The SEL competencies are the five skill areas at the center of CASEL's framework for social and emotional learning: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making. Educators often call them the CASEL 5. They are the common language that most state SEL standards, curricula and assessments in the United States are built on, so understanding them precisely is the first step in doing SEL well.
This guide defines each competency in plain language, lists the sub-skills CASEL groups under it, shows what it looks like in elementary, middle and high school classrooms, explains how the competencies connect to the rest of the CASEL wheel, and covers how to assess them without turning them into a graded subject.
Where the competencies come from
CASEL (the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning) was formed in 1994 by a group of researchers, educators, practitioners and child advocates who also developed the term "social and emotional learning." In 1997, nine CASEL collaborators published the guidelines that formally defined the field. CASEL defines SEL as the process through which young people and adults build the knowledge, skills and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions, achieve goals, feel and show empathy, maintain supportive relationships and make responsible, caring decisions. The five competencies are the skill side of that definition. CASEL notes the framework was most recently updated in 2020 with added emphasis on equity.
The CASEL 5 at a glance
| Competency | In one sentence | What it looks like in a classroom |
|---|---|---|
| Self-awareness | Knowing your own emotions, thoughts, values and strengths, and how they shape what you do | A student says "I am frustrated, not angry at you" |
| Self-management | Regulating emotions, thoughts and behavior to reach goals | A student uses a breathing routine before a test instead of leaving the room |
| Social awareness | Understanding and empathizing with others, including people from different backgrounds | A student notices a classmate is being left out and changes the group |
| Relationship skills | Building and keeping healthy relationships and working well in groups | Two students resolve a disagreement with I-statements |
| Responsible decision-making | Making caring, constructive choices after weighing consequences | A student considers who is affected before forwarding a message |
1. Self-awareness
Definition. CASEL describes self-awareness as the ability to understand your own emotions, thoughts and values and how they influence behavior across contexts, including recognizing your strengths and limitations with a sense of confidence and purpose.
Sub-skills CASEL lists. Integrating personal and social identities; identifying personal, cultural and linguistic assets; identifying emotions; demonstrating honesty and integrity; linking feelings, values and thoughts; examining prejudices and biases; experiencing self-efficacy; having a growth mindset; developing interests and a sense of purpose.
Classroom examples by grade band.
- Elementary: Students sort feeling words by intensity (annoyed, frustrated, furious) and point to where they feel each one in their body. A strengths spotlight routine asks each child to name one thing they did well this week.
- Middle school: Students map their identities (roles, groups, interests) and star the parts others rarely see. Stress-signal mapping helps them recognize their own early-warning signs.
- High school: Students complete a values sort, then analyze a recent decision against their top three values. Journaling prompts ask them to notice when a thought was an assumption rather than a fact.
2. Self-management
Definition. The ability to manage emotions, thoughts and behaviors effectively in different situations to achieve goals and aspirations, which CASEL says includes delaying gratification, managing stress and feeling motivation and agency.
Sub-skills CASEL lists. Managing one's emotions; identifying and using stress-management strategies; exhibiting self-discipline and self-motivation; setting personal and collective goals; using planning and organizational skills; showing the courage to take initiative; demonstrating personal and collective agency.
Classroom examples by grade band.
- Elementary: A class-designed calm-down corner with agreed rules. Goal ladders that break a weekly goal into three small steps. Belly breathing taught as a routine, not a rescue.
- Middle school: A reframe relay that turns "I always fail tests" into an accurate, useful thought. Weekly planners that separate what is due from what is in progress.
- High school: A stress audit that sorts stressors into "in my control" and "not in my control," with a next step for each. Letters to a future self at the end of the semester.
3. Social awareness
Definition. The ability to understand the perspectives of and empathize with others, including those from diverse backgrounds, cultures and contexts, and to recognize social norms and the supports available in family, school and community.
Sub-skills CASEL lists. Taking others' perspectives; recognizing strengths in others; demonstrating empathy and compassion; showing concern for the feelings of others; understanding and expressing gratitude; identifying diverse social norms, including unjust ones; recognizing situational demands and opportunities; understanding how organizations and systems influence behavior.
Classroom examples by grade band.
- Elementary: Emotion charades to read faces and bodies. A kindness log where students record classmates' kind acts for a week.
- Middle school: Perspective swaps that reveal the other side of a conflict scenario. Gratitude chains naming specific things people did.
- High school: Empathy interviews with someone whose school experience differs from theirs. An assumptions audit that checks first impressions against added information.
4. Relationship skills
Definition. The ability to establish and maintain healthy, supportive relationships and to navigate settings with diverse individuals and groups, which CASEL says includes clear communication, active listening, cooperation, constructive conflict resolution, and seeking or offering help.
Sub-skills CASEL lists. Communicating effectively; developing positive relationships; demonstrating cultural competency; practicing teamwork and collaborative problem-solving; resolving conflicts constructively; resisting negative social pressure; showing leadership in groups; seeking or offering support and help when needed; standing up for the rights of others.
Classroom examples by grade band.
- Elementary: Partner listening swaps where one child talks and the other only listens, then repeats back. Compliment circles about actions, not appearance.
- Middle school: I-statement rehearsals for real conflicts. Group norms contracts signed before a project and revisited midway.
- High school: Structured peer feedback that must be specific, kind and useful. A help-seeking map that identifies trusted adults and crisis resources.
5. Responsible decision-making
Definition. The ability to make caring and constructive choices about personal behavior and social interactions across diverse situations, including weighing ethical standards, safety concerns, and the consequences of actions for individual, family and community wellbeing.
Sub-skills CASEL lists. Demonstrating curiosity and open-mindedness; identifying solutions for personal and social problems; learning to make reasoned judgments after analyzing information, data and facts; anticipating and evaluating consequences; recognizing how critical-thinking skills apply inside and outside school; reflecting on one's role in promoting wellbeing; evaluating personal, interpersonal, community and institutional impacts.
Classroom examples by grade band.
- Elementary: Stop, Think, Choose applied to playground scenarios, with two options and one consequence each.
- Middle school: A decision matrix (best case, worst case, who else is affected) for realistic dilemmas such as a group chat exclusion.
- High school: Socratic seminars on an ethical dilemma, with an outer circle tracking evidence and listening.
For step-by-step versions of these examples, see our SEL activities and SEL lessons.
How the competencies connect to the CASEL wheel
The five competencies sit at the center of the CASEL wheel. Around them, CASEL names four settings where the competencies are taught and practiced, each with its own label on the wheel:
- Classrooms: SEL instruction and classroom climate. CASEL describes effective classroom SEL as explicit, culturally responsive instruction plus SEL woven into academics and cooperative learning, delivered in a caring, safe environment. The acronym SAFE (sequenced, active, focused, explicit) summarizes the instructional features associated with results.
- Schools: schoolwide culture, practices and policies. Schoolwide SEL means ongoing planning and improvement by the whole school community so that discipline, routines and adult behavior reinforce what is taught.
- Families and caregivers: authentic partnerships. CASEL frames families as children's first teachers and calls for inclusive decision-making, particularly with families who have historically been marginalized.
- Communities: aligned learning opportunities. Out-of-school partners provide developmentally rich settings and connections to services, ideally using shared language with the school.
The practical point: a competency taught in a Tuesday lesson but contradicted by Wednesday's discipline policy will not stick. The wheel is a reminder that the five competencies describe what students learn, and the four settings describe where, and by whom, that learning is reinforced. Our SEL integration approach resource walks through aligning the settings.
Research: CASEL's research summary points to two reviews above all. A meta-analysis of 213 universal school-based SEL programs covering 270,034 students found participants improved in social and emotional skills, attitudes, behavior and academic performance, with an 11-percentile-point gain in achievement, and that the use of recommended teaching practices moderated results. A later review of 82 programs and 97,406 students found benefits persisted at follow-ups from 6 months to 18 years, with post-program social-emotional skill level the strongest predictor of later wellbeing.
How to assess the SEL competencies
Assessment is where many SEL efforts go wrong, either by skipping it entirely or by treating a self-report survey like a test score. A sound approach has four parts.
1. Decide the purpose first. The two legitimate purposes are improving instruction (which skills need more practice, for which students) and evaluating a program (is the schoolwide effort changing anything). Grading individual students on SEL competencies is not a sound purpose; it rewards strategic answers and penalizes honesty.
2. Use more than one kind of evidence.
| Method | Strength | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Student self-report surveys | Quick, scalable, captures the student's own view | Reading level, social desirability, reference bias across groups |
| Teacher rating scales | Grounded in observed behavior over time | Rater bias; train raters and use clear anchors |
| Observation rubrics | Can be used live during activities and group work | Time-consuming; sample a few students per session |
| Performance tasks and reflections | Shows the skill in use (a conflict script, a decision matrix) | Harder to compare across classrooms |
| School data (attendance, referrals, climate surveys) | Shows whether skills transfer | Many causes; use as a signal, not proof |
3. Measure what you taught. Align items to the sub-skills you actually worked on. If the unit was on perspective-taking, do not judge it with a general empathy scale.
4. Keep it developmentally and culturally fair. Behaviors that signal a competency vary by age, culture and context. Involve students in interpreting results, report patterns rather than individual scores, and treat a drop in scores as a prompt for inquiry, not a verdict.
For tools, see our SEL assessment resource and measuring MESH, which draws on the original Transforming Education toolkit's work on measuring growth mindset, self-efficacy, self-management and social awareness.
The competencies in policy
The CASEL 5 are not only a classroom tool. According to CASEL's state policy scan, 27 states have adopted K-12 SEL competencies or standards and all 50 states have adopted preschool SEL competencies, most of them organized around the same five areas. If your state has standards, read them alongside this guide; the labels may differ slightly but the underlying skills rarely do. Our SEL curriculum guide explains how to choose a program that covers all five.
Frequently asked questions
What are the five SEL competencies?
CASEL's framework names self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making. Together they are often called the CASEL 5. Each is a cluster of related skills and attitudes, not a single trait, and CASEL's definitions describe them as developing across settings and across the lifespan, including for adults.
Where do the CASEL competencies come from?
CASEL was formed in 1994 by a group of researchers, educators and child advocates who also coined the term social and emotional learning. The framework that organizes the five competencies has been refined since then; the most recent major update, in 2020, added emphasis on identity, agency and educational equity, according to CASEL's own description of the framework.
Is there a right order to teach the SEL competencies?
No fixed order, but many educators start with self-awareness and self-management because recognizing and regulating emotions supports everything else. The two social competencies and responsible decision-making build on that base. CASEL describes effective instruction as sequenced, active, focused and explicit, so whatever order you choose, teach the skills in a deliberate progression.
Can SEL competencies be graded?
They can be assessed, but most experts advise against grading them. Self-report surveys, teacher rating scales and observation rubrics are useful for formative purposes: spotting who needs support and whether a program is working. Using those measures for grades or accountability invites students to answer strategically and undermines the honesty the skills depend on.
How are the SEL competencies different from MESH?
MESH stands for Mindsets, Essential Skills and Habits, the framing the former nonprofit Transforming Education used for growth mindset, self-efficacy, self-management and social awareness. Two of those four map directly onto CASEL competencies. MESH focused on a smaller set of measurable constructs; the CASEL 5 is the broader, more widely adopted framework.
Sources
- What Is the CASEL Framework? CASEL (accessed November 7, 2026)
- Fundamentals of SEL CASEL (accessed November 7, 2026)
- Our History CASEL (accessed November 7, 2026)
- What Does the Research Say? CASEL (accessed November 7, 2026)
- SEL Policy at the State Level CASEL (accessed November 7, 2026)
- The impact of enhancing students' social and emotional learning: a meta-analysis of school-based universal interventions Child Development (PubMed abstract) (accessed November 7, 2026)
- Promoting Positive Youth Development Through School-Based Social and Emotional Learning Interventions: A Meta-Analysis of Follow-Up Effects Child Development (PubMed abstract) (accessed November 7, 2026)