Second Step® Middle School

Second Step Middle School is a first-of-its-kind social-emotional learning (SEL) curriculum that’s modern, web-based, and responsive to the needs of today’s students and educators. It’s underpinned by the latest research in adolescent brain development and social psychology. The result is a program that doesn’t just help kids do better in school—it helps them do better in life.

We created dynamic, relevant, discussion-based content that offers practical skills for situations both in and out of the classroom. Many lessons feature videos of real kids talking about issues applicable to their daily lives. There’s a wealth of material, so lessons always feel fresh and interesting.

Bringing SEL to every classroom is essential to building a connected school culture. By going schoolwide with the Second Step program, every adult in the building gains access to the program’s lessons, resources, and activities, creating a common language across the school. We know that creating a culture of connectedness is fundamentally important, but we also know that it’s a challenge. That’s why we’ve developed resources that make a schoolwide implementation easy for educators.

For any SEL program to be successful, first it has to work for teachers and help them meet the daily demands they face. Extensive field research and piloting have resulted in an intuitive interface teachers are quick to embrace. User feedback has led to a program with unprecedented flexibility—it provides a full year’s lessons for three grades and nearly 200 advisory activities, so teachers can expand or adapt it based on the unique situation in their classroom. The program also requires minimal prep time, and because it’s web-based, everything is in one place.