Agreement for Participating in the Study of High School RULER
The High School RULER program is a systemic, whole-school approach to build students' emotional intelligence by targeting five emotion skills that include: Recognizing emotions in oneself and others, Understanding the causes and consequences of emotions, Labeling emotions with a nuanced feeling word vocabulary, Expressing emotions effectively given the context, and Regulating emotions in healthy ways. High School RULER provides schools with (a) concrete tools for schools to integrate into existing program to help create a safe, supportive school climate and (b) a curriculum for classroom instruction to build students' emotion skills.
Yale University Center for Emotional Intelligence has been awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Education to implement High School RULER, and the American Institutes for Research (AIR) is the independent evaluator of the program. Sixty high schools from three states will participate in the study. Half of the schools, selected at random, will implement High School RULER right away and the other half will receive the program after a two-year waiting period. All schools will participate in two years of data collection activities as part of the study. Your school's involvement can generate evidence about the effectiveness of the High School RULER program at improving school climate, teacher well-being and student outcomes.
This document describes the roles and responsibilities for participating schools and for the AIR team, the benefits of participation, and the project timeline. To take part in the study, please fill in your contact information and sign the last page to indicate your agreement to participate. You can return the signed document (all pages) during training or through email to the Project Director, Yibing Li (yli@air.org).
What Schools Will Receive
High schools participating in this project will receive the RULER program free of charge. RULER is an evidence- based approach to social and emotional learning (SEL) that supports entire school communities in:
- Understanding the value of emotions
- Building the skills of emotional intelligence
- Creating and maintaining positive school climates
Schools will receive (a) RULER Institute training as part of a cohort of high schools, (b) a two-year implementation support package, (c) monthly check-ins with a RULER coach, and (d) a quarterly, district-specific networking session.
What the AIR Evaluation Team Will Do
The project team is composed of researchers from AIR who will:
- Obtain necessary approvals from review boards (internal and external) and commit to selecting participants fairly, respecting participants' autonomy and rights, and protecting the privacy and confidentiality of all research participants. We will comply with all relevant regulations, including the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment, the Common Rule, and any local requirements.
- Collect data for the study, including surveys, interviews, focus groups, and district administrative data
- Analyze data and produce reports.
- Provide participating schools with an individualized summary of the data collected for their own use.
What We Are Asking of You
We are asking that you or someone from your faculty or staff be designated to work with AIR to coordinate consent and data collection. As described below, AIR will try to minimize the burden for you and the school. AIR will provide a $1,000 incentive to your school for each of the two years of the study.
- Distribute student consent forms to parents and guardians before the 2024-25 school year starts, generally as part of a "back to school" packet.
- Support survey administration by identifying dates and times for the student survey to occur and providing time and space for students to complete the survey.
- Provide a faculty/staff roster with contact information to allow the AIR team to administer the teacher surveys through email invitations or links.
- Inform faculty/staff about upcoming surveys and send reminders.
Benefits of Participation
Emotional intelligence is a critical life skill that benefits both staff and students. Your involvement will support improvement of school climate and staff and student social-emotional outcomes by providing the data needed to generate evidence about whether and for whom RULER works in high schools.
In addition to helping advance this important goal, we will provide you with an individualized summary of the data collected on your school for your own use.
Schedule and Key Activities for the Study Key Activities
- Spring/Summer 2024 - Establish this MOU and finalize study logistics
- Summer/Fall 2024 - Distribute parent/caregiver consent forms
- Fall 2024 - Conduct baseline student and teacher surveys
- Spring 2025 - Conduct Year 1 spring student and teacher surveys
- Spring 2026 - Conduct Year 2 spring student and teacher surveys
- Fall 2026 - AIR provides summary of data collected on your school
Questions or Comments
If you have any questions or comments about the study, please feel free to contact the project director, Yibing Li (yli@air.org).