Introduction
Flourish: The Compassionate Schools Project Curriculum has been designated by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) as a Promising Program for Social and Emotional Learning. CASEL Guide to Effective Social and Emotional Learning Programs.
The Flourish K-5 evidence-based curriculum is available to educators in English and Spanish and is free of charge in the digital format.
Overview
Three Flourish Curriculum Levels: Grade Bands K-1, 2-3, 4-5
Resources: Curriculum Manuals, Practice Guides, Student Workbooks, Teacher Resources, Videos, Training, Professional Learning Community
Flourish Curriculum Units
Unit 1: Compassion
Unit 2: Self Awareness
Unit 3: Self-Management
Unit 4: Social Awareness Part 1 – Empathy and Perspective Taking
Unit 5: Relationship Skills
Unit 6: Social Awareness Part 2 – Community Engagement
Unit 7: Cumulative Project
Accessing the Flourish Curriculum
To access the curriculum and supporting videos: Flourish Curriculum
Videos include the 60-minute CSP Flourish Curriculum: Introduction for Educators and the following: a) CSP teacher demonstrations of practices, b) resources and tips for educators, and c) Flourish unit overviews.
Flourishing Students Groups Component (New, Summer 2024)
- Six-Session Flourishing Students Groups, Grades 2-3 and 4-5
- 30-minute sessions incorporating practices and content from Flourish curriculum
- May be conducted in conjunction with curriculum or as a stand-alone resource
- Designed to support social and emotional skills beyond core SEL instruction
- Materials free of charge in the digital format. Contact joan.bryant@virginia.edu.
Training
Training for educators and community youth leaders is available and encouraged. For information about in-person and virtual training options and to schedule training, contact joan.bryant@virginia.edu.
Acknowledgements
The development and publication of this curriculum is the result of a collaborative partnership between the Contemplative Sciences Center (CSC) and Youth-Nex: The UVA Center to Promote Effective Youth Development within the School of Education and Human Development (EHD), with funding from: Hemera Foundation, Sonia Klein Jones, Pure Edge, Inc., and the Compassionate Schools Project, chaired by Owsley Brown III. The curriculum was authored by EHD faculty Alexis Harris and Tish Jennings with support from a team of EHD students and volunteers and CSC staff. Thanks to our generous partners at Pure Edge, Inc., the curriculum is available free of charge in the digital format.
Cover Pages
Workbook Sample Pages
Practice Guide Sample Pages
Teacher Resource Sample Pages
Compassionate Schools Project
The Compassionate Schools Project is the most comprehensive study ever undertaken of a 21st century health and wellness curriculum in an elementary or secondary school setting. Facilitating the integrated development of mind and body, the project interweaves support in academic achievement, mental fitness, health, and compassionate character. The research aims to have a major impact on children’s education nationwide in terms of academic performance, physical education, character development, and child health policies due to its extraordinary scale of 45 schools and 20,000 children over the project’s seven years.
Educating the Whole Child
Educating the whole child for self-awareness and self-understanding, the curriculum integrates mindfulness for stress management and self-control; contemplative movements, postures and breathing for physical awareness and agility; nutritional knowledge for healthy eating; and social and emotional skills for effective interpersonal relationships. Elementary school students will learn to cultivate focus, resilience, empathy, connection, and wellbeing as the basis for academic and personal success.
The structure and size of the project will yield an unprecedented breadth and depth of data on the dynamics and effects of such an educational approach. With public elementary schools in Louisville, Kentucky as its proving ground in the 28th largest school district in the United States, the findings will be applicable nationwide. The Compassionate Schools Project is a partnership between the University of Virginia and the Jefferson County Public Schools with support from Louisville Metro Government and financial support from philanthropic giving.
Awareness & Caring for Academic Success
When schools help students develop self-awareness and caring for others, they are more likely to succeed. This has been consistently indicated in research in neuroscience and education over the last two decades. Students do better in school when they are mindful of their own thoughts and feelings, can empathize with others, understand their bodies, and practice healthy lifestyle habits such as physical activity and good nutrition. These practices also reduce antagonism and bullying and promote compassion and caring behaviors.
Curriculum
The Compassionate Schools Project curriculum, developed by world-class educators, scientists, and practitioners, teaches elementary school students to cultivate focus, resilience, and well-being for academic success. The lessons integrate social and emotional learning, deep self-understanding, stress resiliency skills, mental fitness training, physical regulation and exercise, and nutrition education within a contemplative and compassionate framework based on recent scientific advancements in the understanding of brain function and the body, child and family health, child development, and academic and social functioning.
The Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS), Metro Louisville’s school district, is an established leader in health and wellness education for elementary students. JCPS has embraced the Compassionate Schools Project as the best opportunity to provide the optimal instruction supporting wellness, perseverance, and healthy choices for the children of Louisville within the practical living program, which will be taught during two periods per week. Twenty-five elementary schools and 10,000+ students in kindergarten through fifth grade will be served during the course of the six-year project.
8 Year Project Timeline
Development
- Development of instruction, curriculum implementation and evaluation organization
- Engage schools and supporters / funders
Pilot
- Implementation in 3 pilot schools
Implementation
- 2nd year of implementation in 3 pilot schools
- Full implementation in 12 schools
- 24 school evaluation (12 school control group)
- Full implementation in 24 schools
- 45 school evaluation (21 school control group)
- Implementation in 12 schools
- 21 school evaluation (9 school control group)
- Continuing evaluation of students
- Research analysis and synthesis
Evaluation and Analysis
- Continuing data collection for evaluation of students and schools. *Data collection was put on hold in Spring 2020 due to COVID conditions.
- Due to COVID conditions, our plan was to collect the originally planned last wave of data during this academic year. Due to school restrictions we decided in Spring 2021 this could not be done.
- Before the onset of the COVID pandemic, the CSP was on track to complete data collection as scheduled, by the end of 20-21 school year; to undertake data organization and to report initial findings by the end of calendar year 2021. However, the effects of COVID have introduced some cascading challenges and extended our timeline for reporting results. Most essentially it delayed undertaking the primary evaluation analyses until Fall 2021, pushing out when valid results can be reported out.
Note: The use of the curriculum after the formal testing period of two years depends on individual school and district decisions about sustaining implementation. As of today, the program is continuing in 18 schools with the school system slating continuation and further expansion in its budgeting.
Administration and Organization
PLANNING: University of Virginia’s Youth-Nex Center, Contemplative Sciences Center, and School of Education and Human Development, with support from Jefferson County Public Schools and the Louisville Metro City Government
CURRICULUM: Developed by faculty in the University of Virginia’s School of Education and Human Development in partnership with the Pure Edge Foundation and support from the Hemera Foundation
INSTRUCTION: Jefferson County Public Schools teachers with additional implementation coaches funded through the Compassionate Schools Project
RESEARCH: University of Virginia’s Youth-Nex Center and School of Education and Human Development in partnership with Jefferson County Public Schools
Jefferson County Public Schools
Dr. Marty Pollio, Superintendent of the Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS), believes the Compassionate Schools Project’s health and wellness-centered social and emotional curriculum is a supportive component of the district’s “Prepared and Resilient Learner” core skills. CSP contributes to a healthy school climate that supports the wellbeing of all learners.
In 2011, Kentucky became the first state to adopt national Common Core State Standards in math and English/language arts, with a challenging curriculum and high stakes tests. The CSP curriculum teaches self-awareness, perseverance and mindful decision making that are critical for academic success. JCPS sees it as a tool to foster important cognitive and noncognitive skills beginning in Kindergarten that will put students on a path to career and college readiness.
University of Virginia
Contemplative Sciences Center, Youth-Nex Center, and School of Education and Human Development
The University of Virginia has a world-class school of education and two innovative centers that are teaming to bring the best mix of scientific and educational skills to the design, implementation, and evaluation of the curriculum. The School of Education and Human Development discovers and advances knowledge, creates innovative proven practices, and facilitates educational change. The Contemplative Sciences Center brings focused scholarship and application from neuroscience and other research on compassion and mindfulness to innovate and improve education, healthcare, and civic life. The Youth-Nex Center focuses on developing and applying rigorous scientific methods to achieve the best understanding of what helps children develop successfully. This unique mix of expertise and extensive experience in school- related innovation and research is behind the university’s strong commitment to this initiative.
Louisville
Louisville Metro Government asserts that if residents can recognize, celebrate, and act upon their interconnectedness, they can unleash hidden potential already in the city, and do so in a transformative and lasting way. Louisville has set about weaving compassion into many facets of the city through government action and by working with nonprofits and volunteers. The public response continues to be enormously positive. Residents understand it and want to be a part of it.
Facts at a Glance
- A single, integrated health and wellness curriculum for the 21st century with the following components:
- Social and emotional knowledge and skills training for success in school, personal relations, and future employment
- Mindfulness practices for self-awareness, stress resiliency, and self-control
- Physical movement and posture exercises integrated with breathing practices for stress resiliency and fitness
- Nutrition education for ensuring healthy eating habits for lifelong health
- Aligns with state and federal standards for health, physical education, nutrition, social and emotional learning, and the Common Core standards for language arts
- Enhances the Jefferson County Public Schools’ leadership and excellence in wellness education as part of the “practical living” periods already part of the school system’s schedule
- Will be taught by credentialed practical living teachers in the context of the normally scheduled class time to enable ease of possible long-term adoption
- Over the span of this funded project, 10,000+ elementary school students (Kindergarten through 5th grade) will be served
- First year pilot to ensure effective integration into school days and educational goals
- Full implementation for at least two years following the pilot to evaluate benefits for student behavior, achievement, and well-being
- Six year rigorous evaluation using highest standards of randomized control trial methodology to compare 25 schools with compassion curriculum and 25 schools control group
- Serves Jefferson County Public Schools (Louisville, KY): 100,855 students urban/suburban mix with 64% free/reduced lunch
A Globally Significant Program
Due to its scale and the rigor of evaluation, the Compassionate Schools Project will be closely watched by educators and advocates of child development throughout the United States and beyond. The curriculum is being designed in accordance with the most recent innovations and standards, as well as with a careful eye towards the requirements and realities of public school systems. The curriculum’s success in Louisville, a mid-sized city in the heartland of the United States with an urban/suburban mix, is thus intended to be replicated in community schools of all types across the country.
- First integrated and public school-ready health and wellness curriculum integrating practices of mindful awareness, physical movements with poses and breathing, social emotional learning, and compassion with a deep understanding of the science of health, nutrition, and personal development
- Positive results would produce, for the first time, a usable school-ready curriculum that prepares students for crucial challenges today and in the future
- Most prior research on such curriculum has shown promise but has been either “advocacy research” or not of the necessary quality, rigor, and scale to inform large-scale directions in public education
- An approach and scale that provide an unprecedented understanding of effects for different groups (by age, school environment, those with learning challenges, etc.)
- Will provide compelling evidence of how the curriculum works, for whom, and in what areas of academic, behavioral, and emotional well-being over the course of multiple years