEF has provided a total of $121,607 to fund the program - paying for basic Open Circle teacher training at all six elementary schools and "sustainability grants" to the Bowman and Bridge schools.

Open Circle has been almost wholly supported by LEF funding; despite a state mandate for school-based social competency programs, Open Circle has never been funded from the general operating budget.

Lucia Gates, a guidance counselor at Bridge Elementary School, is one of Lexington's Open Circle pioneers and biggest supporters. Inspired by the fact that the state required schools to have a social competency program but troubled that there was no uniformity to the programs in Lexington, she has written several LEF grants.

"We all know about reading and writing and math, and that's all important, but the social and the emotional part of the day - that's also crucial," Gates said.

Backed by solid research proving its effectiveness, the program is highlighted in a U.S. Department of Education guidebook of exemplary and promising programs, and has been named a select program by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning.

Open Circle has trained more than 7,000 teachers and reached more than 400,000 students in New England, New York, and New Jersey.

A key component of Open Circle is the intense teacher education required. Training ranges from a year-long Wellesley-based program for teachers who want to bring Open Circle to their classrooms, to one-day workshops for administrators and specialists to help them understand the program.

A year-long training program is also available for schools that want to sustain the program by developing interdisciplinary teams of teachers, administrators, and parents. Other shorter workshops focus on training teachers to train peers and parents.

In an effort to analyze one of LEF's largest grants, an LEF evaluation team led by board member Cynthia Piltch initiated a review of Open Circle last year. That evaluation included an overall assessment of Open Circle's implementation at the six Lexington elementary schools and an in-depth look at the Bridge School sustainability grant.

To gauge the overall feeling about Open Circle, the LEF team surveyed and conducted focus group discussions with elementary school counselors; interviewed Wellesley College Open Circle professionals, key Lexington administrators, and some fifth grade students; and surveyed 302 elementary school professional staff about their level of Open Circle training, perceptions of the program's usefulness and student enthusiasm, identification of factors that help and hinder implementation, and opinions about whether the program should continue indefinitely.

LEF gained valuable insights into the program from this evaluation. All school counselors and the overwhelming majority of other survey respondents were passionately supportive of Open Circle and mentioned benefits such as fewer discipline problems and a common language for communication within the school.

The vast majority of the 48 percent of teachers who responded to the survey agreed that Open Circle is a valuable tool, implemented well, and valuable enough to continue indefinitely.

As one wrote, "This is a very worthwhile program for children. It is the only structured place in the curriculum that addresses social needs."

A school nurse added that she had seen a decrease in the numbers of intentional injuries since Open Circle was started at her school.

In summarizing the findings of the team's report, Dr. Piltch noted: "Our team concluded that LEF has made a sound investment in the Open Circle Program. Given the increasing reports of high stress levels among children in Lexington as elsewhere, programs like Open Circle seem more critical than ever."

Elisabeth Donahue is a resident of Slocum Road.